Council Of Philatelic Organizations - Stamp Collecting Month

Here's a USPS Souvenir Card for the first National Stamp Collecting Month in October 1981:



It states that the event was established "in cooperation with the Council of Philatelic Organizations."

Does anyone know about the current status of the organization "Council of Philatelic Organizations" and whether or not it still exists? I assume it no longer does, as I found one reference from 2001 to the "ill-fated" Council of Philatelic Organizations" (COPO). However, it seems to have been a non-profit organization that was in operation through the 1990's and perhaps when they disbanded, the USPS dropped the National Stamp Collecting Month promotion?

I can find little else about the organization and why it seems to have dropped out of sight. Does anyone know the story behind it?

Regardless of whether or not the COPO still exists, stamp collecting certainly does. Yet the only thing I have seen in October 2011 about National Stamp Collecting Month is a single pictorial cancellation being offered by the USPS in Steamboat Rock, Iowa. Otherwise, the promotion would seem to have died out.

Too bad, too, as it seems to me the US Postal Service would have been able to easily continue promoting the annual event with little cost and effort through mediums such as Beyond the Perf, USA Philatelic and the social media promotion currently in progress about recommending a living individual to appear on a future US postage stamp.

The name sounds familiar.

Here is your Australian counterpart

Australian Stamp Promotion Council

It was still alive in the 1990's

It seems a branch of the USPS