2010

BNAPS Golden Horseshoe Regional Group

The latest BNAPS Golden Horseshoe Regional Group (GHRG) November 2010 meeting report has been posted. It seems like another successful meeting, with a good turnout, pleasant conversation, and a good way to lose yourself in philately and postal history for a day.

GHRG Meeting Report.

For information about other regional groups, see the Regional Groups page.

Make a New Year resolution to meet up with some friends at a meeting near you.

The latest newsletter, No. 5, of The Canadian Dead Letter Office Study Group is now available for download. As well as the "Postings and Auctions" and "Want Lists & For Sale" columns, there are articles on:

• Undeliverable Mail Office Vancouver
• New Handstamps
• A Modern Mercury, and
• Dead Letter Office Postmaster's Information Book 1940

The DLO Study Group newsletters are posted on the website for all to read free of charge as soon as they are published.

BNAPS regrets to advise members of the passing on 4 December 2010 of William G. (Bill) Robinson OTB, a former Director, First Vice-President and President of BNAPS. He also served as Chairman of, and Reporter for, the BNAPS Railway Post Office Study Group, and was one of the founders of the BNAPS Military Mail Study Group.

Please see the Memorials page.

Saint-Pierre et Miquelon Expo 2011

The details for Saint-Pierre et Miquelon Expo 2011 are now available at this website, which includes the exhibition prospectus and information on accommodation, or contact Jean-Jacques Tillard.

BNAPS regrets to inform members of the passing of Peter de Groot, a significant contributor to Canadian philately and supporter of BNAPS.

Please see the Memorials page.

BNAPS regrets to inform members of the passing of Marc Eisenberg, aged 82, a long-time BNAPS member.

Please see the Memorials page.

BNAPS regrets to inform members of the passing on 16 November of long-time member Harry Machum of Sudbury, Ontario. Harry was a well-known collector and dealer of Canadian postal history and recently retired as Chairman of the Elizabethan II Study Group. He was recently inducted into BNAPS' Order of the Beaver.

Please see the Memorials page.

BNAPS is pleased to announce the release of four new books:

• New Brunswick Postal Rates in the Pence Denominated Period 1851-1860 by Warren S. Wilkinson
• Nova Scotia Postal Rates in the Pence Denominated Period 1851-1860 by Warren S. Wilkinson
• Plating Studies on Prince Edward Island Stamps VI. The One Pence Issue - Scott #4 by Kenneth A. Kershaw
• Olive Oyl The Canada Twenty Cent 1898 Numeral Issue by Peter Spencer

See BNAPS Books for details.

The Table of Contents of the current and previous issues of BNA Topics is now posted.

The Edmonton Regional Group held its second meeting of the 2010-2011 year on Wednesday, 20 October.

Some new and replaced Circuits books are now available.

ORAPEX 2011 Announces Theme

ORAPEX 2011, Ottawa's 50th Annual National-level Stamp Exhibition & Bourse, has announced its theme: ORAPEX: Celebrating Fifty Years.

The event will be held on Saturday, 30 April 2011 from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm and Sunday, 1 May 2011, from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm at the RA Sports Centre, 2451 Riverside Drive, Ottawa. As well as 150 frames of exhibits, over 40 stamp dealers, free admission and free parking, the show will also feature an exhibition of archival material of ORAPEX's first fifty years through souvenir covers, overprinted Canadian stamps, program guides, articles, and photos.

The Grand Award winner of this Canadian national level stamp show will be eligible to compete in the American Philatelic Society's "World Series of Philately" championship exhibition in 2011.

For more information about ORAPEX 2011, please contact Dr. Robert Pinet.

Annual Reports of the BNAPS Officers

As directed last year by the BNAPS Board of Directors, BNAPortraitS is no longer being published. In its place, a business section has been re-introduced into BNA Topics, "BNAPS Business and Reports", and appears in each issue. To supplement this section, the full reports of the BNAPS Officers are posted here.

Note: access to these reports is restricted to current BNAPS members.

Preparations for BNAPEX 2011 are Underway

The BNAPS Golden Horseshoe Regional Group is already preparing for BNAPEX 2011, to be held in North Bay, Ontario, from 2-4 September.

Preliminary information can be found here.

Election Results and Changes to BNAPS Board of Directors

Here are the results of our recent elections:

Elected to serve from 2010-2014 on the BNAPS Board of Directors

• Andy Ellwood
• J Richard Fleet
• P Charles Livermore
• Ronald E Majors
• Adri Veenstra

Executive (all by elected by acclamation)

• President: Robert Lemire
• First Vice-President: Norris (Bob) Dyer
• Vice-President Regional Groups: J A Forbes, Jr.
• Vice-President Study Groups: Peter R MacDonald
• Secretary: David G Jones
• Treasurer: Jean-Claude Michaud

Also, as Past President, George Dresser continues to serve on the Executive.

BNAPS thanks the following retiring Officers and Directors for their many hours of service to our Society:

Peter Jacobi who has been our Secretary for over a decade. Secretary is a very demanding position and Peter has done an outstanding job.

William S. Pawluk who has just completed a six-year cycle of service as First Vice-President, President, and Past President.

Barry A Brown who has served as Vice-President Study Groups for the past four years.

John S. Gordon, Jerome C. Jarnick, and John S. Keenlyside, all of whom have served many years as elected Directors.

A list of the BNAPS Directors, Officers, and Appointed Officials can be found here.

BNAPEX 2010 Palmares

The BNAPEX 2010 Palmares is available here.

Update #5 to Brian T. Stalker's book, Travelling Post Office Postmarks of Newfoundland & Labrador, is available.

View the update.

New Webmaster

After many years of outstanding, valuable service to BNAPS, our Webmaster, Bob Lane, has decided to retire. Bob was early to recognize that establishing a website would be important to the Society, and he has nurtured the site to the point where it would be difficult to imagine BNAPS without it. Thank you, Bob.

I am pleased to announce that Greg Spring has agreed to be the new BNAPS Webmaster. Greg has worked with Bob Lane on the website for several years. Also, another member of Bob's team, Dave Bartlet, has agreed to take on the position of Deputy Webmaster. Thanks to both of you for agreeing to help our Society.

Greg can be contacted at webmaster@bnaps.org.

Robert Lemire (President)

BNAPEX 2010 has just come to an end. By all reports it was another success!

Reports and photos will be posted on the Conventions page.

A large number of new or revised Circuits pages, labelled AUG10, have been made available.

The Webmaster will be stepping down and will not be available (as such) from September 4th. A new Webmaster will be announced shortly after that. I wish him every success. Thanks to all members for their enthusiastic support over 15 years.

A new online publication is available:

The Canadian Posted Letter Guide for Letters Mailed 1851-1902 by Victor L. Willson and Charles G. Firby.

This catalogue provides a pricing guide to the covers of Canada and the British North American Provinces (that eventually joined Confederation). In this 2nd edition (only available on the BNAPS website), the authors have attempted to list all recorded rates and frankings for the postal history of Canada between 1851 and 1902 and to provide a comprehensive listing that can be used to compare new finds against.

Click here to view it.

Exhibit awards from four APS shows have been posted on the Awards page.

The Secretary, Pete Jacobi, has returned from the Summer Palace and resumes his regular contact numbers.

There is an error on the BNAPEX program in the website that will soon be remedied. The actual program has been printed correctly. The error is that Jim Miller (The Stamp Collection Connection) is shown as being from Calgary, whereas he is actually from Sherwood Park, Alberta. As an Edmonton area resident, the Webmaster can think of several clever comments about Calgary, but refrains from doing so.

Regional Groups VP, Jack Forbes, is pleased to announce the resumption of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Group, coordinated by Jeff Arnt.

The Regional Groups page has information about the Mid-Atlantic and all the other BNAPS Regional Groups.

Thanks to an alert member, the web team learned that all the bnaps.org files had been infected at the server of our Internet Service Provider, Telus. Telus quickly changed our password and restored all the files to an earlier date - and we were greatly relieved. We are satisfied that our home computers are not infected with this virus. Changing the password helps prevent hackers from doing this again.

I want to thank Jeffrey Wallace, Dave Bartlet and Greg Spring for getting on top of this quickly. And thanks to John Walsh for giving us the warning.

REMINDER!

Members travelling by car to BNAPEX 2010 in Victoria should keep in mind that the convention takes place over the Labour Day holiday, one of the busiest summer weekends for the BC Ferries Service. Advance reservations are recommended.

Contact BC Ferries at: www.bcferries.com/res/ or call toll-free in North America: 1-888-223-3779

The final BNAPEX 2010 programme is now available for download.

Click here for your copy.

BNAPS is pleased to announce the release of a new book:

No Englishmen Need Apply by Gordon Mallett.

See BNAPS Books for further details.

Reminder: BNAPS election. To be counted, ballots must be received by Don Ure by August 7, 2010.

The Webmaster is back. Thanks to Greg Spring and others for filling in.

REMINDER re BNAPEX hotel rates and orders for BNAPS books

Please remember that the very special BNAPS member rates at the Fairmont Empress Hotel expire on 2 August.

Save shipping costs on BNAPS Books ordered for delivery at BNAPEX 2010 in Victoria.

Contact the BNAPS Book Department:
c/o Ian Kimmerly Stamps
62 Sparks Street, Ottawa, Ontario K1P 5A8 Canada
PHONE: (613) 235-9119 FAX: (613) 235-9504

The Webmaster will be absent between July 12 and 24. Please refer all items to your regular web team contact or to Greg Spring. Thank you.

Issue 19 of the KG VI Study Group newsletter, King George VI Post and Mail, is now available on the website.

Happy Canada Day! [click here].

Happy July 4th! [click here].

Andrew Scott would like to receive ads for the BNAPEX2010 show program by 9 July with the receipt of artwork no later than 23 July.

A report of the recent meeting of the St. Lawrence Seaway Regional Group has been posted.

Meeting Report.

34 recent exhibit awards have been posted from five shows, including the Royal/Royale, ORAPEX and London 2010. Our members did quite well.

View the exhibit awards page.

BNAPS' Youth Activity Program is focused this year on providing colorful free stamps to youth clubs, schools, Scouts, etc. Bob Dyer reports he has already distributed over 30,000 stamps this year and is about to ship another 5,000.

The Canadian stamp barrel is almost empty, however. He is looking for used Canada COMMEMORATIVES, on or off paper. He has enough in his budget to reimburse anyone sending him stamps. Modern West Europe is another area from which he is looking for material.

If you think you can help, email him.

BNAPS is pleased to congratulate Margaret (Maggie) Toms on reaching her 100th birthday. Although Maggie came late to philately, she more than made up for any delay with significant work on the postal history of Trans-Atlantic mail to and from Canada.

Between 1979 and 1986, Maggie wrote an eleven-article series titled "Letters Exchanged via England between British North America and France" for BNA Topics. In 1987-1988 she followed that with a five-article series on "Canadian Letter Mail to France: The Small Queen Era - 1870-1897", co-authored with George Arfken. See also What's New, 1 May.

The organizers for BNAPEX 2010 Victoria have revealed the "show covers".

The Golden Horseshoe Regional Group has submitted its usual great meeting report. Thanks!

The Secretary Pete Jacobi has arrived at the Summer Residence in Montana.

BNAPS regrets to inform members of the passing on 28 May of long-time member John Frith of Sudbury, Ontario. John was a well-known collector and dealer of Canadian Military Postal History.

Please see the Memorials page.

Attendees at BNAPEX will have an opportunity to view the award-winning Canadian postal history collections of William G. Robinson, OTB, which will be offered for sale in the bourse. Collections include:

• Canadian Contingents Anglo-Boer War 1899-1902
• WW I Prisoner-of-war Internment Mail
• WW I 'Canada Militia' postmarks
• Canadian Expeditionary Force in Siberia 1918-1920
• Canadian North Russia Expeditionary Force 1918-1919
• WW I R.A.F.-Canada
• Various Railway Post Office collections

The BNAPS Northeast Regional Group now has a web page. Congratulations!

The latest newsletter, No. 4, of The Canadian Dead Letter Office Study Group is available.

BNAPS extends heartiest happy birthday to 45-year member Maggie Toms of Ottawa, on her 100th birthday!

The table of contents of the latest issue of BNA Topics is available.

A memorial for the late Ian McTaggart-Cowan is now posted.

The Circuits pages have been updated with several replacement pages.

BNAPS regrets to inform members of the passing of long-time member Ian McTaggart-Cowan. A memorial is being prepared.

The BNAPS Youth Activity Program is helping the Boy Scouts.

The full report of the recent Golden Horseshoe Regional Group meeting is found HERE.

The Golden Horseshoe Regional Group has a new date for its next meeting: Sunday, 6 June 2010.

The exhibit awards to BNAPS members for the first quarter of 2010 have now been posted. Once again, our members did very well, including Grand and Reserve Grand awards.

View the Awards page.

In the April 2010 issue of The American Stamp Dealer & Collector, BNAPS gets a strong pat on the back for our Youth Program. Although we have suspended cash grants for this year, thousands of free stamps are still available for youth programs.

See this page for the article.

The American Association of Philatelic Exhibitors has presented the Clyde Jennings Award to Gary Steele for his article about chairing the Halifax BNAPEX exhibition.

The memorial for John Tucker has been posted.

The current list of contacts for BNAPS Study Groups is available on the Study Groups page.

The Pacific Northwest Regional Group reports that the stamp theft reported on 30 January from Chiliwack has been successfully resolved. Everything has been recovered.

There is still time to register for the Pacific Northwest Regional Group meeting taking place in Osoyoos, BC, from 30 April to 2 May.

More information may be found on the PNWRG page.

BNAPS regrets to report the passing on 13 March 2010 of member John Tucker. A memorial is in preparation.

There is a long overdue update to the RPO Study Group meetings page. My apologies.

Peter McCarthy has sent his usual great summary of the latest meeting of the Golden Horseshoe Regional Group. Thanks.

The initial schedule for Study Group Meetings and Seminars at BNAPEX 2010 in Victoria, BC, has been posted. Thanks Barry Brown and Greg Spring.

PIPEX (Pacific International Philatelic Exhibition), hosted by the Inland Empire Philatelic Society and sponsored by the Northwest Federation of Stamp Clubs, will be held 4-6 June 2010 at the beautiful Lincoln Center, 1316 N. Lincoln St. Spokane, Washington. The hours are: 10-5 Friday and Saturday, 10-4 Sunday. Free admission and lots of free parking. There are 20 dealers expected and 200 frames will be judged by a panel of Canadian and U.S. judges. This is a WSP show. There will be a $100.00 cash award to the best Canadian exhibit among the many awards to be presented.

Information can be obtained at this site.

BNAPS is pleased to announce the release of a new book:

A History of Cross-Border Postal Communication between Canada and the United States of America 1761 - 1875 by Dorothy Sanderson and Malcolm Montgomery

See BNAPS Books for further details.

Michael Peach has informed us about the National and Regional Stamp Show, NOVAPEX 2010, scheduled for 24-26 September 2010. For details and a prospectus, as well as an exhibit entry form, visit the Nova Scotia Stamp Club website.

The table of contents of the latest issue of BNA Topics is now available.

George Arfken, OTB, FRPSC inducted into the APS Writers Unit Hall of Fame.

I am delighted to announce that my colleague George Arfken has been inducted into the American Philatelic Society's Unit 30 Hall of Fame. The Induction took place on 9 August 2009 at the APS Stampshow in Pittsburgh.

Dr. Arfken has written or co-authored several books on the evolution of Canada's postal system. One of his main interests pertains to Canada's entry into the Universal Postal Union and its impact on early postal rates, and the processing and routing of mail. He has published over 200 articles and continues to be a regular contributor to the various national journals including BNA Topics. He continues to be an inspiration to others to share their knowledge through writing about their areas of expertise.

Dr Arfken was awarded the Vincent G. Greene Award in 1988 (co-shared) and again in 1993 for the best article or series published in BNA Topics in the previous year.

BNAPS extends its congratulations to Dr. Arfken for his well deserved induction into the APS Writers Unit Hall of Fame.

Bill Pawluk, OTB, FRPSC

The Pacific-Northwest Regional Group has advised us that Rick and Mary Lou Lang of Chilliwack, BC, have reported the theft from their home, on 25 January, of a large stamp collection, including 16 volumes of the Scott International Postage Stamp Albums along with a number of specialty albums made by Scott, Minkus, Schaubeck, Lindner, and other manufacturers. Here is a description of the stolen material.

The police file number is 2010-2443. Tips or other pertinent information should be telephoned to Constable Gatka, 604-792-4611.

For information about the Sudbury Stamp Show, at Tom Davies Square Foyer, 24-25 April 2010, contact BIFF PILON.

The Map Stamp Study Group has created a website.

Bob Dyer's annual summary of competitive awards won by BNAPSers is now presented for 2009. Thanks Bob and Dave.

View the 2009 Awards page.

The BNAPS web team extends a warm welcome to Dave Bartlet, its newest member. Dave will be taking on a few specific web subjects in the next few weeks.

Bob Dyer has listed the 2010 free stamp offers for Youth.

Visit the Youth Activities page.

President George Dresser has announced that, effective 1 January 2010, J. Claude Michaud is our Treasurer taking over from Robert A. Lee. The transition between the incoming and outgoing treasurer is largely complete.

Also, effective 1 January 2010, Hugo Deshaye is a regular Director filling the director vacancy created when J. Claude Michaud moved to the position of Treasurer.

BNAPS regrets to inform that BNAPS member Wally Gutzman has passed away.

A memorial has been prepared.

Charles Livermore advises that all issues of the newsletter published by the Canadian Dead Letter Office Study Group are now posted on the website.

Click here to access them.

An update to Brian T. Stalker's book, Travelling Post Office Postmarks of Newfoundland & Labrador, is available.

View the update.

Issue 17 of the KG VI Study Group newsletter, King George VI Post and Mail, is now available on the website.