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| 5630 Dunbar St. at 41st Ave. 604-684-4613 |
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Newsletter #11, December 28, 2000 |
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As our final newsletter of 2000, let us digress and reflect upon an often overlooked area of collecting, which is the fellowship added to one's life by belonging to a club and participating in its events. All too often, the commercial influences of running a business taint the fellowship aspect, leaving many to justify their levels of club participation only in a measure of dollars returned from having expended the effort. |
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One of the classiest coin and stamp clubs I have ever run across is without a doubt the University of British Columbia Coin and Stamp Club. Clubs in general tend to choose to be either a coin club or a stamp club, it is rare to see both at once. Yet, they manage to hold a meeting once a week, always with a guest speaker or program of interest. Their executive is competent and knowledgable and runs a very formally organized club with a commensurate membership base. This club is the only one I have seen which goes out and actively seeks sponsorships from coin and stamp businesses and uses the money to provide a level of lavishness and service like no other club I have ever seen. I have to believe as well that much of the lavish service provided comes gratis from the generosity of their members as it would appear that even the cash sponsorships they solicit could not possibly be sufficient to sustain the very high level of membership services and programs they provide. |
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All Nations Stamps and Coin continues to sponsor this club from the sidelines at the Crown Sponsorship level. We are pleased to sponsor stable local organizations that manage to put on weekly presentations to willing audiences and still have the derring-do to punctuate the meetings with occassional pizza dinners, gifts and special events. The excessive nature of some of the events possibly dissuades some from sponsoring, but since I feel certain that the sponsorships do not even begin to cover what is spent on its members we feel very pleased and gratified in our support of this organization. In this case we see how the underscoring the social value of belonging to a club is at least as important as they educational value of belonging to a club, bringing kindred spirits together in an atmosphere they enjoy and running with it. The social event of the season in Vancouver is the UBC Stamp and Coin Club Annual Dinner and Dance. The Fifth Annual one was held December 27th, 2000 at the Hyatt Hotel ballroom in downtown Vancouver. Tickets costed $35 for non members, with a discount for members, and a generous amount of free tickets given out to honoured guests. Such events can be very trying to the organizers, but despite setbacks the UBC Stamp and Coin club executive managed to provide a very nice full course turkey dinner in lavish surroundings, with several speakers and events such as raffle with 26 separate prizes in it, table prizes and dancing afterwards. Attendance was rumoured to be the highest ever, with something like 85 guests in attendance. One of the most interesting feature of this club is its youthfulness. As it is primarily serving the students attending university the median age is very young. The club has various advisors as well from various professional vectors of the stamp and coin collecting scene. As such it was a very mixed crowd at the dinner, enjoying all the club has to offer and most of all the fellowship of articulate and interested youth, including many women... something unusual in the collecting realm. My wife and I had a wonderful time at the dinner and we look forward to next year's event; no doubt it will be equally as successful for the club as the year 2001 will be. The UBC Coin and Stamp Club website. |
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Newsletter #12: Mule mania |
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5630 Dunbar St. at 41st Ave. Phone: 604-684-4613 e-mail: collect@direct.ca |
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