EDINBURGH LEADS QUIET REVOLUTION IN STAMP GROUPS
Edinburgh has long had a busy stamp community, but in the 1990s some forward-looking philatelists were convinced many local collectors or potential collectors were not being catered for. They felt drastic action was needed to reverse the slow but noticeable decline in traditional stamp activities.
These collectors, chief among them an active and well-known philatelist named Tom Rielly, floated an idea in Scotland that some people doubted could possibly work. That idea, based on the afternoon format of the then-relatively new Bookham Stamp Club in Surrey, was to have a daytime stamp club with no bureaucracy, speakers, set agendas, subscriptions -- or indeed most of the trappings of typical British clubs.
Instead, collectors would simply gather to chat, buy, sell and swap stamps, show pages from their collection and do anything else philatelic they fancied. In lieu of subs, anyone who showed up would just pay £1, which by the way would also cover bottomless cups of tea and coffee and a biscuit or two.
Tom Rielly convinced the philatelic establishment to stump up some seed money, and hired a hall spread publicity far and wide. But would anyone come?
They did come and now, ten years later, the Edinburgh Stamp Club is a runaway success and is celebrating its 10th anniversary. It has the city’s largest philatelic attendance at its 10am meetings on the last Friday of the month. It boasts an average turnout of about 40, from school pupils on holiday to pensioners, from total beginners to veteran exhibitors, and provides a low-intensity but fun and friendly atmosphere for all things philatelic. People come from across the Central Belt of Scotland, and occasionally from even further afield. Perhaps half of those who attend also belong to one or more of Edinburgh’s two philatelic societies or its postcard club, but for the others it is their only organised philatelic activity. Ironically, perhaps, in this high-pressure and electronic age, it provides a throwback to stamp collecting much as it was in the much-lamented "good old days".
Just as importantly, perhaps, it provides a working model of what can be done to widen the appeal of stamp collecting in just about any area with a sizable population.
"It has hit a niche in the market and it’s been very successful," said Frank Souter, a former chairman of the group and one of the people involved in the beginnings of the club. "It’s so easy to get into," added the busy participant in organised philately in Scotland and across Britain.
The current stamp group chairman, Bob Bell, said of the club’s success: "I feel it’s the general informality, and we have hit on an attractive way of having individuals volunteer to display their material." This system is simply a sign-up sheet, backed up with a bit of gentle encouragement, and anyone who offers is given space with no vetting. He added that he felt the group offers a good mix of activities. "It’s a mix of stuff for sale, the stuff to look at, and that there is nothing that anyone has to do. It does rest on informality."
This informality was a key aspect of the club from the beginning, although the adoption of a basic constitution was found to be necessary. The club went nearly ten years without having a guest speaker, but an exception was made in March when Margaret Morris gave a short and interesting talk on social philately and displayed a collection on astronomy and communications. This was done, by the way, only after a survey conducted among members identified considerable interest in such an event. Yet another first was to be the club’s tenth anniversary luncheon following on from the May meeting, and commemorative covers were created and sold to mark the anniversary.
Nor is the club shying away from taking a place in the wider world of philately. Preparations are well underway for the major step of being joint hosts, along with another relatively new organisation, the Lothian Postcard Club, of the Scottish Philatelic Congress in Perth in 2009. Gentle persuasion and examples by doing are gradually preparing members for filling a frame at this major annual event organised by the Association of Scottish Philatelic Societies.
The format for the meetings at St Johns Church, at the corner of Lothian Road and Princes Street in Edinburgh’s West End, is simplicity itself. The doors open well before 10 so volunteers can set up tables, chairs and display boards. The first table participants encounter is covered with philatelic handouts, and the kitchen servery with its continuous supply of tea, coffee and biscuits is open from the word go.
A few tables at the near end of the room are available for collectors with stamps, covers and postcards for sale, while the heart of the room is taken up by a semi-circle of chairs and the chairman’s table. No formalities take place for the first hour or so, however, and the chairs are used only for rest and relaxation for most of the meeting.
The far end of the room has a few more of the popular tables for vendors, with much of the taking going to charities, while display boards line one side of the room and much of another. The minimal amount of "formal" business takes place at about 11am and consists mainly of announcements and brief comments on the displays that have been on view and the ones that are going up for the second half of the morning.
One meeting a year is given over to an auction, with up to 200 lots brought in on the day. This remains one of the most popular and well-supported meetings of the year, despite (or because of?) the fact that the Scottish and Edinburgh philatelic societies have felt it necessary to abandon their annual room auctions because of diminishing attendance and sales.
The officers organise occasional outings, to a popular stamp shop in Glasgow, for instance, with a particularly memorable one being organised by Tom Rielly, not long before his premature death, of the British Philatelic Bureau’s new headquarters at Tallents House in the western outskirts of the city.
The atmosphere at meetings is animated, with the buzz of stamp collectors left to their own devices. The tables are invariably busy, and the displays well perused. Yours truly finds he is so busy chatting away and participating in low-level stamp commerce that the first cup of tea sometimes is not taken until nearly 11, and that the displays sometimes get little more than a quick glance.
Everyone wears a name badge, picked up at the table when signing in and dropping that pound coin in the bowl, so it is easy to learn the names of the participants who are new or perhaps not as well known as the capital’s usual philatelic suspects.
The Edinburgh stamp group certainly has marked its first decade in style, and it looks like enjoying many more.
-- The Edinburgh Stamp Group meets at 10am on the last Friday of every month except December and the Festival month of August, with July meetings earlier in the month because of Festival preparations. Meetings take place at the St Johns Church Hall, on the corner of Lothian Road and Princes Street in the heart of Edinburgh. Information is available from the secretary, Margaret Turner, on 0131-334 6363.
These collectors, chief among them an active and well-known philatelist named Tom Rielly, floated an idea in Scotland that some people doubted could possibly work. That idea, based on the afternoon format of the then-relatively new Bookham Stamp Club in Surrey, was to have a daytime stamp club with no bureaucracy, speakers, set agendas, subscriptions -- or indeed most of the trappings of typical British clubs.
Instead, collectors would simply gather to chat, buy, sell and swap stamps, show pages from their collection and do anything else philatelic they fancied. In lieu of subs, anyone who showed up would just pay £1, which by the way would also cover bottomless cups of tea and coffee and a biscuit or two.
Tom Rielly convinced the philatelic establishment to stump up some seed money, and hired a hall spread publicity far and wide. But would anyone come?
They did come and now, ten years later, the Edinburgh Stamp Club is a runaway success and is celebrating its 10th anniversary. It has the city’s largest philatelic attendance at its 10am meetings on the last Friday of the month. It boasts an average turnout of about 40, from school pupils on holiday to pensioners, from total beginners to veteran exhibitors, and provides a low-intensity but fun and friendly atmosphere for all things philatelic. People come from across the Central Belt of Scotland, and occasionally from even further afield. Perhaps half of those who attend also belong to one or more of Edinburgh’s two philatelic societies or its postcard club, but for the others it is their only organised philatelic activity. Ironically, perhaps, in this high-pressure and electronic age, it provides a throwback to stamp collecting much as it was in the much-lamented "good old days".
Just as importantly, perhaps, it provides a working model of what can be done to widen the appeal of stamp collecting in just about any area with a sizable population.
"It has hit a niche in the market and it’s been very successful," said Frank Souter, a former chairman of the group and one of the people involved in the beginnings of the club. "It’s so easy to get into," added the busy participant in organised philately in Scotland and across Britain.
The current stamp group chairman, Bob Bell, said of the club’s success: "I feel it’s the general informality, and we have hit on an attractive way of having individuals volunteer to display their material." This system is simply a sign-up sheet, backed up with a bit of gentle encouragement, and anyone who offers is given space with no vetting. He added that he felt the group offers a good mix of activities. "It’s a mix of stuff for sale, the stuff to look at, and that there is nothing that anyone has to do. It does rest on informality."
This informality was a key aspect of the club from the beginning, although the adoption of a basic constitution was found to be necessary. The club went nearly ten years without having a guest speaker, but an exception was made in March when Margaret Morris gave a short and interesting talk on social philately and displayed a collection on astronomy and communications. This was done, by the way, only after a survey conducted among members identified considerable interest in such an event. Yet another first was to be the club’s tenth anniversary luncheon following on from the May meeting, and commemorative covers were created and sold to mark the anniversary.
Nor is the club shying away from taking a place in the wider world of philately. Preparations are well underway for the major step of being joint hosts, along with another relatively new organisation, the Lothian Postcard Club, of the Scottish Philatelic Congress in Perth in 2009. Gentle persuasion and examples by doing are gradually preparing members for filling a frame at this major annual event organised by the Association of Scottish Philatelic Societies.
The format for the meetings at St Johns Church, at the corner of Lothian Road and Princes Street in Edinburgh’s West End, is simplicity itself. The doors open well before 10 so volunteers can set up tables, chairs and display boards. The first table participants encounter is covered with philatelic handouts, and the kitchen servery with its continuous supply of tea, coffee and biscuits is open from the word go.
A few tables at the near end of the room are available for collectors with stamps, covers and postcards for sale, while the heart of the room is taken up by a semi-circle of chairs and the chairman’s table. No formalities take place for the first hour or so, however, and the chairs are used only for rest and relaxation for most of the meeting.
The far end of the room has a few more of the popular tables for vendors, with much of the taking going to charities, while display boards line one side of the room and much of another. The minimal amount of "formal" business takes place at about 11am and consists mainly of announcements and brief comments on the displays that have been on view and the ones that are going up for the second half of the morning.
One meeting a year is given over to an auction, with up to 200 lots brought in on the day. This remains one of the most popular and well-supported meetings of the year, despite (or because of?) the fact that the Scottish and Edinburgh philatelic societies have felt it necessary to abandon their annual room auctions because of diminishing attendance and sales.
The officers organise occasional outings, to a popular stamp shop in Glasgow, for instance, with a particularly memorable one being organised by Tom Rielly, not long before his premature death, of the British Philatelic Bureau’s new headquarters at Tallents House in the western outskirts of the city.
The atmosphere at meetings is animated, with the buzz of stamp collectors left to their own devices. The tables are invariably busy, and the displays well perused. Yours truly finds he is so busy chatting away and participating in low-level stamp commerce that the first cup of tea sometimes is not taken until nearly 11, and that the displays sometimes get little more than a quick glance.
Everyone wears a name badge, picked up at the table when signing in and dropping that pound coin in the bowl, so it is easy to learn the names of the participants who are new or perhaps not as well known as the capital’s usual philatelic suspects.
The Edinburgh stamp group certainly has marked its first decade in style, and it looks like enjoying many more.
-- The Edinburgh Stamp Group meets at 10am on the last Friday of every month except December and the Festival month of August, with July meetings earlier in the month because of Festival preparations. Meetings take place at the St Johns Church Hall, on the corner of Lothian Road and Princes Street in the heart of Edinburgh. Information is available from the secretary, Margaret Turner, on 0131-334 6363.
posted by Chad Neighbor at
31.10.07
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