I continue to keep up the pressure with the Post Office regarding an issue of stamps for the Centenary of Scouting and the 21st World Jamboree being held at Hylands Park, Chelmsford.  I have recently written on behalf of the Club to the Stamp Programme Manager in London and have had confirmation that a Scout issue has been included as one of the potential subjects for 2007.  An actual decision will be made early in 2006.
Perhaps our overseas members would also like to press their own Post Office headquarters for an issue, as no doubt there will be many issues from the Commonwealth and those countries who need stamps for revenue.

Congratulations goes to our member Hallvard Slettebø of Norway on being elected as a Fellow of the Royal Philatelic Society in London.  He is a National judge in Norway and one of only a handful of Scout collectors who exhibit internationally.  He has already received a number of awards including a Gold medal at both Hafnia 2001 in Copenhagen and Bangkok 2003 FIP exhibitions.  Our congratulations must also go to another member of SGSC, Frederick Lawrence of the USA. He has recently been awarded the first SOSSI "Distinguished Philatelist Award", and is well known as a Scout exhibitor, judge and a specialist in the early issues of Mafeking, the Czech post of 1918 and the Siam Scout overprints of 1920.

Thanks to our webmaster Randall Frank, we now have the facility for overseas members who are on-line to pay for both the McKee list and their subscriptions renewals by PayPal (when these are due and you have been notified by Bob Lee).  There is a small additional cost to cover the charges involved, but no doubt overseas members will find this most useful.  This has taken some time to set up but it is now ready.  To renew your subscription, select the "Features" button on the home page and click PayPal Payments.  If you would like to purchase the McKee list, choose Checklist of Scout, Guide and Brigade Stamps of the World on the Features page.  To date our web site has had nearly 2700 visits.

Illustrated is a cover that has recently been sold by a dealer in Romania.  It has always been thought that only two covers with the 1934 Mamaia inverted overprints were in existence and when such an item was sold at Chicago in May 1986, the catalogue stated "One of only three covers, one of which has been broken down for the stamps".  The two known covers have been in a Belgium Scout collection for some time and have been exhibited at the EuroScout exhibitions. This registered cover shows the 25 and 50 bani Mamaia Jamboree stamps with inverted overprints in pairs, as well as the normal singles of the remainder of the set. Posted at Constantia, Romania on 23rd July, the cover arrived at Berlin Charlottenburg, Germany on 26 July 1934.  The Scout collector already owned registered number 4238 and the cover sold in Chicago was numbered 4240, so it was assumed that the cover taken to pieces for the stamps was number 4239.  As the cover illustrated has the registered number 4233, it seems most likely that there could have been at least eight covers with inverted overprints.  After 70 years it is unlikely that many more will appear in the future, but you can never be sure!

Our Annual General Meeting is being held on Saturday June 11th and you will find further details elsewhere in the Bulletin.  It would be great if more of you would add support to the club by attending, and as usual we are looking for younger blood to serve on the Committee.  Five of the officers of the club are over the age of 70 so we desperately need support from younger members to keep the club going in the future.