Would You Pay To Support Promotion Of Stamp Collecting?

I don't know if I'd do an annual thing, but a one-time donation might be something I'd do, depending on what kind of plans there are.

I already pay annual dues to APS and BNAPS, the two largest stamp organizations in their respective nations.

I believe that both have "promoting the hobby" in their mission statements.

Kirk

I would have to agree with KirkS. The APS, www.stamps.org does attempt to promote the hobby. http://stamps.org/Our-Mission

http://stamps.org/Promote-Stamp-Collecting

The organization has a presence on social media http://stamps.org/Social-Media

and it does have "outreach" activities for kids and teachers:
http://stamps.org/Young-Philatelists

http://stamps.org/Stamps-in-the-Classroom

Certainly you can argue about the effectiveness of their programs. I'm sure there is plenty of room for improvement but I don't see a need to reinvent the wheel with a new organization.

Dan

Agree with Kirk and Dan. I am also an APS member and the APS has discussed the waining interest in the hobby among the youth and how to attract young people to the hobby for a while now. It is a hard nut to crack considering the competition of video games, IM, and other forms of 'instant gratification.'

I'm glad to hear that APS has already recognized this challenge and is active with some attempts to address it.
I recently joined APS but have yet to get familiar with the organization.

I would not pay as I think that stamp collecting attracts people who like to categorize and analyze. Not everyone has that personality trait, but for those who do, it is a matter of exposing them to the hobby. It is better to demonstrate the hobby to potential candidates than to throw money at it.

I don't think Dan is suggesting we throw money at the problem. One only has too look at the US gov't over the past several decades to understand that throwing money at problems doesn't solve anything and only generates greed for more money.

I suspect what Dan is thinking is to find (and potentially fund) ways to expose the hobby to wider audiences via readily available technologies and media that younger potential collectors use, and to improve our collective knowledge of stamps.

There are a few very successful blogs, websites, etc. But, I also like the idea of streaming or recording videos of 'expert' presentations from shows around the country/world. Unfortunately, the most successful/popular media presentations (blogs, youtube, etc.) require consistency to be effective.

(Dan, I apologize if I offended you by presuming your intent.)

I already pay member fees to stamp collecting organizations including APS which, as stated above, has promoting stamp collecting as one of its goals. I won't pay another, separate fee as I believe that financial resources concentrated in our national societies is the best direction.

If we bring more peoples, that will bring more demands and the prices will increase, I'm a buyer not a seller, so NO.

Dan, welcome to APS. I am the vice-chair of the APS membership committee and the Society is actively looking at ways to attract new members and to retain existing members.

APS has recently started offering some webinar and online presentations, and I expect that will be a future growth area. I like the idea of being able to record (or livestream) presentations from stamp shows. It presents some practical hurdles but it could be done, particularly if there was a funding source for it!

I seriously hope this was said in jest.

I was serious, US stamps are way to high in price, too many peoples collect them. I don't collect stamps to make money.

Didn't almost all of us start collecting as kids? How do we get more parents to give stamps and albums to kids? And how do we support each elementary, middle, and high school to have a stamp club with a teacher and parents educating young collectors?

Yikes.