Thank you for making our hobby strong!
The late author Herman Melville said, “We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men.” Before I came to stamp collecting, I did not understand the power of the hobby and its connections. Along the way, I’ve had thousands of teachers provide definitive proof of our hobby’s reach. In this issue, we thank those of you who have supported the American Philatelic Society and American Philatelic Research Library in the past year.
As I write this, we are easing out of the COVID-19 pandemic to an endemic phase, meaning we are starting to enjoy a greater sense of normalcy. When the pandemic reached us in March 2020, we were forced to close our doors and face disruptions not seen in a century. The response from our collecting community was overwhelming.
Members adapted, learning to use Zoom and other online platforms to stay connected. Active collectors pulled out those boxes of material they’d been meaning to sort and finally did. Those who mastered technology offered presentations to clubs and societies to help educate and connect. At the risk of repeating myself, this hobby did not just survive; it thrived. All of us can take satisfaction in rebuffing those most negative beliefs that “stamp collecting is dying.”
In 2020, your support helped the APS and APRL meet the needs of our members and collectors sheltering in place. We deployed more technology, created Stamp Chats, increased our educational offerings on the Collecting and Connecting Central Academy (C3a), tripled the outreach of our newsletter, and brought more people to the APS website to learn and connect than ever. By the end of the year, we successfully paid off the mortgage debt of the Match Factory 15 years early!
In 2021, thanks to our members, we witnessed our best internet sales year, expertizing submissions and membership recruitment since 2008. We launched an ambitious plan to digitize another million pages in the Robert A. Mason Digital Library and a total overhaul of the APS website to be completed in June. Each of these tools will significantly improve our reach and service to the hobby in a way that was believed impossible just two short years ago.
Herman Melville, Scott 2094
Please review the acknowledgments on page 350 of the American Philatelist and note that contributions come in many different ways. Members who donate to many programs, from Mighty Buck (only $12 a year), Stamps Teach, Young Philatelic Leaders Fellowship, and the digitization fund, directly impact all of us. There are also more permanent funds that generate annual revenue to the APS and APRL, such as the Tiffany Fund and the Patrons/Vooys Fellowship. Last year, we challenged our supporters to help build our APRL Fund by becoming a Vooys Fellow (a pledge to pay $5,000 within five years). They responded. We added 10 new Fellows, our best year ever, and received four more pledges. I am pleased to report two donors who completed those pledges already, and we’re still adding more. For more information, please visit https://classic.stamps.org/Vooys-Fellow.
In August 2021, we began the sale of Bob Mason’s stamp estate at WESTPEX. The partial sale generated $131,000 in funds to help us build the digital library. In August, Schuyler Rumsey will auction off the rest of the stamps at the Great American Stamp Show in Sacramento, California. Stamp donations provide an excellent opportunity for the APS, either as postage (providing more than $50,000 in donated postage), stamp sales (generating more than $100,000 in revenue for our education programs), or the reference collection to help fight fakes and forgeries. We welcome stamp donations throughout the year. For more information, please visit https://stamps.org/donate/donationcart/inkind-gifts.
Finally, we cannot thank you enough to those who volunteer their time on behalf of the hobby. Whether it’s helping out at the American Philatelic Center, the Great American Stamp Show, or teaching a class online or at Summer Seminar, volunteers are the lifeblood of this hobby. If you haven’t volunteered with us recently, you’re missing an opportunity to make a significant impact and meet some great collectors. Learn more about volunteering by visiting: https://stamps.org/donate/volunteer.
Though restrictions are easing and we’re traveling more, let’s keep the momentum going. So many of you are more energized and focused on the hobby than in years past. Join us in making 2022 another year of success for the APS, APRL, and the hobby!