Report on FIAP meeting in Macau on March 7-8

by Vincent Ong / Photos by Ms Carol Cheung

Almost 80 participants from Asia & Australia-NZ converged on the lovely city of Macau on March 7-8 to attend the FIAP meeting which was held at the Communications Museum.

Mr.Chew, Assistant Director of Macau Post welcomed the guests and also received a small token of appreciation from Surajit Gongvatana , President of FIAP on the 7^th March.

The meeting continued with a series of seminars. Howard Green shared with us his interesting thoughts on Stamp Collecting; “The hobby of kings and the King of Hobbies”. (Though Kings and Maharajas have now become a historical object).  The last three kings of England were keen collectors as also the present Queen.  In the United States, former President Franklin Roosevelt was a stalwart in philately and ex-president Ford was a secret stamp collector.  Over the years, Kings, Queens, Politicians, poor, rich, business persons, accountants, film stars, scientists and many others in different field have pursued this hobby with keen interest.  In short children, young, old and everyone is involved in this hobby irrespective of their age or positions.

Howard mentioned that Stamp collection gives not only enjoyment but also it increases our knowledge.  One may get enjoyment by looking at the stamps but will not become knowledgeable by looking at it.  For this, one has to search for knowledge in the past and present literatures of philately.

In the second seminar, Norman Banfield have an introduction of the various disciplines of FIP as follows:

Competitive FIP Classes

Traditional: different aspects of a stamp issue including details such as day of issue, designers, printers, perforations, papers, etc.

Postal history and marcophilia (postmark): the usage of stamps identifying rates, routes, etc and the postmarks applied as proof of mailing.

Aerophilately (air mail): material relating to the passage of mail by air.

Astrophilately: material relating to space travel including material flown by rockets, etc.

Postal stationery: material with an officially authorised postal imprint.

Revenues: stamps used to pay tax.

Thematic: philatelic material displayed according to a subject or topic.

Maximaphily: postcards with the stamp and postal cancellation on the picture side.

Literature: publications including monographs and books, catalogues and society newsletters dealing with any aspect of philately. 

Gary Brown wrapped up the first day of seminar by giving an talk entitled

“  Introduction of Traditional Philately”. Gary mentioned that Traditional Philately has also changed and is still changing today. Because there are so many countries issuing large numbers of stamps, no longer can you collect, let alone exhibit the stamps of the whole world. At exhibitions you will see many wonderful exhibits of the classic 19^th century stamps, but every year we see more and more people exhibiting  beautiful modern stamps. The new Traditional Philately class will now be divided into three sections: 

      The Classic Period Nineteenth Century.

      The Middle Period From 1900  to World War II

      The Modern Period After World War II

Thank you Howard, Norman, Gary for sharing with the participants. The participants were treated to a tour of Macau’s Communications Museum and to cap off  Day One of the meeting,, FIAP hosted a sumptuous buffet dinner at the revolving tower allowing participants to enjoy the night views of Macau city as well as terrified Bungee jumpers leaping off the tower. 

March 8^th, day two of the meeting started with Exhibition Updates beginning with the Commissioner-Generals report on Bangkok 2010 in August 2010. Notably, the Bangkok 2010 organizers have arranged for special VIP passes for visitors at Immigration as well as airport buggies to ferry our long suffering  National Commissioners tasked with hand-carrying heavy exhibits.
 

The Joburg 2010 commissioner assured participants that customs procedures have been streamlined and that the exhibition venue is located amid the main shopping centers. Further exhibition reports were received by representatives from Nippon 2011, Indipex 2011, Singpex 2012, Qatar 2012, Indonesia 2012, Australia 2013, Korea 2014 and Dubai 2014.

The FIAP Exco also approved North Korea as a new FIAP member which they been a full member of FIP since 1965. Director Tay Peng Hian urged all FIAP members to encourage their neighbouring countries to come forth and join FIAP and promote the development of Philately in Asia.

The meeting ended with a courtesy tour of the beautiful sights of Macau organized by Macau Post who also hosted a sumptuous welcome dinner at the Lisboa Hotel. Thank you Macau Post for being such a gracious host.