French Polynesia - Philatelic Hospitality

Miss Tahiti Beauty Pageant - While stamp hobby is declining at an alarming rate, efforts are been make to keep the stamp hobby alive here. Miss Tahiti, Vaimalama Chaves had volunteered with the Philatelic Center of French Polynesia for many years promoting stamp hobby. She worked tirelessly working at many stamp shows & attending various of Philatelic meetings. Her father works at the postal office and has spend his entire postal career at the same branch. She can be seen often at the postal office visiting her father. In 2019, a stamp was issued honoring Vaimalama Chaves. She indicated in her biography that it was her father who got her involved in collecting stamps. She collected stamps during her childhood and fell in love with the hobby ever since.
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Photo: Vaimalama Chaves in stamp & calendar. Philatelic calendar is one of her favorite project in which she meets with local Philatelists.

Everyone is entitled to their opinions here, including yours above.

But please consider if saying these kinds of things is helpful to our hobby, especially given that there currently is no way to really measure the actual health of our hobby that includes online activity.

For example, this community averages 3-5 new members every day, 365 days a year. My own personal website, StampSmarter, has grown to 2 million pages views per year in only 9 years. These are not observations which indicate 'an alarming decline'.

Let's move on to discussing the very nice philatelic issues from French Polynesia.
Don

Photos: Miss Tahiti Vaimalama Chaves in a post card & complete set of 2018 stamps. Very popular items with collectors because it's easy to organized & it's great for albums.

Miss Tahiti Beauty Pageant - 1973 Miss Tahiti Edna Tepava was one of most important figure in Polynesian philatelic history. During 1973, massive postal reforms were sweeping across the islands. New policies were implemented with newly appointed officers. Almost every philatelic organizations & institutions were effected. Edna Tepava has been involved with philatelic activities since childhood & has network with various of local chapters. Later, she became an Honorary Chairwoman for the Philatelic Center of French Polynesia. During the postal reform, she worked as a mediator to solved various of issues between National Postal & Polynesian Philatelic Society. During 1973, she coordinated dozens of stamp shows despite her busy schedule as Miss Tahiti. As a result of her contribution, stamp hobby expands as membership increased in Polynesian Philatelic Society. This would later lead to the creation of central committee within La Poste.

Photo: (left) Miss Tahiti Edna Tepava with Miss France behind the stage in 1973.

Beauty pageants and stamps on one thread...never thought I'd see the day! (Not a complaint, to be clear.)

Miss Tahiti Beauty Pageant - This organization has build an intimate relationship with Philatelists in French Polynesia. The organization publishes philatelic newsletter informing everyone about various of stamps & FDC. Moreover, schedule of Miss Tahiti is included so the public would know which philatelic activities Miss Tahiti will be involved. The newsletter is written in French & English. The free newsletter publishes every month & given out to Philatelists throughout the islands. The time & effort Miss Tahiti Beauty Pageant spend with this monthly project is very appreciated. We can feel their labor of love for the stamp hobby.

Photos: Here is a Miss Tahiti Philatelic Newsletter. The newsletters are mail out in traditional method by putting a stamp on the newsletter & hand given to postal office so the Mailman can deliver them. Some people call it snail mail?

Is this a thread about philately or about beauty pageants?

Miss Tahiti Beauty Pageant - 2017 Miss Tahiti Hina Natua is a life time member of the Polynesian Philatelic Society. Another beauty pageant who has dedicated to stamp hobby. She used her celebrity power to promote philatelic events through television & radio. In summer of, 2017, the Polynesian Post Office announced they will issue a stamp in collaboration with Brazil. Hina Natua was chosen to model for this stamp after receiving strong endorsement from the public. On October 24, 2017, the stamp was released. This stamp became quite popular with Philatelists. Stamp sheet & FDC were also popular with collectors.
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Photos: Miss Tahiti Hina Natua on the stamp. This stamp featured the 2017 International Philatelic Fair in Brazil. We were very lucky that one of our club members took these photos during Hina's philatelic photo session.

Miss Tahiti Beauty Pageant - 1988 Miss Tahiti Teumere Pater (1967-1993). One of the most famous Polynesian Philatelist. She got involved in Philately at an early age. While in college, she entered Miss Tahiti Beauty Pageant & won. She often volunteered at philatelic expos despite her busy schedule. She spend countless hours visiting schools & shopping centers promoting the hobby. During her reign as Miss Tahiti, she advocate for a Philatelic holiday which surprises everyone. She spoke with many government officials & push hard for the holiday. Several schools have Philately as an elective course in which she advocate tirelessly.

After her reign as Miss Tahiti, she returned to her home town & work at OPT (Office de Postal Tele). In 1993, she drove her car to visit a friend who's working at post office. Sadly, she was was killed in car accident. The news shock the entire island nation. The flags were lower to half staff as the population mourn. It was a huge loss especially to Philatelists. Ever since her death, every Miss Tahiti have followed her foot step & got involved with philatelic community. A legacy Teumere Pater left behind.

Photos: A gravesite of late Miss Tahiti, Teumere Pater. Every year, Polynesian Philatelists make their pilgrimage to her grave site. In 2019, the postal office issued a stamp in her honor. Today, many see her as a national hero.

I don't know if this is the best place to put this but... I'm a serious collector of French Polynesia and Tahiti stamps. I need about 20 of the later issues starting with Scott # 857 and later. But ebay and Hipstamp are not much help. *** Edited by Staff - Please review the rules that you agreed to when you registered. ***

Remember that hardly anyone outside the US uses Scott catalogues, unless they collect US stamps. Perhaps you could specify which stamps you're interested in (bearing in mind the delay on contacts with other forum members until you have fifty quality posts).

Something I find interesting about this thread is that the French Polynesian post office is attracting new collectors with only new and recent issues at their disposal. It makes one think that to attract new collectors, especially younger ones, new issues and topical material may be more effective than teaching about more classic material.

Many of the stamp dealers who remained in business and relevant over many years started out at new issue sellers back in the 1920's - 1950's. My guess is that once established, these early players worked with a source of funds or credit to find collections in order to build stock beyond new issues. A few companies that come to mind are Bombay Philatelic, Herricks, and Downtown Stamp Co., though I am sure there are/were many others.

Are there a few lessons here about attracting, new, young collectors to the hobby? Perhaps the French Polynesia PO folks understand something that we Americans do not. To the OP- would you mind discussing more about how you reached out to the public to find people interested in stamps?

OP no longer a member.

I didn't realize that. I guess I must have missed something.

People approach stamp collecting in different ways. I have never heard about a beauty pageant contestant talk about stamp collecting....just world peace . I see this as no different than posting a thread on any celebrity except this had a philatelic connection. Now the poster seems to be gone. Tough audience.