My last "Chairman's Notes" had gone to press when I was informed that Roy Rhodes, our only President since the Club's formation in 1957, had passed away.  As one of the original members he did much to lay the foundations of the Club and to help it become such a success during the last 43 years.  It was in 1953 that Roy joined the American "Scouts on Stamps Society International", and at one time he became their Vice President.  It was through this Society that Roy was responsible for organising their second convention at the 1957 World Jamboree at Sutton Coldfield.  He and the late Claude Marchal from France were the hosts and joint Chairman of the meeting held on 1 & August 1957.  By this time Roy had written a number of articles on Scout Philately, and a half page one was published on the day of the meeting in the Jamboree Journal, the camp newspaper.  In this he mentioned that our own Club had recently been formed, which of course he deserved much of the credit.  Scout Philately owes much to Roy and he will be sadly missed.

Plans for our exhibition SGSC 2000 exhibition being held on 20th & 21st May continue, and I am pleased to say that we have arranged with the Post Office to have a special postmark on both days of the show.  There was a slight error on the pink forms sent out during the autumn.  Please note that we do not have the use of the Conference Hall until 1 pm on Friday 19th May, when we will need considerable help with erecting the frames.  If you have not indicated that you can help, please contact Bob Lee as soon as possible.  The exhibition will be open from 1000 - 1800 hours on Saturday 20th May and 1000 - 1430 hours on Sunday 21st May.

Although we are Scout & Guide Stamp collectors, many of us collect ephemera, and I know a number like myself who collect Scout postcards.  Having started to collect these in the early 1970s it is always exciting when you find a card that you have never seen before.  The one shown here taken just after B.P. became engaged on 20th September 1912 to Olave Soames, (later Lady Baden-Powell), and was married some six weeks later on 30th October, at St.Peter's Church, Parkstone, Dorset.  Unfortunately this postcard was not used during the six weeks of the engagement.  For those who collect Scout picture postcards, there was a most interesting 140 page book published in the Netherlands during 1998.  It is called Scouting in old picture postcards and was written by Jan van der Steen and published by the European Library- Zaltbommel in the Netherlands (Ref. GB ISBN 09 288 1129X).  Full of illustrations, it shows much of the early history of Scouting.

One of my recent acquisitions has been a picture postcard showing the camp Post Office and sent from the 1st Romanian National Jamboree held during August 1930 at Piatra Neamt.  When our member Fredy Scherb, the Romanian Scout specialist wrote his ten page article (published from October 1973 - February 1974 in the then Scout Stamp Collectors Club bulletin, he mentioned that to his knowledge, no postal items to document this Jamboree were known.  Although not a Scout cancel, it does have the Piatra Neamt postmark.  On another postcard I have the Scout badge and camp cachet in green.  So that we can update our records, do any members have such items in their collections?

As the first bulletin of the year 2000, we look back and wonder what the next century holds for Scout and Guide stamp collectors.  As the number of stamps continue to be produced in ever larger quantities, I guess many of us will specialise in certain aspects of the hobby.  There are so many subjects from which a good collection can be made, be it St George, the Scout badge, B.P., the Scout/Guide Law, stamps on stamps etc.