I Was Minding My Own Business At Stamp Club, Last Night ...

It seems most people started collecting stamps as a kid usually by a father or uncle that also collected. Then when they hit there teen years seem to give it a pass, teen years are a busy time with school sports and the opposite sex. Who got time to collect. Then its starting a job or collage then marriage with a kid on the way. Next thing you know you haven't got anytime to do anything but make a paycheck feed the family and pay a mortgage. Any little cash left it being pumped into collage funds for the kid or medical expense. Then you hit 40 or fifty and the kids are moved out finances are good mortgage paid off and loads of free time on your hands. Now you able to do the thing you would like to do. I think this is the time most of us got back into this hobby.
I would say this is the time a lot of people join clubs. I tend to believe this is the way it always has been, sure there will and was always some younger folk in the clubs but at a whole manly retired or semi retired people the ones that have the time and money to collect. Sure you don't need much money to spend on your collection but tell the truth its a lot more fun if you got some cash to blow on stamps. When you were younger what came first baby food or penny black, new stamp album or new shoes for the kids, Stamp collecting often begins with a kid getting some dupes from a grow in up and a album for Xmas then they have some friend in school in the same boat. But then they grow up and put there childhood activities aside. Stamp collecting is like riding a bike once you know how to ride you always will same with collecting.
A lot of us here on this site collected as a kid and got back into it at a later age.
When we sign and register for this site we put our date of birth down, it would be interesting if one of the moderators could tally up the average age of all the members here I would be surprise if it was under 45. The age of the active collector would be interesting as this is a Internet forum and we all know the young folk are Internet people.
As for getting young people involved in a stamp club you got a tough one.

Things to revitalize your clubs:

First of all, focus on "Online" collectors all over the world!

1) Weekly (or bi-monthly) meeting to discuss certain issue(s) noticed or acquired.

2) Monthly magazine (perhaps online as well?)

3) Try to attract other collectors through "Internet" to subscribe to your club. I used to be an active "Online" member in ESC (Egypt Study Circle). The society is located in UK:

http://www.egyptstudycircle.org.uk/

4) Try to create and organize a library (perhaps offline & online as well?)

5) Monthly "quiz" for a set of stamps as a prize (not necessarily to be valuable ones. Used group(s) will do the job to attract ppl, especially, youth.

6) perhaps providing Membership IDs & other facilities when joining the club for a small "annual" fee.

7) publicizing your "Club" activities all over your city (newspaper ads, brochures ...etc)


Hope one of the aforementioned points helps!


Cheers

Irishjack, I completely agree with your statement and everything else you wrote about most people losing interest in the hobby during their early married lives.

The key to this whole thing, to me, is too hook children when they are young, with the understanding that you will probably lose them for about 20 years. BUT, then you will get them back when they retire.

If the stamp collecting "bug" isn't planted early, though, the likelyhood of getting someone interested when they retire is pretty slim.

That is the point I keep trying to get across to our local stamp club. If we want to still be around in the future, we need to be recruiting kids.

This is why I think youth philately is SOOO very important.

What about a "bring a friend" night? It gives the opportunity to let existing members do some recruiting, whether amongst their frends or family. Maybe bring a grandchild, or a friend who's always shown an interest in their collection. Make it a fun, sociable evening with lots of beginner's freebies and resources.

At 32, I am one of two under 40 that I know of in my stamp club. When I got back into collecting, I spent time on the internet researching, buying, reading and joining discussion etc. But after about 6 months, I decided it was time to test out a stamp club. In the Stavanger-region there are several stamp clubs; Stavanger, Sandnes, Hafrsfjord, even Bryne and Egersund if we spread it out a bit south. There are a few just north of me as well, but a fjord makes those a bit more tricky to attend.

I chose the one in Stavanger. The reason was that when I was a kid, a senior collector held a stamp club for the local kids collecting stamps, and he even took us to a meeting at the stamp club he attended. I remember there was an auction, with a lot of cheap items that we (the kids) could bid without interference from the club members. That and a good time with my friends ensured I walked away from the club with good memories about it.

So it was natural to look it up again. I got a warm reception, with an older collector immediately making me welcome. He even collected postal history from the area I live in.

So the conclusion would be, get them while they're young. As stated above, all the information and ability to buy stamps is online these days, and if that senior collector hadn't had that stamp club and taken us to his stamp club, I would most likely not have joined the club later on. Which would be a real shame, the experience of meeting others with the same interests face-to-face is something I wouldn't want to be without.

At 52 I'm still on the young part of the three philathelic societies which I belong.
One is the Cercle Filatèlic I Numismàtic de Barcelona, the oldest philatelic club in Catalonia (dating from 1924), located in our city and just a 20 min bicicle ride from home. Ours, is a big (2 milion people) but quite compact town. The club has known better times, it has around 200 members and a good library. We share society and premises with numismatics, but, a few old people attend to the twice weekly meeting.I go, may be, twice a month.
The other one is the Cercle Català de Col·leccionisme, in a neighbouring smaller town, a 30 min train ride. The lively meetings are held on wednesdays and about ten people attend. I ussualy go.
The third one, the Cercle Filatèlic de Ripoll, quite far away (for our standars)90 km of a good road. I go there at least twice a year, although I'm in Ripoll for business nearly every week.
At present, I don't hold any office in any society, but I belong to the board of the Catalonia's Federation of Philatelic Clubs, being involved in event organization and jury activities.
The percentage on people under 40 is negligible in any club.

I was a member of a local Stamp club back in the early and mid '70's. The club folded during the recession. I was the youngest member being that I was in in my early teens. My Father was also a member. I fondly remember the older members giving me gifts and taking a few from my trading books. I'm sure they didn't need most of them, if any at all! I still see one of the former members at shows. After he retired he became a dealer and can be found at most larger shows in the eastern US. We still speak of the former members etc. The closest club to me now is 45min. to an hour away. With work, children, eldery parents.... at the end of the day I just don't have the energy to get there. I wish their was a closer one!

Brian,

I've never had good experiences with local stamp clubs. As stated before, the median age is 70, usually five or six "regulars" show up and the things they have for sale or trade is generally the same and over-valued.
It was nice to look at their collections. Some were spectacular. But what do expect when you picked up your Washington/Franklin stamps directly from the Post Office when they first came out?

Now a couple of suggestions I haven't seen posted yet:

Publicity is important. You might want to try posting in http://www.meetup.com/ I have seen that work well for other types of groups.

Try different meeting places. Stay away from libraries and church basements. Maybe a room at the local community college, a bookstore or coffee shop? (Yes, I know beverages and stamps don't go well together but that's where younger people hang out)

Good luck with your efforts!

Dan

all I have to say on the subject is that, it is hard to have a club pizza party over the internet

Stampvirgin,

We can at least have a popcorn party.

Aimee! I love it.
Will that be butter or Becel?

My whole screen is doing the popcorn dance and I am in rhythm with the smiley guy.

I had to look that one up! I have never heard of Becel before.

In answer to your question, I will take it any way I can get it.
I am addicted to popcorn.
If I didn't have a family to feed, I would fix it every night for supper.

As a 31 year old, I would LEAP at the chance to join a local club, but we don't have enough people in the area to keep McDonald's open, let alone something like a stamp club. I live in the largest town for 200 miles in my state--- at 5,000 people.

I get nearly all my hobbyist interaction online, and I crave having the person-to-person interaction--- even to the point I've thought of starting a We Collect Club, open to anyone with a serious collection of any kind.

Attracting younger people-- you have to make it relevant. Put together displays that tell a story-- everyone loves a good story. That will draw interest, and maybe build something. Emphasize that element in your flyers, brochures, whatever, that a club is where you can hear amazing stories told through these fragile bits of history.

PS,
I'm a museum director too, so bringing people in is also something I do.

I joined our local stamp club 21/2 years ago. It's the best thing I've ever done.

I agree that most members tend to be a little more seasoned than I, but we are slowly gaining younger members.
We meet twice monthly, once a month we receive circuits from the Royal Philatelic in Ottawa. I always find things in there that I probably wouldn't otherwise get. The other weeks we alternate between Auctions and Show and tell. Both are very entertaining. I am know as the auction queen and always buy way more than I need.

We have 2 stamp shows yearly, one in the spring and one in the fall where we have some of our members show some exhibits that are amazing. I'll try to remember to take pictures next time so I can share with you guys.

I find that the thing about having older collectors is that they are very knowledgeable and are eager to share their knowledge with us.

That's my 2 cents worth

Dianne