Eurojam held at Hylands Park, Chelmsford from 29th July to 10th August was a great success.  The 10,000 or so attending had a most enjoyable and memorable camp at the biggest UK Scouting event for nearly 50 years.  Each day 900 Scouts visited Gilwell Park for a fun packed day of activities and a further 900 took part in water events at Alton Water in Suffolk.  I acted as one of the guides for adult visitors to Gilwell but was able to spend one day at Hylands Park and attended the closing ceremony.  None of our members contacted me to say that they were attending this Jamboree, but I understand that there was no special postmark for this event. The U.K Scout Headquarters produced a very poor meter mark to advertise the Jamboree, but thanks to our member Terry Simister, I am able to illustrate the meter mark used by Chelmsford Borough Council.

I was interested to read in the U.K. Scouting magazine the reply to a letter from the Scout Leader of the 1st Southwater Sea Scouts from West Sussex, who asked if stamps would be issued to commemorate the Centenary of Scouting in 2007.  The Editor replied that confirmation will be issued by the Post Office in March 2006.  The troop has recently held a design competition for a stamp for 100 years of Scouting which was judged by their local Assistant District Commissioner.

At our A.G.M. held earlier this year, an amendment was made to the Club's Constitution.  For some time we have been discussing the inclusion of "paper ephemera".  Therefore object 1b now reads “The objects of the Club shall be to promote the study and practice of philately and especially to encourage and assist collectors of Scout and Guide Stamps with information on allied philatelic material and related paper ephemera, and support the World Scout and Guide Movements”.  The full constitution is now on our website.

Although it has nothing to do with Scout and Guide stamps, I trust you will be interested to read about the most expensive item I have seen sold on Ebay of Scout interest.  This was the B.P. scrapbook for the period 1909-1912 which sold in August for £10,086 (US$ 18.095, Euro€ 14,865).  It was originally purchased in London in 1965 for £13.00 (US$23.32 €19.16). "This scrapbook was bought at auction from the sale of material offered by Eileen Wade, Baden-Powell's personal secretary.  This is Baden Powell's own newspaper clippings and cuttings file, maintained from the first days of Scouting.  It has newspaper clippings, a few real photos, some poems, a three page Boy Scout song hand written by B.P. Pamphlets and letters.  One poem is on Boy Scout letterhead written by Baden-Powell.  There is an original typed letter sent to his secretary from the RMS Arcadian dated Jan. 3, 1912.  Some of the early clippings have B.P's writing on them.  The book is 15.25 inches (39cm) tall and about 10.5 inches (26.5cm) wide.  Pages numbered 1 to 276, although only 225 pages still exist.  The book itself has chipping and fraying but it is solid and in good shape to be almost 100 years".  I was at this auction in November 1965, and £13 then seemed quite an amount of money at the time.  To make over £10,000 forty years later seems unbelievable, if not crazy, but a very good return for the seller.  With Ebay there is always an under bidder.

I have recently received a personal stamp on cover from our long term member Alex Hadden from Canada.  Last month our Editor wrote about the Austrian personal stamps, but this is the first time I had seen one from Canada.  Alex has recently celebrated his 50th year in Scouting.

The 37th World Conference will have been held in Tunisia by the time you read this, when the vote will be have taken place for the venue for the 22nd World Jamboree.  During Eurojam representatives from both Japan and Singapore had already produced and were swapping badges with their 2011 logo hoping that they would be chosen.  Sweden and Australia are the other two countries who have placed their names forward as candidates.