Forty Issues Under My Belt

As I put the November 2018 issue of the Vermont Philatelist (whole No. 251) in the mail, I realized that I am completing 10 years of editorship of the publication. I decided to see how the membership numbers have changed in the last 10 years. In February 2009, we mailed to about 150 members. All were paper versions and dues were $10.00 a year. Today (2018), we have just under 90 members of which 76 receive paper versions and 14 receive emailed pdfs. Dues are now $20 for paper version (probably still less than the total cost for the year) and $10 for pdf versions. I would estimate that the average age of our members is about 70 years, if not a little higher.

Probably not a good sign for the future of the organization. As a matter of fact, talking with a few knowledgeable dealers, it is now estimated that there are really no more than 5 collectors who actively collect Vermont or any of its counties.

The Vermont Philatelist is published in booklet form and always is 28 pages (7 sheets of paper) since adding even 1 more sheet increases the postage cost from 71c to 92c.

I guess I never did get the feeling that there were tons of collectors collecting individual states and counties in general - for a given state/county. Overall, yes, there were plenty, but for a given state and/or county - even 10 years ago, do you think there were significantly more than 5 for Vermont at a time? Really active?

I'm just wondering if there are still roughly the same number of serious collectors, and the drop is in the casual ones, or if there is an across the board drop.

Thanks for publishing the stats, and for your obvious hard work for the hobby over the years.

Congratulations on 10 years as editor .Sad to heard about the lack of new collectors but we are seeing that in many fields of philately.

Yes, congratulations on your energy over the past decade. Bravo.

I am paying nearly $40 for my Turkey dues, unaware of our membership, but appreciate the work that goes on behind the scenes for our gallant editors and staff.
Always a delight to receive the hardcopy on a discipline I enjoy.

Great Job. I am sure it has been appreciated by the members of the club

Congrats and Kudos for your hard work, dedication and devotion to philately.

Hal

The November 2018 issue of THE VERMONT PHILATELIST is now available. Paper copy $US 7.50 or digital copy $US 5.00. Paypal payment to gestus@westelcom.com