Boston Grand Prix Exhibit Judging Debacle

From Scott Trepel @ Siegel a few minutes ago:




When Competitions Have No Competition

In an unprecedented decision at a major competitive international stamp exhibition, Dr. Peter McCann, the FIP jury president and the National Class team leader, nominated only one exhibit for the Grand Prix National award at Boston 2026 World Expo ("Boston show"), the U.S. decennial international exhibition held this past May 23-30.

The effect of this single nomination was to make Vernon R. Morris, Jr. MD, the preordained Grand Prix National "winner" with his exhibit, Transition of American Mail from British Colonial to USPO: 1685 to 1799. To the best of my knowledge and others, this has never happened before.

Background

The Boston show and the awards were held under the auspices of the Fédération Internationale de Philatélie (FIP), an international organization headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland. The FIP president and the honorary FIP president at Boston 2026 is Dr. Prakob Chirakiti, who resides in Thailand.

The Grand Prix National class (GPN) is limited to subjects related to the exhibition host country; in this case, the United States. The Grand Prix International class (GPI) includes Large Gold exhibits of other subject areas. Finally, the Grand Prix d'Honneur class (GPH) is limited to exhibits that have earned three FIP Large Gold awards in three separate years.

Almost without exception, FIP competitions have multiple nominees for each of the three Grand Prix awards. At FIP Palmares awards events, the winners are chosen by jury members through a voting process. The ballots are ceremoniously counted on stage and the winner in each class is announced. It is the "Academy Awards" of philately.

What Happened in Boston

In Boston, there were four GPI nominations and three GPH nominations. The winners of the competition in these two classes were chosen from the nominees.

The decision to nominate only one exhibit for the GPN award broke with tradition and effectively excluded other worthy competitors.

There were three 97-point exhibits, including Dr. Morris's Transition of American Mail exhibit and his other exhibit of Blood's local post. The third exhibit to receive 97 points and a Large Gold was Gordon Eubanks's 1847 Issue, titled First Federally Issued Postage Stamps of the United States.

In addition, there were two contenders with 96 points: Handling American Domestic and International Mail 1860-1869: The Decade of Turmoil, Expansion and Resurgence, shown by Daniel M. Knowles MD, and A Country Divided: Effects of the American Civil War on the Mails, shown by Daniel J. Ryterband.

One would have expected to see four nominations with an equal number of exhibitor candidates. In normal circumstances, the eligible exhibitors—Eubanks, Knowles, Morris and Ryterband—would have been invited to the stage. The jury would vote by ballot, the ballots would be counted, and the winner would be announced.

Obviously, by taking the extraordinary step of nominating only one exhibit, the jury team headed by Dr. McCann eliminated any possibility that someone other than Dr. Morris could win.

As soon as the jury report was posted to the Boston show website on Wednesday evening (May 27), there were expressions of incredulity at the single GPN nomination. This decision was confirmed with jury members and organizers on Thursday (May 28), and requests for additional nominations were made and refused. The black-tie Palmares ceremony dinner was held on Friday (May 29), but some ticket holders decided not to attend. The GPN award was bestowed on Dr. Morris without the traditional (and by then pointless) vote counting process.

Response to the Single Nomination

In response to the single nomination, there were several angry exchanges between outraged Boston show attendees and official Boston show organizers and jury members. Dr. McCann was asked what occurred, and he responded by saying that all jury members decided there was no need for a contest because Dr. Morris's exhibit was clearly the best. Mark Banchik, president of the American Philatelic Society and a voting jury member, was asked how there could be just one nomination, and he responded by saying that a lot of work needs to be done to improve the relationship between the FIP and APS.

Since the show closed on May 30, more discussions have occurred behind the scenes. Jury members bound by confidentiality have avoided any public statements. While reports have been made that there will be changes in judging leadership, very little has been done to provide accountability for exactly what happened at the Boston show.

No one in a position to know has publicly stated which jury members made the decision to nominate only one exhibit/exhibitor for the Grand Prix National. Neither the FIP nor the APS has announced an investigation into what occurred. Officials who received a written letter from Gordon Eubanks, the other 97-point contender, have not responded to his simple request for an explanation.

Demand for Accountability

In all competitive events, process is everything. Participants and spectators expect that rules will be followed by everyone, including the jurors who decide who wins or loses. While arguments over the merits of the final vote always happen in any competitive event, the expectation is that there will at least be a vote to choose the winner.

When a small group or single individual changes the customary process to produce a specific outcome, there must be an explanation.

At Boston, the GPN competition among exhibits was eliminated through a single nomination. By Wednesday evening, only one person could win the coveted Grand Prix National. The hard work with a significant investment of time and money by all worthy exhibitors was disregarded.

Until we know why only one exhibit was nominated and who made that decision, there will be a cloud over the event and the outcome. That is unfair, not only to the competitors who deserved to be on stage for the final vote, but also to the winner, whose trophy no longer represents achievement, but instead symbolizes the whims and biases of one or a few individuals.

Everyone involved in the Boston show and in philately in general deserves better than that from Dr. McCann and the other FIP jury members. This is an opportunity for them to justify and take ownership of their decision. They should have the courage to answer questions rather than hide behind a veil of secrecy.

The APS is in a unique position to lead a thorough and transparent investigation. I encourage all of you receiving this email to contact Mark Banchik at the APS and demand answers. He and the entire board can be reached at https://stamps.org/about/contact/ap...of-directors

Regards,

Scott Trepel

Simple answer ---- Get rid of the FIP . They been a problem years ago and still a problem .

Years ago they tried to Extort every post office dept . in the world . They wanted each country to pay them a fee and get their mark of approval for that country could sell their approved stamps and no dealer can sell those stamps at ANY stamp show without paying up . .

Guess I will wait for the financial reports to see how many bedrooms and meals were given to them for coming to Boston .

If all the jury had agreed on a winner (…"if"), for optics sake and tradition, you'd think they'd still have followed the usual process…

Seriously, the above comments by Scott Trepel do warrant a response.

Yet in the June 9th APS Weekly Newsletter, continuing the recap of Boston 2026 they chose to highlight this story:



Of course the dealer selling from the red box was unnamed, nor was the home location for the collector noted. This is of course by design to make it look like what ever time, travel and expense the collector endured was all worth wild due to the red box (red less expensive stamps) find. Yet the selling dealer my have been offering that same red box stock at many local and regional US stamp shows.

If one wishes to pump up the benefits of an international, show that it was the international that put the collector and the stock together in a manner no other US show could.

Now I buried this observation, but this is not the first FIP International show blast put out by Scott for one of his elite clients who appeared to be slighted.

Edit to note: I would have posted in the Boston 2026 found here https://goscf.com/t/91380&whichpage=1 which seems to have been locked as the show was over.

Having seen at least two of the slighted exhibits in question, there is no doubt that some shenanigans went on in this case. There is zero reason to have left them out of the process, and the results will always have a cloud over them. (an asterisk, for those baseball fans old enough to understand).

I'm a little confused: what does the APS have to do with this? I'm assuming they can't do anything other than (maybe) some sort of Strongly Worded Letter?