The President's View, March 2010
from David Figg, APF President

" I have been doing some tidying-up since my retirement from full-time employment just over a year ago and I recently unearthed my autograph book from 1959.  On thumbing through the pages, I came across an entry made by my late Uncle - "Take a lesson from the postage stamp.  It gets its head punched, its face disfigured, it takes an awful licking. But sticks to its duty to the VERY LETTER".  My late Uncle had placed a mint 1959 Christmas stamp on the page and ensured it did not come off by applying sticky tape which has long since browned and fallen off, but the stamp is still stuck firm to the page "by gum".  I pondered the words and their applicability to 1959.  However in 2010, they are somewhat less relevant, what with very few stamps bearing a monarch or portrait and the steady replacement of gummed stamps by the self-adhesive variety.  Perhaps we could run a competition in The Young Collector for our up-coming youth to bring the ditty into the 21st Century!

Since my last message, the Australasian Philatelic Traders Association (APTA) has held its Annual General Meeting and I wish to congratulate Tony Shields on being elected to his third stint as President of APTA.  I look forward to working with Tony during our respective terms of office although Tony is certainly no stranger at APF Executive Meetings.

Progress has also been made on the establishment of the Brown Family Trust, with a Trust Deed due to be considered by the APF Executive at their meeting in Adelaide in late February 2010.  The next edition of APF News should contain full details of the aim and purpose of the Trust and how philatelists will be able to make contributions.  Details will also be placed on the APF web site as soon as they are available.

The Exhibition Calendar for 2010 is a busy one, with three National Events being held across the country (Canberra - 12-14 March, Adelaide - 20-22 August and Mandurah - 19-21 November) plus of course the numerous overseas International Exhibitions.  In this latter regard, Australia will be represented with Jurors and Commissioners plus a healthy list of Exhibitors in London (8-15 May), Bangkok (4-12 August), Lisbon (1-10 October), Johannesburg (29-31 October) and Palmerston North, NZ (12-14 November).  Entries are still open for Adelaide, Mandurah & Palmerston North but the others have closed.

Finally, as our next International Exhibition in Australia is just over three years away and we need to ensure all our display frames are in useable condition, I encourage every individual and stamp club and society seriously to consider contributing to the "sponsor a frame" refurbishment project mentioned elsewhere in this edition. "