Need Help To Start A New Stamp Club In Central Oregon.

Hi All,
I need some help starting a new club. This is where I am so far. I have read a plethora of info on the APS site. And they were so kind to send me a sheet of all the members in my area. I have sample material for the bylaws, programs, applications, etc. Basically everything I can pull from the APS and the APS/CAC sites; except the next step.

Do I need to pick a date and time and place and send out invites?

Do I craft a letter of intent, asking for a collective of opinions from the 26 APS members in my area?

More than half are located in My neighboring city 15 minutes away.

which isn't out of the question. Bigger membership at the onset would be hugely beneficial.

great idea !--------most local collectors are not APS members .So try posting dates and time of meetings at the library ,food stores and just about any place that has a bulletin board. Have two or three people greet and talk to each visitor and make them feel welcome .Bring along some albums or binders that new people can look thru and maybe some magazines or newspapers for people to take home .Not everybody wants to talk so have something for them to look at ,if you don't they will walk in and ten minutes walk back out again .Tell your handful of regulars to listen to the new people and talk in general terms ,stay away from looking down or calling a new collector a beginner or their stamps have little value .

Have you had the opportunity to visit a club meeting at the Oregon Stamp Society here in Portland? We have members with the time and experience on how to help you set up your club. Furthermore, I believe you can place an ad in our club newsletter (free of charge) advertising your intent to start a new club.

Feel free to send me a PM and I can put you into contact with the right people.

Cheers!

Brian

Contact some of the periodicals (and larger dealers) and tell them what you are doing...ask if they have any copies (even back issues) that they would donate for such use. You might be surprised what they come up with.

It would be nice if you can organize a web site and email list right off the bat to stimulate membership/participation/encouragement/notification. Some giveaways and/or drawings will help get signatures. Once the club has some money, the giveaways can be a little less "duplicate based" and maybe be for some valuable items.

A good idea, good luck with it.

I've never lived in an area that had an active club. So, this would be a first for me.
What I'm gathering is that, "I" need to set the date and time of the First meeting.
Probably not near a holiday.
What would you all imagine would be the best day of the week and time for an event. Obviously, this would be an event and not a "real" meeting.

I kinda came up with my own idea of a Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/CentralOre...ctive?ref=hl
and a twitter pagehttps://twitter.com/CO_Stamps

There are no shops involved in stamps that I'm aware of in the are.

But I did read an article about placing meeting flyers in the post offices, and Libraries.

You might want to get in touch with the Northwest Federation of Stamp Clubs to see if they might be of assistance. Their website is http://www.nwfedstamps.org/.

I suspect you are starting a club in the Bend-Sisters-Redmond area?

I belong to the Eugene-Springfield club,and it is active and seems to work well.

http://www.greatereugenestampclub.org/index.htm

P.M. me, and I could give you more information about who to contact for advice.

Jim

Yeah, I am in Redmond and its pretty central for the area, in my opinion anyway. Great news letter!

The local club I am a member of started only aboout a year or so ago. The two people who decided to try to make it happen got a notice printed in the newspaper in an events calander and they reserved a room at the library for the exploratory meeting. This meeting was just to see if there was enough interest to start a club. There was. So then there was a need to find a permanent meeting place (library room was free only the first time) and to find people willing to serve as officers of the club.

Thats an awesome Idea. I will pick a place and Im thinkin about a friday at 6:30 for a time, that allows for dinner and drive time.
I like the term Exploratory.

Does anyone have a sample of an exploratory invite??

A random thought or two:

Don't pick a meeting night that interferes with church. And "never" Friday, when folks are getting ready to go somewhere on the weekend.

When you select a meeting place, think about the space you might need to hold an annual stamp show; it's more efficient to deal with the same landlord.

If there's a local coin club, contact their landlord and perhaps offer to use the space on alternate nights, i.e., they meet 1st and 3rd Tuesdays, you meet 2nd and 4th Tuesdays, that sort of arrangement.

The later time will be better. Bowie Stamp Club of Maryland meets each week at 7pm and it's well attended, 20-30. I've since moved and now my local club meets at 3:30pm on a Wednesday twice a month which doesn't allow anyone to attend if they have an average work schedule. They only have about 6-8 members on average per meeting. Such a schedule doesn't lend itself to newer, younger members.

There's another club fairly local to me, but it meets on Sunday early afternoon twice a month. One of those days per month is the same day as the local stamp brouse in the Albany, New York area. Talk about a conflict of interests. Just make sure your club doesn't conflict with other philatelic events. If it is a weekday you should be fine, but check your area. Places like Massachusetts have a monthly stamp brouse on a Tuesday so you never know till you check.

Re statement from Doug: Don't pick a meeting night that interferes with church. And "never" Friday, when folks are getting ready to go somewhere on the weekend.

I agree with this comment. The club in our town has met on Fridays for decades!! I could never go because I often worked then, and if not, I was preparing for the weekend. I can't imagine how many potential young members (people who actually DO things on Fridays and weekends) have been cut out because of this.

Agree. Somebody will be unable to attend on ANY given day or at ANY given time. Pick a day and time that will allow as many people as possible to attend.

Day of the week and the time would seem to be very dependent upon the size of the area you're hoping to draw from.

For instance, here in Los Angeles, where I'm part of a group that's trying to start up a local chapter of a national philatelic organization, we felt we had to pick a Sunday afternoon. Because traffic here is so bad, a weeknight would limit us to people who could get to our meetings easily, and would cut out a lot of other folks who might otherwise be interested. Saturdays were better, but still had limitations, including traffic. Early Sunday afternoons were what we settled on. We found that because this is a hobby effort, people were willing to meet then (and actually more available to meet than at any other time).

But in your area, you might well be able to do a weeknight. Congratulations on your initiative, and I wish you much success!

-- Dave

We have nothing stampwise for events here, so conflict there!

Im thinking of a saturday morning at 10am in late august at the library for a beginner. It could always change as the club decides.

On top of that! I thought to mention this is my 200th post. YAY!!