American Philatelic Society President Peter P. McCann, Ph.D. called the Annual General Membership Meeting of the American Philatelic Society to order on Saturday, August 26, 2000 at 9:05 a.m. in Ballroom B of the Providence, Rhode Island Convention Center.

President McCann introduced the member of the APS Board of Directors and APS Executive Director Robert Lamb introduced members of APS staff who were present.

President McCann and Executive Director Lamb distributed awards to those present who had been APS members for 25 and 50 years respectively.

President's Report:

McCann: Intended to summarize the actions the APS Board of Directors took during the Board Meetings of the past few days. Minutes of these meetings will be available on the APS website and McCann urged members to read them in full detail for more information. For those who do not have access to the Internet, written copies of the Minutes are available upon request from APS Headquarters in State College.

We made two important committee appointments this past week. We had a vacancy in our Stamp Theft Committee. That is a key committee to help members track stamps that have been stolen and interact with various law enforcement agencies around the country and sometimes overseas. The Board approved the appointment of Ephraim "Duke" Day from Maryland to chair this committee. He has a background in law enforcement and is a retired police officer.

The second appointment approved by the Board is Irving Miller, who became the Dealer Liaison to the APS Board. This came about as the result of an initiative by Wayne Youngblood. The dealer members of the APS are one of our most important constituencies, especially with regard to our Winter Show and STAMPSHOW. The Board felt it was important to have a permanent representative of the dealer community sit in on our Board Meetings and be able to liaise between dealers and the APS Board. Miller sat through the entire APS Board Meeting from start to finish.

The Board made a decision that STAMPSHOW 2003 will be held in Columbus, Ohio, in the central part of the country and close to many large cities. We think that will be a successful location. Our 2002 STAMPSHOW will be in Atlantic City, New Jersey; and our 2001 STAMPSHOW will be in Chicago.

The budget that was put forward by the APS Finance Committee was approved by the Board. One of the major questions that came out of the discussions with the Finance Committee regarding the future financing and budgets of APS was a suggestion to have a dues increase. This was discussed at some length by the APS Board. It was decided that at this point we did not need to have a dues increase. Retaining our membership by keeping the dues at the current level was an important priority. It has been seven years since our last dues increase. The Finance Committee has always been one of the most unsung committees. They work together with Executive Director Bob Lamb and Controller Scott Frazier to put together the APS budget of several million dollars each year. Treasurer

Nancy Clark has encouraged the Board to not only attend the Finance Committee meetings, but to be active participants. The current Board knows more about finances in detail than any past Board in APS history.

There has been a proposal to look at our headquarters building space requirements, including the American Philatelic Research Library, office space, and general space. The conference room we have has been taken over by the Internet Sales Division. There is a serious lack of space. The are problems with the infrastructure. A few weeks ago we had a water main break, and there are problems with the heating and cooling systems.

There have been several committees charged to look at expansion. The current committee is headed by Ken Lawrence. There have been seven different options the APS Board have been looking at. One proposal is to move APS Headquarters to a very large site in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, which is less than 10 miles from our present site. It is in the same county and by the new Interstate connections would take less than five minutes to travel from the old site to the new site.

It was a long, arduous process. We wound up in the last few weeks with 500 - 600 pages of reports relating to the site that included the stability of the buildings, the environmental impact, and finances. Ultimately we examined this and the APS Board voted by a large majority to initiate the process to determine the feasibility of moving from the State College site to the Bellefonte site. The present building is owned by our sister institution the American Philatelic Research Library which has its own Board of Trustees. That Board, when the APS voted on Wednesday, also went through the examination process itself and also voted by a large majority to initiate the process.

[At this point President McCann had APS Vice-President and APRL Trustee Charles Peterson introduce members of the American Philatelic Research Library Board.]

Both Boards approved a motion to start the process of looking at moving. This process is contingent on a number of things including having a major tenant in the building. We are in negotiations with the Post Office in Bellefonte about making this their main post office in Bellefonte. Other contingencies have to do with the feasibility of the finances and making sure we don't have any cost overruns. We have not stepped over the abyss of spending several million dollars tomorrow, but we have started a long-term process that will take several months. We have to pass several milestones before we continue to go forward. We will continue looking at this in a very detailed and studied way. Over a period of months the Boards will be voting again as this process moves forward through each step. It is not irreversible at this point in time, and it won't be for several months. The important thing is that we have gotten started in this process.

Vice Presidents Report:

Morison: The American Philatelic Society is one that is very concerned about its Code of Ethics. Every member who joins the Society actually agrees to abide by the Code of Ethics of the American Philatelic Society. As a result, you enjoy the ability to use your APS number as a reference. You can buy from stamp dealers and be in a position that you don't have to provide a lot of information. When dealers see you are a member of the APS, it is usually a satisfactory reference because they know if there have been any complaints against you for any reason it was investigated. That responsibility of investigation rests with the three members of the APS Board of Vice Presidents.

The Board of Vice Presidents works closely with a key staff person, Helen Bruno, at headquarters in State College. She probably solves a vast majority of complaints that come in from members about other members, or from dealers. Only a few of those complaints actually end up with the Board of Vice Presidents.

The Board of Vice Presidents meets probably six times a year - more often if necessary - but usually at least every other month. It has hearings. People who are convicted at a hearing by the Board of Vice Presidents may be put on probation or expelled, have the right to appeal. The appeal goes to the Board of Directors of the Society minus the three members of the Board of Vice Presidents. The Board has the opportunity to overturn the Vice Presidents decisions, and that happens for various reasons. Sometimes the complaint has been settled. Sometimes the Board of Vice Presidents may recommend when a case comes up that the decision be overturned.

To give you an idea of the number of cases that have been handled by the Vice Presidents, since last STAMPSHOW a year ago, the Board of Vice Presidents has handled 53 cases. As a result, 24 members have been expelled from the Society. Of those 24, only 8 have appealed. We suspended one person on a temporary basis. We took steps to order two to pay within 30 days or face more serious disciplinary problems. One of those appealed. We dismissed 14 cases as having no merit. We provided on and off advice regarding various other complaints. We have 10 cases now that have not been finalized.

The Board of Vice Presidents is vigilant. The number of complaints we receive speaks well of our membership. This number is miniscule to the 50,000 membership.

Treasurer's Report:

Clark: As Treasurer of the Society Clark has reviewed the APS financial transactions and signed all vouchers on a monthly basis. The Finance Committee met June 24 to review the budget. A subcommittee initially reviewed several investment firms in a search to find a more satisfactory manager of the Society and Library investment funds. We reviewed proposals from A.G. Edwards, Merrill Lynch, two branches of Salomon Smith Barney, T. Rowe Price, Lake Mason Wood Walker, and PNC Advisers. We then interviewed representatives from the two finalists, T. Rowe Price and PNC. We selected PNC Advisers.

At PNC's request, the Board voted a resolution to adopt PNC as manager in Providence. Funds were transferred to PNC August 7, 2000. The Board also enacted a modification of the Society's Statement of Investment Objectives, Polity and Guidelines to allow the use of one manager for both fixed income and equity assets.

The Sales Division circuit books were audited by sampling by the firm of Ritchie Cox. For the first time in Society's history we will have an unqualified audit. The auditor's report to the Board will include an analysis of the Sales Division system and recommendations for short and long term improvements.

The budget review process included considerations of ways to increase income and to reduce expenditures. The surcharge for mailing American Philatelist to foreign countries has been raised to $10 for all countries except Canada, which will remain at the current rate. A raise in dues was also considered but the Board decided not to increase dues at this time. It has been 7 years since the dues were increased. This is a major testament to belt tightening and good management at State College and to the loyal service of our excellent staff.

There has been an overall growth in the Society's assets in the past 8 years from $4.8 million to $7.1 million. In that same 8 years the Society has added many services, including the Youth Department and its All Star Stamp Club, the web page services, and color to AP. We have updated internal services to computers and added credit card capability. We have also initiated the return of retired sales circuit books without charging postage or insurance. All of these services increase our costs, well over $250,000 yearly. The APS is a bargain.

The Society owes a debt of gratitude to the capable daily management skills of both Scott Frazier, Society controller; and Robert Lamb, Executive Director.

Secretary's Report:

Klug: Has taken the Minutes at the Board Meetings and General Meetings of the American Philatelic Society and signed all legal documents of the Society according to the bylaws.

Executive Director's Report:

Lamb: It is ironic that one of the busiest years we have had between annual meetings is going to result in one of the shortest Executive Director's reports. Lamb has enjoyed being associated with the American Philatelic Society. It is an organization that really does try to serve stamp collectors and stamp collecting. We spend a lot of time trying to think of new services we can offer members that will help them enjoy their hobby more.

The Society is healthy financially. There is one area we could do better and that is membership. Our membership has declined for two years. The rate of that decline is slowing rapidly and Lamb hopes by next year that will be turned around so we will gain members. This year we are looking at a decline of approximately 700 - 800 members. If our members see anyone who is not a member, they should try to recruit them.

One of the reasons it is such a good Society is that we have a loyal, supportive membership. Donations come in. There are offers of volunteer assistance from people who do things to help us out. The night before last someone found in an auction an interesting old Society history. They bought it and donated it to the APS archives. Eliot Landau brought it to us the other night. We are very grateful to all our members for that kind of assistance.

We are concentrated on putting more services on the Internet. That is the growing area for our new membership. It is amazing how quickly the hobby is switching to the Internet. It is our largest source of new members today. One of the most important new services we have on the Internet is the correspondence courses. We started in May with our first Internet correspondence course for beginning stamp collectors. In October we will reoffer the beginning course. We are working on courses on First Day Covers and other aspects of philately. If you have access to the web, watch the website. We will be announcing these in September.

We will soon begin our Internet Sales Division. Our initial budget projections forecast we would get 16,000 items presented to us to sell before the end of this calendar year. We are getting 500 a day. It is amazing the interest this has generated among the membership. We have nothing online yet to sell. We have delayed it because our key people are here at the show and we did not want to bring it online while they were away. September 1 we are going live. Visit the site at stampstore.org. It has some really nice items on it. The system is being demonstrated here at the show.

Our Winter Show will be in Tucson along with Nordia and ARIPEX in January.

The Match Factory proposal moves us into something that will be very important not only for the future of the Society, but for the future of the hobby. It will be the kind of location that people will want to come to on vacation. We will not only be able to serve APS members, but we are talking to other organizations in philately about how we can make this a national philatelic center. We looked at every conceivable problem that could come along at this site. It didn't come easily. We researched it very carefully at each stage. We looked into the flood plain. The site is bordered on two of its four sides by delightful trout streams, but the bad thing about a trout stream is that there is a flood potential. We had to explore the flood potential. After considerable research we concluded it was not an issue. We looked into environmental concerns. It turned out that there are no serious environment concerns on the site. We looked into the structure of the building and found we were lucky because the developers who had it before us who were trying to turn it into a microbrewery conducted environmental studies. They got environmental cleanup done to the satisfaction of the Pennsylvania state government and EPA regulations. They got the structural studies done on the soundness of the buildings. These would have cost us a lot of money to do. The buildings sit at the edge of a park in a delightful Victorian town. It is the kind of place you would like to come to and visit.

In the early stages we looked at whether we needed to expand the present building and what we could do as alternatives. We even looked at whether we should stay in State College or not. One of the committees examined carefully whether there was another location that was more convenient to more members than State College. Over a third of our members are in states that border Pennsylvania. We are actually in the center of a very important pool of our membership. We found that if we relocated to a bigger city the costs go up substantially. There are not only the costs of moving, which are one-time costs, but the costs of operating. In a suburb of Washington or Chicago it would be too expensive. The Committee explored this in some depth. We did a lot of financial studies, and we found we just couldn't afford to move. Staying in the local area is the best of all the options. With the new road construction and the growing air access to State College, we found it was not that inconvenient. It is 3-1/2 hours drive to New York City, 3-1/2 hours to Washington, 2-1/2 hours to Pittsburgh, 3-1/2 hours to Philadelphia and Baltimore. We have had over 100 members come to State College to look at the Match Factory themselves to see whether it was a good idea or not. All members are invited to come in and have a look at it.

McCann: Opened the floor to questions.

Dr. Carolton: Complimented the Finance Committee on their choice of PNC to manage Society's assets.

The EPA gets involved in declaring various things toxic substances. How many people in this room have used carbon tetrachloride as watermark fluid?

(A majority of attendees raised their hands).

How many of these people have had problems with skin cancer?

(No hands were raised.)

The medical profession is missing a bet by not looking at organizations such as ours who have had substantial exposure to carbon tet over the years to see if there is really a problem. Our Society should be involved in medical testing because we have used this stuff.

Richard Hanchack: What is the current status of the Society trying to find a peelable hinge?

Lamb: We spent a lot of time on the peelable hinge. We went to 3M and they told us they could do it, but the market was too small. They discontinued the discussion. We went to see the Vice President of Avery Dennison to see if they could do it. They said they probably had the old Dennison hinge formula in the archives somewhere. They suggested we talk to the head of their research department. We talked with him and he said they would have to investigate, but after that he never returned our phone calls.

There is some good news. Mel Goldberg thinks he has found the old Dennison hinge formula. He is trying very hard, and we hope he is successful. There have been others who have said they have the old Dennison hinge formula, but once tested they seem to have the same problem all modern hinges do.

Hanchack: Would like to see in American Philatelist a listing of all future APS STAMPSHOWS with dates and locations and all FIP international shows five years in advance.

David Eeles: As a member of the STAMPSHOW 2003 committee, Eeles invited all to attend STAMPSHOW 2003 in Columbus to help celebrate the bicentennial of the state of Ohio.

Carolton: People have to be very careful about peelable hinges and sticky notes. Any adhesive leaves a residual on whatever it touches. You may not see it right away, but it will show up after a number of years.

Eliot Landau: Invited all to attend STAMPSHOW 2001 in Chicago. We are going to put on the same best efforts we used at AMERIPEX and World Columbian to put on a good show for the APS members.

Michael Dixon: Wished to remind everyone that at the end of May and the beginning of June 2006 there would be an international show in Washington, D.C. Plan now to attend.

Attendee: A lot of peelable hinges leave a gummy residue. A good art product you can use called Vestine will take it off and not leave damage where it was removed. It is available in all art stores and is very inexpensive.

As a handicapped person, this member tries to attend every STAMPSHOW. Before he finds out the name and location of the show hotel, all the rooms have sold out because of those who know where the show is and what the hotel will be. That should be put in American Philatelist quicker. He drives and needs that information.

Lamb: We try to announce it for everybody at the same time. What we have found is that previously we only took 200 rooms at the shows. Now we are up to 500 - 600 rooms, and they are filling up a lot faster than they did in the past. As soon as you see it in AP, make your reservations quickly.

Sid Morganstine: How old is the current APS building?

Lamb: Twenty years old.

McCann: Introduced Society Attorney David Flood. He invited members who had specific questions to ask any of the Board members who would be pleased to answer their queries, and invited all to attend the Town Meeting that afternoon.

Adjournment:

Barbara Mueller: Moved to adjourn sine die.

The meeting adjourned at 10:00 a.m.