It has been confirmed by Royal Mail that a set of stamps will be produced for the Centenary of the Girl Guides and will be issued on February 2nd 2010.  Randall Frank, the President of SOSSI also reports that the United States Postal Service has announced that a Scout stamp will be issued in 2010 to celebrate the Centenary of Scouting in the U.S.A. I do know what a struggle it has been to obtain this stamp issue and contact has been made with many members of the US Government with support from the American Philatelic Society.  In the United States they will probably have one stamp, but no doubt we will have a set with high values so once again the collector helps to keep our Post Office going.

Peter Duck, our President has reported in this Bulletin on the 40th Anniversary celebrations held in Venice of the Italian Scout Stamp Club AISF. This club certainly knows how to put on a very good show and they excelled with the programme and tours and made us visitors as always most welcome.  A free catalogue, in full colour, with descriptions and images from every display was given to visitors.  The opening ceremony was already unique; there was not only an excellent buffet, but also an impressive concerto of Italian opera arias to enjoy.  On Saturday, a sightseeing tour by ship attended by over 100 members and friends visited the Venetian islands Murano, Burano, Torcello and S.Francesco del Deserto was a great full day experience, which included a delicious Mediterranean lunch.  The Gala Dinner on the Saturday was superb and over 60 sat down for this event.  I sometimes wonder how we are going to receive and erect the frames at our Euro-Scout exhibition next May at Chelmsford.  The frames are coming from Essex, Suffolk and Kent, but as mentioned by Peter, the Italian ones came by boat on the Grand Canal.

I was sorry to hear that Reg Morris died a few months ago aged 77.  He was a keen member of our Club and SOSSI in its earlier years and used to attend our meetings until he moved to the U.S.A. in the 1970s.  He was responsible for writing many Philatelic Jamboree Monographs that were produced for the 1929 U.K. event with Jimmy Golton (but published in 1978).1963 Greece with Peter Duck, 1967 USA with Peter Duck and David Jefferies, 1971 Japan, 1975 Norway with Peter Duck, David Jefferies and Tobjorn Larsson-Fedde of Norway, 1983 Canada with David Jefferies.  Since then Monographs have been written about the 1951 Austrian Jamboree by the Austrian Club SPS., 1955 Canadian Jamboree by Tony Manson and lastly the 1995 Netherlands Jamboree by Fred Maarsen.  These have all been first class productions and a great philatelic record of these events.

Returning to Italy, an International Philatelic Exhibition was held in October at Rome where our member Giovanni Cucchiani was awarded a Large Vermeil for his Siege of Mafeking exhibit and Estanislao Pan de Alfaro of Spain from the Spanish Scout Stamp club, for his exhibit "The Adventure of Scouting" which won a Vermeil.  Congratulations to both.

Plans continue to take shape for our Euro-Scout Exhibition in Chelmsford from 14th-16th May 2010.  Details are now being to be placed on our SGSC website at www.sgsc.org.uk/euroscout.htm and in the near future the application form for frames will be added to this site.  The Euro-Scout sub-committee have met on four occasions and much planning has taken place. Frames will be erected on the Thursday morning and nearer the time we will be looking for volunteers to help with this and many other jobs over the weekend.  In the meantime a list of Hotels and Guest Houses can be found on our website.  Early reservation is recommended especially for those Hotels near to the centre of the town.  For those wishing to also attend the London International Stamp Exhibition at the Design Centre, Islington, London, the dates for this show are May 8th-15th, so why not visit this before our show.