Those of us involved in organised philately wear many hats, whether for our local society, our collecting passion, perhaps in a special interest group.  For me it has been full on since the new year as your president and even more time consuming as jury chair of Royalpex 2025.  So, in this issue I would like to reflect on what exhibitions mean to us.  But first a shout-out to new members.

New Members

It is not often we can welcome new members but at our 20th February meeting of the NZPF our executive approved membership applications from Kerikeri Stamp Club and Howick Stamp Club.  We applaud your decision to join Federation and hope that you get support from being members and in turn collectors up and down the country support Howick and Kerikeri.  This brings the membership up to 40 clubs and societies.

Royalpex 2025

Held in early March in Palmerston North this exhibition had the usual mix of NZ Post stand, dealers, exhibits and most importantly people.  I have not been to a “proper” NZ national since Dunedin in 2018 (I missed WPS100 in Wellington), so for me it was great to catch up with philatelic friends and see where their exhibiting had taken them.

Organising committee chairman Paul McTaggart introduces the mayor of Palmerston North Grant Smith to open the show.

We had become used to almost annual exhibitions and then along came COVID and scuppered quite a few events and took the wind out of our sails.  It has been a struggle to get everything back on its feet and most of us would say that it will never be the same again.  However, in Palmy there were 525 frames of material to examine, including quite a few exhibits I had never seen before.  I said in my introduction to the feedback session for exhibitors that it felt like Postal History 2C had finally arrived with a number of really fine entries.  2C is the class for special and social studies and non-philatelic items are allowed. I guess that this gives the opportunity for more of a story to be told.

For me as a philatelic judge, as well as a collector, it was good to see the different treatments people had given to their chosen subjects.  This gives food for thought as to how I might develop my postal history.  The other class well represented was picture postcards both in one-frame and multi-frame format.

We were very fortunate to be well supported by our Australian friends who brought over 113 frames of material and with a large number of visitors present at the exhibition including a party from WA – that’s some distance to travel.

As someone said at the palmares, “where is the next National going to be held?”.  That remains to be seen, but we do need these exhibitions for the good of the hobby.  If a society out there is thinking of putting on an exhibition, then there is assistance that can be given in terms of expertise.  You don’t have to sail alone, combine forces with other interested parties.  Then there is the “half-national” concept, where perhaps two societies each put on a smaller show with a limited number of classes.

Go to https://nzpf.org.nz/royalpex-2025/royalpex-2025-awards-list/ to see the full list of results.

NZPF meeting at Royalpex

My thanks go to Anrew McNiven for providing some notes.

Jeff and I hosted a meeting at Royalpex where society members could ask us anything.  I started by asking “How can the NZPF assist clubs/ members?”  Some useful discussion ensued around such things as visitor speaker lists, reimbursement for speakers, using the Federation website more for clubs to store their newsletters etc. This last point was talked about with reference to whether the Federation needs to upgrade their website.  It’s not flash but it does contain a wealth of information.  As Andrew said, a website doesn’t need to be flash.

All of these points (and others) are well made, and we will talk about them at our next meeting in June.

Philatelic dates for 2025/6

  • 27 April 2025 Fair – 120 sales tables for collectable cards and picture postcards organised and hosted by NZ Cartophilic Soc at Indian Assoc hall, 48 King St., Kilbirnie
  • Saturday 10th May 2025 63rd annual  Stamps, Coins & Postcards EXPO and Convention, Palmerston North.  Organised by the Manawatu Philatelic Society https://nzpf.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/PN-Expo-2025.pdf
  • Wellington Regional Stamp Show 2025 to be held 5 July Knox Presbyterian Church, Main St, Lower Hutt. Includes Neville Harris and Patrick Brownsey Trophy interclub competitions with society and dealer stands.
  • 20/21 September 2025 Interclub Exhibition at King’s College, Auckland organised and hosted by Auckland PS go to https://aucklandphilatelic.odoo.com/
  • 4 October 2025 North Shore Exhibition, Auckland. Hosted by North Shore PS
  • 18 October 2025 “Collecting History” exhibition and fair. The Granary, Founders Park, Nelson. Hosted by Nelson PS
  • 18 October 2025 Ambury Shield organised by Waikato PS Fairfield Baptist Church Hall, 1101 Heaphy Terrace, Hamilton
  • 19th NZ National Philatelic Literature Exhibition organised by the Christchurch PS. Saturday 6th December at the CPS rooms, Mandeville St., Christchurch. Stamp Fair and literature exhibition on the same day.
  • The next National Philatelic Exhibition to be held in Australia will be hosted by Queensland and be staged at the Chandler Sports Centre, Brisbane in June or July 2026. Further details to follow.

Awards

It is that time of year again when we ask the clubs for their awards’ nominations.  There are four awards offered by Federation:

  • Award of Merit for either for outstanding work in the promotion, organisation, or administration of the hobby on a national or regional basis, OR outstanding research in philately.
  • Award of Honour for special philatelic work or special studies (higher level than for the Award of Merit)
  • Award of Philatelic Administration.  This award is decided on by the Federation Awards Committee.
  • Award for Service, for outstanding service wider than just at club level.

The Federation website www.nzpf.org.nz  has all the details under the”About us” banner, including forms for the Award of Merit, Award of Honour and Award for Service, and lists of past recipients.  All nominations should be sent to Jenny Banfield, who is convenor of the Awards Committee (normanb@xtra.co.nz).  Note that all the awards are for work beyond that just at club level, for which clubs may bestow such honours as Life Membership, etc.

Nominations are to be received by the end of June at the latest please.

Society Pages on NZPF website

Bob Gibson tries to keep all society listings up to date but can’t do that without your input please. Review your pages and keep Bob informed – bob@gibsonz.com Without having actual statistics to hand, these pages are the most often visited on the Federation website.

 

Comments and inclusions for future newsletters welcome please.

I wish all philatelists all the best for 2025.

David Loe, Nelson. President.