Joan Orr reported that Queensland groups are all working well, and enjoying their times together. George's School of the Air children are interacting much more freely now that they have got to know him better. At first they were quite shy about sharing their collecting interests. He distributes about 25 copies of The Young Collector each issue which is great for country children.

When talking to Victor recently I mentioned that both St Paul's School's Stamp Club and All Saints have an incentive system whereby children completing home work, entering the competitions and being punctual to meetings all gain points which accrue to a certain figure (different in both) and they are then awarded prizes such as a stock book or some hagner sheets and even small catalogues. Victor thought this was a great idea and is going to put it into place at MacGregor State School Stamp Club. Several groups have waiting lists for children to join as classroom size limits the number who can attend.

St Paul's is the lucky one here as they meet after school and there is plenty of room in the area they are allotted.

David is finding that time constraints for his meetings are a bit of a problem as the children are not keen to leave the meeting to go to classes and he also would like more time with them.

This year there were not as many children at Rockhampton and Gladstone Stamp Days as usual, but they still managed to give away quite a number of goodie bags. Usually Gladstone has up to 20 children from the local schools visiting. Karen was disappointed at the number of children who turned up to their Open Day, although I thought there were more than usual.

Logan City have asked for three Young Collectors copies as they have several children coming to their stamp club meetings with their parents. It is a fact that if the parents are interested the children soon follow. Nanango Stamp Club and Lockyer Valley have several children each attending their meetings with their parents.

QPC attended the ANDA show at the RNA Showgrounds and as usual we had a Kidz Korner with colouring, design a stamp and small quiz for the children attending. We had some excellent results in all areas and yours truly spent time dispatching prizes after the show to the selected winners in the different age groups.

I have not had a report from the Yumborra Scout Group in Dalby, but I guess they are still functioning. They requested 35 copies of The Young Collector for their Cub and Scout Groups.

Our Senior Exhibitor has entered her article on Tennis Gear into Adelaide's Stamp Show in the Literature section for Youth in August and will take part in the Interstate Challenge later in the year. This will be her 'swansong' as she is now 21 years old and our very Junior exhibitor is not ready to follow in her foot steps just yet.

John Panckridge reports that we all know that stamp collecting provides a wonderful introduction for young children to the countries of the world.

In his work with Tasmanian primary school children Ken Stocks has also set out to provide an introduction to the geography of their state.

Tasmania currently has about 170 Post Offices, a far cry from the halcyon days of the early federal period, (less than half), but a goodly sum nonetheless for a child who may ordinarily have a vocabulary of just half a dozen town names.

A few years ago, Ken set out to acquire not only a complete, but also heavily duplicated holding of contemporary Post Office strikes on piece. Many were sourced from local business correspondence but a considerable amount of leg work was required before sufficient numbers could be assembled from smaller offices in the North and West of the state.

Once assembled however the holding was presented as a lucky dip! A stamp with cancel was drawn at random with the challenge to identify the office using the town name and postcode as guide. Using this information the child then had to locate the office on a map. If successful a large scroll listing all the Post Offices from A - Z was produced. Upon signing their name against the relevant office the reward was to keep the stamp!

Ken has produced an innovative educational tool, combining the use of a map with an introduction to our postcode system.

Tasmania has always had its fair share of postmark collectors. Perhaps this will help to produce a new generation!.

Barbara Bartsch reported that the Thorndon Park Primary School has finished the Government Building upgrades project and rang to ask me back for the School Stamp Club. So we started the year's program in June with freebie bags and catch up information and we quickly ran through the first missing lessons so that in July both schools will have same lesson.

The East Marden School checked out postal markings especially postmarks and Mail Exchange codes.

I prepared Give-away bags and other instructional material from Saphil House on May 22 for a 'Gifted and Talented Children SA" 5-10 year olds workshop held at the St Ignatius College. This was a full afternoon workshop with games and hands on material to explain what stamps are - different kinds, and different countries, of stamps and how they illustrate the geography and history of the country

The 'Young Collector' was used at all venues for the puzzle to win prizes and to learn how to use a catalogue in answering the Quiz questions.

I take a stack of small catalogues and only lend them during the lesson, but when I have spare catalogues they can be won in competitions.