The President's View, July 2008
from Gary Brown

" Halfway through year 2008 and the Beijing Olympics are almost upon us.  I have just received my Australia Post Stamp Bulletin for July-August 2008.  This Bulletin outlines the coming stamp issues by Australia Post.  If you are a collector of modern Australian Stamps you need to receive a copy.  It records technical details of all the issues for the period.  New issues on Aviation, 100 years of Quarantine, 150 years of AFL and of course all the stamps for the Beijing Olympics, including the Gold medal stamps started back at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.  Information on Australia Post Stamp Issues can also be found on there website www.auspost.com.au.

In June this year I had the opportunity to attend Efiro 2008, a FIP International Exhibition in Bucharest, Romania.  In conjunction with the Exhibition was an FIP Congress where representatives from 84 countries gathered over two days to meet and discuss Philately and Stamp Collecting.  Australia was well represented at many of the meetings discussing, Traditional, Postal History, Postal Stationery and Youth collecting amongst a total of 12 meetings.

A first for an FIP International Exhibition was a Postal Administration Class for current Postal Administrations to enter 2 frames of recently issued stamps [2005-2007 period], 25 administrations took the opportunity to enter.  Australia Post were "pipped" by 1 point and received a Silver medal second to France on 78 points.  Congratulations to the members of the Australia Post Philatelic Group.

If you are an exhibitor then major changes have occurred with the rules for exhibiting Traditional Philately and these will be outlined in the next edition of APF News.  Postal History also saw a major change with a third category to cover "Social Postal History" being incorporated in there rules.  This change is hoped to allow a larger number of stamp collectors to decide to exhibit many of there collections as exhibits.  Again more information will be forth coming in the next APF News.

As I mentioned in the last issue, I regularly surf the net for all items on stamps. An excellent site for information on what exhibiting can be all about, with actual full exhibits is Exponet Virtual International Philatelic Exhibition.  Not all shown are exhibits entered into Exhibitions, as many are collections placed on pages with a story and the collector having found a free outlet to show what he collects.

Have you planned that holiday in New Zealand around the Tarapex 2008 Exhibition ? Not to late to combine a quick trip across the Tasman.  Tarapex 2008 will be held in New Plymouth, on the North Island, 7 - 9 November 2008.  It will be a large New Zealand National including the Australasian Challenge.  All classes are catered for.  All Australian States and the ACT will have a full team each in the Challenge. All details can be found at http://www.tarapex.co.nz/

So enjoy your stamps and hopefully I meet a number of you at the shows this coming year. "