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Glossary of Terms |
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USSS General Membership Meeting Minutes President Nick Lombardi called the meeting to order at 1 PM. He welcomed everyone present and then asked all to introduce themselves by stating name and collecting interests. Nick encouraged all members to sign in at the USSS table; they would then receive a 75th anniversary coffee mug. John Larson moved to waive the reading of the minutes of the May 30th meeting in Secaucus, NJ in 2004, and to approve them as published in the July, 2004 issue of The United States Specialist. Second, Jeff Shapiro; passed. Nick asked Rod Juell, the project manager, to give an update on progress of the Encyclopedia. Rod said that for all practical purposes the work is done; some proofing/editing is continuing at this show. The book will go to the designer before the end of the month and will be released at Washington 2006. The objective of the Encyclopedia is to provide a comprehensive introduction to the whole scope of U.S. philately. The book will be full color, hard cover, approximately 700 pages. There was a very successful fund-raising drive to assist in the efforts. Rod introduced Steven Rod as his colleague on the project for the last two years. He added that Lynn Batdorf and Doug D'Avino were significant contributors in their work as proofreaders and editors. Nick thanked all for their work and time dedicated to this project; Doug asked that the group thank Rod with a round of applause. Doug added that he has been working with Mike Lampson to compile all the almanacs that will be in the Encyclopedia; this consolidation will be put on the web site. Steven Rod interjected that perhaps the Society should consider having certain things on the web site, like this proposed consolidation of almanacs, password protected: some items would be available for all, while others would be available to members only, using a password. This could be a benefit of membership. Treasurer David Sugar announced that net assets at the end of 2004 are approximately $300,000, which is the most that there has been in the eleven years that David has been Treasurer. There is about $80,000 book profits. Of that amount, approximately $6,000 was in the publications fund. In the operating fund, there is about $73,000, of which $60,000 is a bequest from the estate of Max Alexander. Included in the $73,000 is $13,000 in Encyclopedia contributions. So, in general, the Society approximately broke even in 2004. Executive Secretary Larry Ballantyne, reported that, as some members had mentioned during introductions, membership has been falling at 8 to 11% per year in recent years. This last year the drop off was 12½%, which Larry said was disappointing in view of the new publications that are being released. Efforts regarding retention, especially of the first year members, will be addressed. One suggestion was to have a series of articles in the journal aimed at the novice collector; this had been tried for about a year during 1989 or 1990. Nick announced that at the dinner on Friday evening, the Century of Service Award was presented to George Voltzow; originally plans were to give the award to George at this meeting, but due to weather problems in Florida, George felt it necessary to return home sooner. George had served as Treasurer of the BIA for about 39 years. Nick mentioned other awards given by the Society like the Southgate and Hopkinson Awards for exhibiting. There is also a Hopkinson Award for literature; the award winners for the three previous years were Wallace Cleland (2002), Roger Brody (2003), and Melvin Getlan (2004). Roger's award was presented at this meeting. The others will receive them by mail. Nick stated that Chairman Emeritus George Brett passed away earlier this year, and almost immediately it was suggested that something be done by the Society to have a George Brett Award. It was not possible to accomplish at this meeting, but something will be done by the meeting in 2006 to name or rename an award in George's honor. Nick said that the committee structure in the Society is in the best shape it has been for a while. All chairs are filled, with the newest additions being Wayne Youngblood as Luminescence Chair, replacing Gene Paquette who resigned, and Terry Scott as the Dummy Booklet Chair, replacing Earl McAfee who passed away. Terry is hoping to expand this group to encompass all test material. A new name for the group will be decided by the members. Terry produced a flyer to publicize the group; the flyer is at the Society table. Richard Hall, who had been providing the indexes for many years, asked to step down. Nick was enthused that several people responded to a request for a replacement; after going over information submitted, Nick chose Lynn Batdorf. The goal is to make this index even more user friendly. Nick added that 16 chairs submitted reports; these are in a booklet at the Society table and will be published in The Specialist. Nick stated that Mike Lampson deserves much thanks for continually updating the web site with new/additional information; the site also aids in recruitment of new members. Nick stated that he feels the Society's journal is the best journal around. Efforts to improve it continue; in fact, earlier this year experiments with color were tried. Color was added to the front and back covers; then color was added to the inside front and back ads. It was decided that in June and July, color would be added to some text pages. The color in the June issue was not satisfactory, so Len discussed this with the new publisher, Wilcox. However, the color was not improved in the July issue. Color is very expensive, so the experiment is halted at this time while the problem is worked out. The first day of issue of the new Durland 2005 was yesterday, July 8th. Due to a number of hurdles that had to be overcome, publication of this edition was delayed; some problems were that all images had to be scanned for the first time and text had to be reformatted. Thanks to the efforts of many people, the work was accomplished and the book is out. About 260 copies of Volume I of the Littlefield book have been sold; some copies have been donated to libraries. The book was entered into a literature competition at COLOPEX earlier this year and won a vermeil. Sam Frank is working on Volume II, the airmail booklets, which will probably come out next, and Volume III, the rotary press issues. Another new publication is Research Paper #19, A Type Written Transcription of the U.S. Post Office Dept. Stamp Bill Book Numbers for the Issue of 1870 Ordinaries, 1870-1879, Part One: The National & Continental Issues. It is 71 pages for $7. The last Booklet Cover Checklist was published 30 years ago. Mike Perry and John Larson have been working for the last five years to produce an update. This proposed update will be in color, fully illustrated, with flow charts to help identify the covers. At the Board meeting this morning, the proposal was approved and the book may be out as early as 2006. Recently the American Philatelic Society proposed that USSS sponsor a room at the new APS center in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania. This room (18'x18') could be used to display and store materials; for example, appropriate plaques for winners of the various Society awards could be displayed. It could also be used as a conference room and for research activities. USSS would have priority over the use of the room. APS will have access to the room and could use it for seminars. Due to the recent donation from the Max Alexander estate, monies are available to cover the $31,000 expenditure. Several members are presently storing USSS materials at various locations and this will allow a centralization of those materials. Nick announced the sites of future USSS Annual Meetings:
If others have invitations for the succeeding years, a formal invitation should be sent to USSS. Earlier in the meeting several persons had suggested that efforts be made to recruit more members, and/or to retain members. In that regard, Nick announced the formation of two new positions: Publicist, who would generate news about Society activities; and, Membership Chairman, who would suggest/implement ways to retain members. Interested persons should contact Nick. Jay Stotts encouraged members to use the Exhibit Photocopy Service provided by Bob Toth. He suggested that, before selling or taking apart an exhibit, that it be copied and sent to Bob for possible distribution to prospective exhibitors. It was also suggested to send a copy to the American Philatelic Research Library (APRL). A short discussion of the use of digitized copies ensued with no resolution. There being no other business, John Larson moved to adjourn; second, Louis Reif. Passed. These minutes will be presented for approval at Washington 2006.
- Joann Lenz
Board Meeting Committee Reports |
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