New APS Member Survey

Received the following today:

The APS needs your help.

For more than 136 years, the APS has proudly served the needs of the hobby and collectors. In recent years, the hobby has changed due to changing attitudes, technology changes, and the global pandemic. We are committed to delivering value to our loyal membership while working to bring more active collectors into the fold.

In the months ahead, we will be soliciting your opinion on a range of topics to better evaluate what we're getting right and where we can do better. This survey is the first in the series and your responses will help us develop future surveys to better serve the hobby.

This survey is designed to get specific feedback from three different audiences: members, former members, and those who have never belonged to the APS. This survey should not take more than 15 minutes to complete, but your opinion is important. We will make the results of the survey available in the future and asking for your opinion on a number of topics.

Thank you for your time, feedback and all you do for the hobby.

I took the survey which said it had 50 questions. It cut off at 25.

Odd: the survey did not ask about the value of APS membership as a means of obtaining stamp collection insurance from Hugh Wood, or did I just miss the question when I did the survey?

Uboat - I did not see any such question. The questions stopped after the topic of the ASDA/APS potential merger. I thought that the Hip topic would be in there as well.

I took the survey and it stopped after the few questions about the ASDA merger possibility. Maybe the additional questions (50 versus 25) only come up if you answer in the positive when asked about the individual services of APS that you use. When I said "yes", additional questions come up, but when I said "no" to certain services, the survey skipped ahead to the next general question.

I was also surprised about (1) no mention of Hip and (2) Hugh Wood being missing since that is a service I have used for years - is it actually dependent on APS membership or can you get it directly?

BTW, my survey comment on the ASDA was to let them die - they are of no use in terms of protecting collectors.

It took me 7 minutes. Isn't sharing your opinion and views worth that snippet of time?

Certainly worth the expenditure of time. I actually wish it was longer, covered more topics such as the ones mentioned above, and offered more opportunities for expanded comments.

I sent an email to the President of the APS saying I was against a merger with a dealer organization. I am sure it is a fine group of people, but the APS is for stamp collectors/philatelists---it is not an arm of dealers. Why do they want this merger?

If anyone wants additional info on a fairly complex issue, see this thread from another forum.
https://forums.delphiforums.com/sta...?msg=56880.1

It is many, many pages long but if you read through them all you will have a better idea of the pros and cons. There is a LOT of 'water under the bridge' (aka political) at play here. Some might say 'don't look in the rearview mirror' while others would say that 'history matters'.
Don

YbT, they want this merger -- at least this is one of the alleged reasons -- to have more ability to influence ethical standards among dealers. I am sure those making this argument would say that it is "for stamp collectors/philatelists," i.e., to their benefit that dealers can be trusted. ASDA has a sordid history in that regard, and APS has a record of holding its members to a high standard.

This isn't the only argument, pro or con, for the merger, but I that within the APS leadership there is little support for it if it doesn't appear likely to generate a positive result for the hobby.

BLCJR, that is a pretty lame reason IMHO:-) Kinda like having the fox and chicken get together so that the fox can be watched close up by the chicken. Oh my bad things detectors are firing off 100%. I must do some more reading on this, and will look at delphi forum.

My survey ended after about 8 questions...hmmm....

I took it, I have no idea how many questions there were, but I suspect, as others have said, that it's dependent on how you answer. Frankly, the whole ASDA thing, I don't think they've even defined what good it's supposed to do over just letting the ASDA die a well-deserved death and letting all of the dealers join APS under the existing rules. What's the point?

In addition to the merger questions, I had a few questions about the APRL and my perceived value of the two organizations' magazines.

Same here. Frankly, I don't see a lot of value in the APRL as it's set up now. Just digitize anything that you're legally able to do, put it up for any and all members to access and call it a day. The number of times I've actually used the APRL has been minimal. If I've been doing research, I've looked at the hassle of getting books sent to me and invariably done something else. This is 2022, not 1985.

A fully digitized APRL, at least to the greatest extent possible, would be worth twice the standard membership dues to me. As it stands now, I am not renewing. My POV is that the APS should have as its core mission education and being THE resource for philatelists to access all resources philatelic related. Being able to do research of the APRL from my computer would be a godsend. Currently I have to pull together material that is scattered far and wide and often incomplete or broken. Also have to say that many of the members of this forum are also beyond helpful and the forum is free unless you choose to donate which I highly recommend doing if you can swing it.