US Month @ The Ops

I am the Vice-President of the Ottawa Philatelic Society. The OPS is one of the largest (90+ members) and one of the oldest (Est. 1891) local stamp clubs in Canada. We meet weekly, 11 months of the year. we all take August off!

Each month of our programme we focus on a theme. December was Canada month, and our discussions centred around Canadian Philately. Next month (January 2009) the theme is United States. As Chairman of the United Study Group of the OPS, I will be leading the general discussion at the opening meeting for 2009. The rest of the Study Group will be hosting different events throughout the month.

Dick Logan, who has written articles for Canadian Stamp News, The Canadian Philatelist, and The American Philatelist, will be giving his excellent lecture on the 1893 Columbian Exposition Issue.

I hope to encourage more people to collect the United States. There are many facets of United States philately that is both interesting and affordable!

I shall keep everyone here posted on how our United States month is going.

David

I have been getting more interested in Canadian covers, especially from the Victorian era.
Are you a member of The Royal Philatelic Society of Canada? What is the The Canadian Philatelist magazine like?

t360:

I am not a member of the RPSC. I was for a year. A poorly run lot, they are.

The Canadian Philatelist is not bad, but it's not great. It's printed six times per year, and is sixty pages long. It has a lot of stuff in it (like chapter members, etc.) that could be put on the website. This drops the useable content to 50 pages. Then, about 1/3 of it is in French. That's useless to most of the world.

After a year... I told them to stuff it. I joined the APS. I have been a member since 2004 (I just sent in my dues for a 5th year). It is a far better organisation, nice people, a monthly, 100-page magazine ALL IN ENGLISH, and I find the articles interesting and enjoyable.

I get the odd copy of TCP (The Canadian Philatelist) at the club. the next one that crosses my desk I'll post to you to see for yourself.

I wouldn't recommend joining the Royal (as we call it here).

If you are really interested in Canadian philateliy... especially the postal history of the QV reign, I would consider joining the British North America Philatelic Society (www.bnaps.org), as you'd get A LOT more out of their publication, study groups and membership. BNAPS is to Canadian Philateliy what the USSS (the erstwhile BIA) is to American Philately... and the RPSC is a poor imitation of the APS.

My 2¢ (Canadian) worth, t360!

David

A lecture on the 1893 WCE would be very interesting to me. I already collect world fair admission tickets and thoroughly enjoyed the book "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson and is a fascinating read. It is about H.H. Holmes the 1st documented serial killer and the awesome task of building & running the Columbian Expo.

Tom

I have a few. I'll send you a couple so you can see for yourself.

Dianne

Thanks a lot! I'll look into the British North America Philatelic Society.