This short newsletter follows the December 2025 AGM.

A Blast from the Past

I was recently given a big bag of stamps on paper from some adventure tour operator friends who have retired. They were waiting to give it to someone who cared and along I came! The stamps come from 30 years of office correspondence and literally from all corners of the globe including Antarctica, Greenland, Malta, Dutch Antilles and Iceland, to name but a few. Having sorted out the Iceland the next job was to soak them all off. When did you last do any quantity of soaking-off? But what a blast! I had to find my blotting paper, last used years ago. Then I found how back-breaking it was, leaning over the bathroom sink. No matter – what a pleasure! Looking at each stamp in turn, seeing where they are from and what the subject is that’s shown on the stamp. It is such a mainstay of the hobby, but I had almost forgotten how it’s done. This reflects how few stamps I receive in the mail that I want to keep.

Annual General Meeting 2025

Minutes have been separately circulated and have gone to society secretaries. The main points to report are:

  • The levy per society member remains at $3 for this year but there may be a modest rise next year.
  • The accounts were approved and these have now been lodged with the New Zealand Companies Office.
  • The new constitution was approved at the AGM and that too has been lodged and approved by the Companies Office.
  • The president and secretary (David Loe and Jeff Long respectively) were elected for a further 12 months though Jeff signalled his desire to step down.
  • In other business Bob Gibson repeated his request for society programmes to be forwarded to him so that he can upload to society pages and thus publicise meetings and events ([email protected]).

I thank those societies who participated in the AGM. Terribly dull stuff really for a Saturday morning before Christmas but it has to be done and the greater the participation, the more people care. 21 organisations were represented and all the delegates were present. A few could not attend due to technical issues on the day.

Philatelic dates for 2026

  • Central Philatelic Convention and Expo 18 April 2026 in Palmerston North including a One Page competition.
  • Nelson Philatelic Society Collecting History Expo at Founders Park, Nelson 18 April 2026 followed by a joint meeting with Marlborough Stamp Collectors Club on 19 April.
  • The next National Philatelic Exhibition to be held in Australia will be hosted by Queensland and be staged at the Chandler Sports Centre, Brisbane 13 – 16 August 2026. The website is https://qpc.org.au/Queensland2026/. The NZ commissioner is Ross Marshall [email protected] and the closing date for entries is 31 May 2026.
  • Having won the 2025 New Zealand Interclub One Frame Competition, the Airmail Society of NZ will be hosting the event in 2026. Venue and timing in Christchurch yet to be announced.
  • International events with New Zealand participation including contact details for the appointed commissioners can be found here: https://nzpf.org.nz/exhibitions/ Go to the page on the Federation website to connect to the relevant exhibition website and the commissioner name to connect directly to the commissioner. Sometimes entry deadlines get extended and the commissioner will be able to give you the latest information.

Australian Philatelic Federation Exhibit Medals

(from Denise Rosenfeldt)

APF medals engraved and awaiting insert

Insert being glued into APF medal

If you have not been on the jury at an Australian exhibition, you probably would not have seen the task given to the apprentices. They receive the medals engraved with names, the coloured inserts, super glue and a list of the awards. The colour insert for each medal needs to be found on the list and the correct colour glued into the pre-engraved medal. This gets trickier when one exhibitor enters many exhibits and receives different award levels for each. Here’s some photos of the apprentices at Sydney doing the task. I spy three New Zealander’s names in there.

 

Ed.- Here in New Zealand we do not have generic medals – the exhibition organisers order special medals minted for the occasion, although not normally colour-coded for medal level. Also, please wear gloves when handling epoxy glue!

All the very best to all of you in 2026.

David Loe, President