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Newsletter September 08 Editor: Michael Round
NEW SEASON. Yes, it’s that time of year when we meet again, scan our new programme-cards (enclosed) – with thanks as ever to Paul Wright for assembling another fascinating season – and rush to post our 2008-9 subscriptions (due now!) to our Hon Treasurer, Tony Clark. Rates stay as before: adults, £7.00, OAPs £4.50, juniors £2.00. A few members remain in arrears from last season - or even (shock horror) before. Examine not only your consciences but also your cheque-book stubs to see if you’re one of the guilty (all right, forgetful) parties. Best to post subs to Tony direct – his address is on the programme-card. NEW MEMBERS? If you have friends even remotely interested in how you spend your time, do bring them along to a meeting. If you’re a non-member reading this on-line, contact our Hon Secretary, Barbara Priddy (phone 020-8946 6224; email bmkpriddy@hotmail.com ) and come and see for yourself. Meetings take place on the third Tuesday of each month from September to June, starting at 8pm and with the exception of our November Auction (see below), they all happen at St Andrews Church Hall, Herbert Road, London SW19 (open from around 7.30), a short walk from Wimbledon’s bus station. “WHAT’S A LETTER?” By the time you receive this, we’ll have already had our opening meeting, the traditional Bring and Buy and ‘Save the Children’ covers. As you know, the supply of covers depends, almost entirely, on whatever is sent to the BBC World Service. Our contact there tells an alarming if unsurprising story about dwindling supplies. Formerly the BBC received 600,000 letters a years from listeners: the total now is less than 50,000 and rapidly falling. The monthly accumulation of envelopes used to be too much to carry away: last month there were just 100 covers. The developed world seems to use more and more stampless mail, while in the developing world (as our contact typically found on a recent trip to Sudan) many locals didn’t know where the post office was, nor even if there was one. He even had to explain what letters and stamps were. Everyone there, however, had heard of emails, SMS, and, at a pinch, DHL. Moral: snap up the remaining covers – from anywhere - while they still exist. DATES FOR YOUR DIARY. Our next joint auction (in collaboration with the Epsom & Ewell, Kingston, Wallington & Carshalton, and Twickenham societies) is hosted by us on November 18th 2008 but, for this evening only – for easier car-parking and handling/carrying away of bulky lots – at a NEW VENUE: Christ the King Church Hall, 9 Crescent Gardens (off Arthur Road), Wimbledon Park (close to Wimbledon park tube and the 156 bus-route). The catalogue will be mailed out separately: do study it, for it’s part of what your sub pays for. Each society may put up to 80 lots to sell per auction: if you have spare material, send me - as Auction Secretary (by post or email), and by October 13th - either the material itself or, in the first instance, a list of it (you could bring the material itself on the day) including all the information you’d like to see as a postal bidder, i.e. country, SG or other number, brief description, condition (whether UM, M, U, mixed or on cover, and/or damaged), quantity or weight (if relevant, i.e. for large lots), what edition (in the case of catalogues or other literature), and so on. And unless you really don’t mind lots going for 5p, add a reserve price, minimum 25p: if below this, it’d be better to combine items into larger lots. Use a printed Vendor Form, if you have one (ask me if you’d like a supply), or plain paper – or just email me the details. JOINT EXCHANGE PACKET. We reported last time that because of ill-health, Packet Secretary Ray Roberts had been unable to circulate a new Wimbledon packet for some time. You will remember that members wishing – as buyers or vendors - to plug the gap pro tem (or even beyond) had been kindly invited, via its Packet Secretary Mark Hugo, to join the circuit run by the Epsom & Ewell society. Four of us have signed up so far: if you’d like to join us, contact Barbara, either by letter, phone or e-mail, so that you can be added to the circulation list next time round. All part of the service you (fully paid-up members, that is!) deserve. BUYING ACCESSORIES? Our hard-working President Ray Downing is not only Publicity Officer and FSPS Delegate, but also Sales Officer. He can obtain anything likely to be stocked at Vera Trinder’s: if you have any requests, let him know. OUR WEBSITE.
Webmaster Andy Donaldson continues to do wonders for what we might call
our e-image. Contact him on adonaldson@underprints.com
with newsbits and other items of interest: view the site itself (including a new
ABPS page, from which, among other things, you can download its quarterly
bulletin) via our own homepage on www.wdps.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk STRAND STAMP FAIRS. We much regret to announce the death of the organiser of these monthly fairs, Trevor Davis. Despite this, I understand that they will still continue, though anyone going to their long-ago venue, the Strand Palace Hotel, will not find them: nor will any staff there (surprise, surprise) know where they’ve moved to. They now take place at the Royal National Hotel, Bedford Way, Russell Square [also its nearest tube], WC1H 0DG; admission is free. Phone first (020-8946 4489) or check on-line www.stampshows.net before going on spec. A SOFT BLOW ON THE TRUMPET. Members may have seen some odd covers from my travels abroad. I wrote these up for a Gibbons Stamp Monthly article, and I’m pleased to say that after a lot of toing-and-froing with scans (first they were usable, then they weren’t), including a trip to 399 Strand to get them all redone in-house, my piece was printed in the May 2008 issue. Trouble is, they now want a sequel... A GB DESIGN ERROR? Sorry to waste space if this has already been reported: but last September’s sheet of 10 x 1st-class Birds included what purports to be a Red Kite. Now, the sure way to tell a kite from any other big raptor is by its forked tail, something on which all bird-books agree yet which is not shown on the stamp. Explanations, anyone? Mistake or not, sheets like these (Portraits, Sea Life, Insects) are almost the only new issues I still buy, since they are all plausibly usable for postage. Having also lamented that the annual Poppy/Remembrance stamps have hitherto only been available as part of miniature sheets, I can now look forward to their issue in sheet form this November. Till the next time… Michael Round
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