A busy autumn with a number of visits to philatelic exhibitions.  I attended the "Club Filatelico de Scouts Y Guias" National Exhibition which was held close to Madrid in Spain, and was pleased to meet a number of our members including Benito Gonzalez Bugallo, who had recently obtained a Large Silver at Praga ' 98 for his display of 1918 Czechoslovakia.  This was on show at the Madrid exhibition as were some very good displays.  One of the visitors was Michel Couraudon from France who I met for the first time, and I must say how welcome I was made by the secretary Julian Rodriguez Fernandez and other members of his club.  A well organised show for which they must be congratulated.  During 1999 I will be attending IBRA ' 99 at Nuremburg, Germany and Philexfrance ' 99 in Paris during which I hope to meet some of our members.

Although we no longer have registered mail in the U.K. (which has been replaced by a special delivery service) it has been drawn to my attention a problem which has occurred to one of our overseas members who sent some material to an Eastern European country.  On arrival the envelope was signed for, but when opened the contents were missing.  Our Post Office Guide states "Make sure your item is securely sealed.  If you are using transparent tape to seal your package, your initials, signature or distinctive mark must be applied directly on the closing join or flap before the tape is applied".  The item with the missing contents did not have any tape applied to the join and could have been steamed open, so you have been warned!

Articles in our bulletin are not copyright, but I have noticed that recently one of our European Scout Stamp magazines have translated and published one of my articles and have given no acknowledgement to me as the author.  I think it is only polite to acknowledge any article published, and although it is not necessary to ask permission, the magazine and the author should be mentioned.

The Scouts on Stamps Society International (SOSSI) based in the U.S.A. have now confirmed that they will be holding their A.G.M. at Baden-Powell House, London during the evening of Tuesday 23rd May 2000.  This is during the week of the London 2000 Stamp Exhibition at Earls Court London and a couple of days after our own SGSC exhibition, so please plan ahead and support these events.