American Philatelic Society Names New Editor

I listened to an interview of Kent Miller by Nancy Miller on APS Stamp Talk on wsradio. Kent is what APS needs. It was good to hear an action oriented discussion rather than romanticizing about the hobby especially about how it has been (local stamp clubs, etc).

He made a comment about what I have seen is that many activities in APS seems to be based "hope" on increasing the members. Someone good at marketing knows that one should have an expectation of the results of various marketing activities. He is very aware of this. With supposedly so many business people on the current and previous boards, the concept of we do "x" and it generates "y" seems to be missing from any discussion.

I have a minor nit with one comment he made about APS less as a product compared to what it does. It is a product that needs to be marketed as for selling (getting members). He probably did not mean it as black and white but many still try to use the rationale to join for the good of the hobby. Offer something they want and they will join is the easy sell. Please support the hobby is not going to work for as many as it once did.

I also hope he can tap the technical expertise of APS members to achieve the goals beyond the usual volunteer roles (mainly manual labor).