Greetings from an APS Board Member

[mbloom0947]

Hi everyone.  I'm Michael Bloom, and a new member of the APS Board of Directors.  I am the creator of the APS StambBuddy program, a member of the APS Membership Committee, and the APS Campaign for Philately.  Recently I participated in the industry-wide Summit on the Future of Philately.  

I am interested in building an online APS stamp collecting community and lead a workgroup on creating this community. One problem the APS faces is reaching the large number of stamp collectors who buy and sell on eBay, but who are not APS members. I hope to start a dialog here to discuss this effort.  In addition, if you have any questions about the APS, and want a direct answer from a Board member, I'd like to engage with you.

Sincerely,

Michael Bloom

APS Director-at-Large

[sheryll*net]

Hi Michael,

I must have missed this post in the lead-up to Christmas. Welcome to The Stamp Board.

We are having a meeting this coming weekend. Why don't you post a few questions as an APS sub-topic on the meeting thread once I start it, and people can respond. The meeting thread will be posted Tues, Wed or at latest Thurs.

Sheryll

[clmprop]

Sounds great! I have got about million questions. I'll begin w/ this one: Were you aghast at the c. 2500 loss in APS membership in May?

Craig
#171654

[mbloom0947]

Hi Sheryll,

At the moment I am at APS in Bellefonte at Summer Seminar.  I attended a great class on exhibiting taught by Steve Zwillinger.  When I return to Portland tomorrow night I'll check on postings.  I also need to catch up on my collaboration with a collector in Riga, Latvia on our jointly authored catalog of municipal revenues between the wars.

Michael

[mbloom0947]

Not agast, but disappointed that we are now below 30,000 members.  I've been on the APS Membership Committee for several years and have a close view on our recruiting strategies and their implementation.  We receive monthly reports from Judy Johnson, the APS membership director.  Most of our losses are due to death and disability.  In February we lost over 100 members in just one month. Today I met with Judy and discussed this.

Incidentally, I am the second most successful recruiter of new APS members, behind Donald Sundman of Mystic Stamps.

The greatest untapped potential for APS are folks who buy and sell on eBay, but are not APS members.  I ran a pilot program called eBay Pathway to APS Membership (EPAM), where we sold philatelic material owned by APS, on ebay, and recruited via letters inserted in the shipping envelopes.  Ultimately, the return on investment of resources vs. new members, was not sufficient.

We welcome suggestions for strategies that might be more successful.  I'll pass on the good ones to the APS Membership Committee and APS staff.

[clmprop]

I think the price tad of yearly membership is high ccompared to affliates. Some of my friends have dropped dues; I think they know not. One benchmark was Waterbury (CT) Stamp Club. I don't know that it is still active. We were losing membership in the early 2000. I have been investigating the George Coulson case and know one knows about his whereabouts. I suspect he has passed away. He was in his late 70s when I left the club in the early 2000s.

We had joke: "Will the last member please turn out the lights and lock door."

[malolo]

I agree that the dues are high. I don't know any society that has dues as high as APS. I get my American Philatelist online, so no hard cover. When I read it through there is not much of interest to me. Maybe the articles are too "topical". I read once that the APS magazine has to cater to a beginning-intermediate level collector, and let the specialized societies take care of specialization. I disagree with that because one can't belong to all the societies and learn common information on the technical level that might apply to one's own area of collecting.

I find th earticles are complete and have great illustrations, but don't leave me wanting to collect the topic discussed. So many of the articles are about topics that only require one to go to a stamp show an d buy individual stamps that illustrate a topic. 

If beginning and intermediate collectors don't see articles about postal history or the production of stamps, there is no basis for anyhting that is being produced today. Heck most of the stamped mail I get these days hasn't even been cancelled, and the stamps are well nigh impossible to remove from the envelope, so how could I collect modern used stamps? Only by manipulation of the system and creating philatelic oddities. 

I think membership should eb directed to local clubs and try to attract collectors ffrom that pool, but it's going to be difficult when many clubs have no dues, and many societies have dues of $20/year which includes up to 5 issues of a society journal in color!

[jaywild]

Hi Michael Bloom—

I saw your mention of this downthread...

“I ran a pilot program called eBay Pathway to APS Membership (EPAM), where we sold philatelic material owned by APS...”

What material was this? I know I have donated material to APS in the past to be used for study and reference.  I can’t think of how APS would otherwise acquire “philatelic material”.  If this was the source for the stuff sold on eBay, it seems an ethical line has been crossed here.

[clmprop]

Yeah, all points relevant, but the Society is doing some great things- The $5 Stamp ID (Hotchner should be answered here), and more attention paid to expertization. Two good points. Also, I think AP is getting better. No one is going to match the "Vermeil" type articles seen. I just accept it, smile and learn. No one is gonna match the Lawrence's of collecting. But then, I don't have his money. Or Bill Gross'.

I don't think $63  is a waste (I get the APRL journal as well; I'm a librarian for cryin' out loud.) 

And,  I've made friends w/ both Ken Baumann and Tara. These people are quite approachable. 

[mbloom0947]

All in-kind donations, such as stamps, are first reviewed by Richard Nakles at APS.  They are split into three groups.  Inexpensive common stamps go  directly to the Education Department where they are used to promote stamp collecting to children and adult beginners.  The best material is sent to Mercer Bristow, who runs the expertizing department.  Mercer checks the stamps against the APS stamp reference collection and mounts material needed for the collection.  I just watched him going through a new Italy collection.  The rest of the in-kind donations are sold through the Internet Sales Dep't to raise funds.  Some collections are kept intact in accordance with IRS rules.

The stamps I used were from the Internet Sales Department.  When stamps do not sell, owners often donate them to APS.  These are the stamps I listed on eBay for the ePAM pilot.

I do not see any ethical issues.

[mbloom0947]

The APS recently ran an indepth study on stamp collectors and the choices they make.  The survey results are listed on the APS website.  One question, concerning the level of dues, demonstrated that the current dues level does not have much effect on membership renewals. 

With a multi-million dollar budget, a staff of over thirty, a world-class philatelic center and library, APS dues should not be compared with stamp club dues.  Also, APS dues are in line with those of other national hobby associations with similar capabilities and services.

The APS is also funded through the Campaign for Philately, of which I am a member.  We received grants of $100,000 from World Stamp Show NY2016.  Our members are very generous and we benfit from cash donations, in-kind donations, and from bequests.  All of these help keep our dues low.

There are a number of value-added initiatives that are being implemented or piloted.  These include the APS Ambassadors Program, an iniative to upgrade our website, development of online on-demand classes, and an overall technology iniative.

[malolo]

Michael,

I look at Stampstore every once in a while and look at the Swiss Strubels, 1854-1862. The prices are all over the place and have no relation to quality and condition. Many are misidentified. I used to email corrections, but it became too tedious making all the corrections. And that didn't include questionable pricing. In all honesty there is no way I could recommend an intermediate collector of Switzerland buy those stamps from APS.

If the "no sale" stamps are being donated to APS with the collector/dealer taking a tax deduction for their own estimated value, I can see why some prices are exorbitant.

I personally believe there needs to be more oversight on the Stampstore and non-margin stamps removed for they will NEVER sell, especially at 40% Scott!

[billsey]

I have to agree with Roger here regarding the APS store. They rely entirely too much on the seller for ID and pricing. With each country I start I use the store to see if I can fill holes once I have my initial material mounted. With almost every country I've done this to I have found many of the offered stamps are mis-identified, forgeries or over priced. I have found a few stamps that were of enough interest to purchase, so it's not a total loss. I have usually reported forgeries and mis-identified, but after the first half dozen or so I stop going through the effort. The response to my reports has been completely satisfying though, they typically take the item down quickly with a polite note to that effect. Much better than eBay, for instance.

[jaywild]

If APS operates a certification service, there is no excuse for fake or misidentified items to appear in the APS store. If APS can’t police this business, it should get out of it.  Providing a venue for sellers to pass off bad merchandise makes APS complicit in any wrongdoing.

This is part of the reason I am no longer an APS member.

I have seen deplorable comments by APS officers in online forums where they defended certificates that were obviously mistaken. The first duty of an expertizer should be to the truth, not to one’s fellows at work.

If APS is to survive they need to change the culture at the top. With the information below about the APS online store, it doesn’t look like it is taking that approach. 

I also don’t believe there is any justification for yearly dues of $63, although this would never affect me, since I’m pretty much off APS for good. As a rule, older citizens don’t have much spare cash to splash around.  And I doubt that stiff price is going to recommend APS to any beginning collector.  A good hard internal look at how money is spent at APS would surely turn up ways to reduce costs and lower the dues.  Any chance of that happening?  I’ll let Mr. Bloom address that question.

By the way, my opinions are my own, and in no way would I mean to denigrate those who find APS a useful organization.  To each his own.