As you may well be aware, Peter Duck will be handing over the reigns as our Editor to Terry Simister next January.  Peter joined the club in May 1959 and within a short time was writing articles for the Bulletin.  In April 1967 he became Assistant Editor and this was followed by becoming Editor in March 1975.  Peter's 40 years service to the club is a remarkable achievement and we must all be most grateful that he has held these important posts for such a long period.  Thank you Peter from the committee and members of the SGSC.

The World Jamboree is now behind us and the Scout Association received a considerable number of good reports both in the press and on television.  Having Prince William at the opening ceremony certainly gave the Jamboree a boost, and the weather, after a terrible few weeks, at long last turned to sunshine for most of the ten days.  However I have to report with sadness that one of our members, Fred Osgood from the USA (who attended our 2000 Stamp Exhibition in London) passed away after the Jamboree at Chelmsford Hospital.  He was part of the US staff and had already spent two days at the camp when he became ill and after being so well looked after in the intensive care unit, died on 25th August.

With so many countries issuing stamps to celebrate the centenary of Scouting, I read in the November 2007 issue of Stamp Magazine that the best Europa stamp of 2007 is from Armenia.  The competition, run by PostEurop, was for the 2007 issue on the theme of Scouting.  Scouts themselves were able to vote for their favourite via the internet.  Armenia's winning 350 dram stamp has a world badge in the middle, with children's hands making the Scout sign around it, with the outline of Scout scarves.  With no doubt the high cost of obtaining all the stamps issued this year, I have heard of one American who is making a collection only of the Europa Scout issues.  No doubt this will make a good display.

We send our thanks to the committee and members of the Italian Scout Stamp Club AISF (Associazione Italiana di Scout Filatelia) for their best wishes and certificate on our 50th Anniversary.  However I have heard that the Benelux Club has now ceased operation due to a lack of membership.  Our committee is also very concerned with the reduction of membership, and even though we have recently recruited some new members, we must try and increase our numbers considerably.  Therefore I ask you all to go out and try to recruit at least one new member.  This is very important, as like the Benelux club, a large number of our members are over pension age.  By the way we have still not received an offer for the position of Treasurer of the SGSC.

These days with modern technology very few errors appear on modern commemorative stamps and to date I have not heard of any errors on the recent U.K. Scout issue.  The Victoria Cross Anniversary stamps issued in 2006 were also sold in booklets with se-tenant panes.  Recently a very small number of these booklets have been found showing one of the panes with the value and Queen's head missing, as well as the phosphor coating. Although there were two different sheets in the booklet, only one is showing the Jack Cornwell 1st class, and the Capt. Noel Chavasse 64p and the Capt. Charles Upham 72p stamps having this variety.  Two of these sheets are for sale in Grosvenor Auctions sale in London in November, and although estimated at £5,000 - £6,000 (approximately US $10,450- 12,540 Euro €7200-8640) it will remain to see if they are sold.