Greetings From Wisconsin

Hello Everyone,

I just stumbled across this site today and was very impressed with all the information.

I collected stamps as a child and then quit when I went to college. Last year, my five year old son discovered my old album. We joined our local stamp club hoping to meet kids his age, but found out that most members were at least 50 years older than he. Although it is a great group of people, I thought he would enjoy the hobby more if there were more kid-oriented activities. This led me to start a junior stamp club which now has 7 members. Both of my sons are now collecting United States and topicals and spend quite a bit of time each day on their hobby. I have been so busy helping them and preparing things for the stamp club meetings that I haven't really decided on what I want to collect! I am leaning towards clipper ships and fairy tale stamps. There are so many beautiful stamps out there it is hard to decide!

Anyway, I look forward to reading more posts on here. Any advice on running a stamp club would be much appreciated. Maybe, with more searching, I can find posts about this. I also taught a boy scout stamp collecting merit badge workshop a few months ago and would love to hear other's experience with this.

Happy Easter!
Aimee

Welcome Aimee!
You will find previous threads on stamping in the Scouts if you try the search function.
We've also had quite a bit of discussion about getting youngsters into collecting, many of us are Mums, Dads and Grandparents of kids who are showing an interest in stamps.
I am sure when you meet the forum requirements (14days/50posts) many of us will be happy to offer some stamps for the club.
Well done, by the way, for taking the initiative and starting one! I for one would like to hear more about it.

edit P.S. - always nice to have more gals around here

Stampgal,

Thank you for the nice welcome! Our junior stamp club has been doing pretty well. We are 6 boys (two of which are mine!) and we just got our first girl member last month. As a former teacher, it has been a lot of fun planning lessons each month. It has been a littl tough, though, trying to make everything work for such a large age span (5 - 11 years old). I'm definitely learning as I go!

Hi Aimee.

Welcome to the group. I am really happy to see you have new young collectors. It would be sad to see the hobby die out to video games and such.

And happily, I'm only 40 years or so older . The amount of knowledge here is simply amazing.

Dave.

Aimee. Many of us are also in the "mature" age bracket, but you will find that is only chronologically. Many of us still have the child like enthusiasm for stamp, of all kinds. You will find a myriad of information, stamps, scans and (giveaways and auctions once you have 50 posts). But mostly you are going to find people here that care. Join the fun, and tell the kids to collect whatever they like, but collect.- Jeff

Welcome spanishmoss....it's a great endeavour you have embarked upon.
Good luck and keep up the good work.
If we can be of help, just ask.

Don't be a stranger, come and post often.

Londonbus1

Welcome.

If you haven't checked out the website yet, you might take a look at the homepage for the Wisconsin Federation of Stamp Clubs. There might be another club close enough to you that is worth a short drive every once in a while. That being said, I'm usually the youngest member at our club's meetings, and that has also been the case more often than not when I've visited other clubs around the state, so you probably can't expect lots of young faces anywhere.

Local shows and bourses are also listed, in case anyone is thinking of a stamp-related excursion.

C.

Thank you all for the warm welcomes. I hope I didn't offend anyone by commenting on the "mature" age of the members of the local stamp club. I am no spring chicken, myself! I was just hoping that some of the members were elementary kids so my sons could meet some people their own age, particularly because they are at home with me all day and don't attend a regular school.

Cjd- Thanks for suggesting the Wisconsin Federation of Stamp Club sites. I use it frequently! We have been to several stamp shows in our area and I am actually considering joining another stamp club that isn't too far away. It's always nice to meet more philatelists!

Aimee, Welcome to SCF. Glad to hear that you have so many young people interested in collecting. Great job!

Welcome spanishmoss

Glad you could join us. I think it's wonderful that your introducing young children to the hobby.

Dianne

Thank you all for the great welcome!

spanish
I collect tall ships if I can be of any help.

Now THAT is a very pretty stamp

Dave.

timbres,

That is a BEAUTIFUL stamp! Thank you so much for your offer to help. I will definitely take you up on it one of these days!

Hello spanishmoss, welcome.
Reminds me of the Spanish Moss song by Gordon Lightfoot, good memories.

Hi Puzzler,

Thank you for the welcome. I haven't heard that song. I'll have to look it up! Spanish moss always reminds me of Mississippi where I was born and raised.