RECENT MEETINGS

Another full programme draws to a close – our grateful thanks, as always, to Paul Wright for putting the season together. Recent highlights included visits from Orpington and Redhill, Chris Board on South Africa, Roger Morrell on Bulgaria, and (least recent, as it were) Crawford Alexander on (or in) the Highlands and Islands. It’s not for me to say whether my own show on the Comoro Islands was a highlight, a low-light or even a no-light, but I certainly enjoyed putting it together. Old favourites were the Society Dinner, the Save the Children cover sales, and the joint auction at Epsom. The Competition Evening resembled the Alice-in-Wonderland situation of more prizes than entries: congratulations here go to Malcolm Norris, who won the Beach Cup with Coins on Stamps, and Ray Downing, who secured the Sloan Cup with a display of GB 1864 Penny Reds. Oddest night was the March Members’ Evening: congratulations here to Barbara, Paul and Malcolm for not only turning up (they were the only ones who did) but all bringing Something Different (as programmed) to show.

STILL TO COME

Ray Downing hosts President’s Night on June 5^th, an unmissable season highlight. The next event is the final Joint Auction of the season hosted by Kingston and District PS. This is on Friday June 15^th; viewing starts at 7.15pm and the auction proper at 8pm. The catalogue is enclosed: come along and bid, though take note - particularly those old hands among us heading automatically for Surbiton, as usual. Because of renovation works, there is A CHANGE OF VENUE: the auction will now take place at NEW MALDEN LIBRARY HALL. The auction catalogue (enclosed) gives you an on-line map reference: those of us not spot-welded to the nearest computer link-up and relying instead on old-fashioned orienteering should simply aim for the corner of Sandal Road and Kingston Road.

So much for the good news: to be honest, unless our Society fortunes improve dramatically, this could be the last joint auction in which we as a society may participate. Read on.

WHICH WAY FORWARD?

Our Annual General Meeting is on Tuesday 19^th June (at the usual venue): the official notification and agenda is enclosed. We need – we really need – a strong turnout this year, for the whole future of the Society may be at stake. Reading the account of our recent meetings, you’ll have noticed how small our attendances have sometimes been. Our current membership is down to around 25, that attendances for displays given by guest speakers are seldom more than six (yes, six), and that the same handful of officers (many of whom could have legitimately thrown in the towel long ago on grounds of ill-health) are still doing all the society work for lack of volunteers to take over. Wimbledon ought to have plenty of collectors among its population: yet despite our heroic endeavours to recruit new members, they seem not to be forthcoming. There is a serious risk that because of declining membership and shortage of volunteer officers, our Society may no longer be able to maintain our usual programme of twice-monthly meetings. The will be debated at the AGM, and we need all of you to think in the meantime about the best way forward, then make every effort to turn up and make your views heard.

Her are some ways we may all be affected. Current Auction Secretary Mike Warwick has fruitlessly been asking all year for a volunteer to take over (or even volunteers plural, to share out the workload): without one, we risk being dropped from the Joint Auction scheme. (In fact provisional programmes for the Epsom, Kingston and Wallington 2007-8 seasons have already fixed their auction dates without reference to Wimbledon at all.) Secondly, Visits Secretary Paul Wright no longer feels able to ask guest speakers to travel considerable distances and display to an audience of around half-a-dozen (often fewer), and has no plans to continue this unaltered. Without them, there is no way we can fill the traditional twice-a-month calendar, and your Committee has tabled a motion for discussion at the AGM, namely: “that the number of meetings be reduced to one per month.”

A NATIONAL TREND?

In fairness, we are scarcely any worse off in this respect than many a philatelic society up and down the country, local or national. Many of us will remember the recent demise of the Leatherhead society (shortage of officers again); the current (April 2007) ABPS News carries an editorial on the decline of the Leeds PS (yes, in a city that size); the International Revenue Society of Great Britain auction relies on the goodwill of a Scotland-based member, repeatedly motoring down to London simply because no London members have volunteered to store and deliver bulky material; the National Philatelic Society has had to leave its Charterhouse Street premises and is currently located faute de mieux in three widely spaced venues: its meetings are near Farringdon, its library now in WC1, and its office is in Walthamstow!

We are not helped in Wimbledon by ”Nimby” (Not In My Back Yard) residents who have successfully lobbied the local council to stop us parking near our hall (yes, we did complain, as did all the other organisations affected, to no avail – just remember this at the next by-election). This not only forced us onto public transport (no joke for those of us who can’t get about easily), but effectively put an end to Wimbledon’s traditional Auction Preview nights (reducing the time available for viewing and thence the likely ‘take’ for vendors), since visiting societies couldn’t bring and unload bulky material for viewing.

There is another option: to suspend, merge or dissolve the society. After more than years, this would be desperately sad, and I think none of us would want this to happen. We want your views: please think about this in time for the AGM, and turn up in force. We need your assurances that events like the exchange visits with other societies, the annual dinner, the competition and the Save the Children covers are still popular enough to let us keep going. You pay your subscriptions: let us know how, in harsh reality, we can best use them.

Michael Round, 23^rd May 2007