Having been re-elected as Vice-President of SOSSI, I decided to attend their Annual General Meeting in Denver which was held during the weekend of the 50th Rompex Philatelic Exhibition.  Their A.G.M. was well attended and a Dinner was held on the Friday evening when some thirty members and friends sat down to a New York strip steak.  As the Scouts on Stamps Society International were allocated 50 frames, fourteen displays were given by members.  Many of those exhibiting were also members of the SGSC and I was pleased to meet John Adams, Lawrence Clay, Randall Frank, Robert Kan, Frederick Lawrence and Alex Hadden from Canada.

There were various classes and I was most impressed by the one frame exhibit entitled "Scouting Nederland"

shown by Bob Kan.  This had some superb items including one of the very rare Hindenburg Flight crash covers showing six of the 1937 World Jamboree stamps.  Also shown were eight colour trails of the 1937 Netherland Indies Jamboree set as well as some imperf. pairs.  Lawrence Clay, the SOSSI President had a four frame exhibit "Baden-Powell: Two Lives of a Hero", which included covers from Mafeking as well as two letters written by B.P. on South African Constabulary notepaper.  One of these written to his Aunt, Lady Rose Flower of 26, Stanhope Gardens, London and signed with his second name "Stephenson Baden-Powell" which apparently he only used when writing to members of his family.  Frederick Lawrence showed six frames from his collection of "Scouting on Stamps Classics", which included some fine material from Mafeking, 1918 Czecho- slovakia and 1920-21 Siam Scout Fund overprints.

Our Philatelic Exhibition "SGSC 2000" is on course and the dates are confirmed as May 20th and 21st 2000 at Baden-Powell House.  As London has so many Hotels close to B.P.House, the sub-committee suggests that those wishing to book accommodation should contact their local travel agent or the London Tourist Information Centre: Telephone number 0171-370-7744 (from overseas +44-171-370-7744) or by Fax. 0171-341-9999 (overseas +44-171-341-999) or by email at www.tourist.co.uk It has been decided that all correspondence concerning the exhibition should be sent to Bob Lee.  This will include exhibits and the Dinner on the Saturday.

I recently attended "Philex France 99" the International Philatelic Exhibition held in Paris which was held in vast hall at de la Porte de Versailles.  Paris was chosen as the host marking the 150th anniversary of the French Stamps and around 160 dealers and 140 postal administrations attended.  Although I was only in Paris for two days, I did meet Hallvard Slettebø, our member from Norway who like myself found the temperature in the hall very high without any air conditioning.  I only found one Scout exhibit which was in the thematic section by Luis Martinez of Spain.  Also present as a visitor was our member/dealer friend Michael Berry.  Unfortunately the catalogue was priced at 150 French francs (some £15, $24) which I considered too expensive, so I am not sure if their was any other exhibits of Scout interest.  Although I must say that I did not purchase any material for my collection, I was offered by a French dealer both the perforated and imperforate sheets of 1956 Egypt and the 1957 Korea Miniature sheet all with "Specimen" overprint.  I had never seen these before, but the price for the three was FF95,000 (About £9500, US $ 15000) I understood that they had come from a museum which decided to sell them, but I guess that they must be extremely rare.  The name of the dealer is available on request!