Congratulations must go to Hallvard Slettebø of Norway on his award of a Large Gold medal with 95 points at the recent International Stamp Exhibition held in China.  His exhibit "World Scouting' had been completely revised since it was last shown at Washington 2006 with some new material and layout.  I believe this to be one of the best results ever for a Scout exhibit at International level, and other than the late Walter Grob of Switzerland, who may have achieved this standard, no other exhibit has achieved more than a normal Gold.

While mentioning Norway, I had an email from our member Runar Ovstegard two months ago, and although it has nothing to do with Scout stamps, I thought it was of interest to know how some of our fellow collectors spend time at camp. "At Easter the Norwegian schools close for more than a week, so it is perfect time for a winter Scout camp.  These camps have been running since 1934 at the same place, and I have been there for the last 31 years.  The camp starts on a Wednesday and lasts until Monday, but we start 5-6 days earlier digging snow and raising the two special tents (each with room for about 30 Scouts).  We have a lot of ski and snow activities, and campfires each evening with the fire hanging in a basket in the middle of the tents."

This year the Italian Scout Stamp Club, AISF celebrate their 40th Anniversary with three weekend meetings, one in the South at Melfi in June, one in the Centre at Arezzo last April and one in the North of Italy at Venice from 16-18th October, so wherever members live in the country, they should be able to attend one of these special events.  In Arezzo there were 28 members, in Melfi at least 22 are expected and in Venice it is hoped over 30-35 will be attending. (Peter Duck and myself hope to attend this event, as we also took part at their 25th Anniversary in Verona).  In Arezzo there was 960 sheets exhibited, in Melfi about 700 sheets and in Venice it is expected that there will be about 960 sheets.  It concerns me that our SGSC meetings are only attended by members of the committee and maybe one or two others.  Why can the Italian Club get such good support, and our club which is ten years older receive virtually none?  Maybe we will have a few more attend the Annual General Meeting in June, and then of course we are the hosts of Euro-Scout next year in Chelmsford.  Shown is one of the ten postcards that were entered by members into a competition held by the AISF club to celebrate their 40th Anniversary, with this one being designed by Luigi Rosso.

Some high prices were obtained at the May 2009 auction held by Healey and Wise with an unused 10h Czechoslovakia embossed postal stationery card in fine condition and expertise by "Gilbert" making £1025 against an estimate of £725.  Other highlights included a 1937 India Rocket postcard with the single line cachet "By R. No. 126, Dr Radasch" and postmarked on the reverse 2nd February made £500, while a 1937 World Jamboree advertising meter mark of Gravenhage on 28th September 1936 made £760 against an estimate of £550.  Some very high prices were also obtained at a recent auction held in London by Grosvenor Auctions.  Included was a 1948 Australian 2 ½ die proof in a sunken board with paper overlay which made £1750 against an upper estimate of £300.  A pair of the Egypt 1956 sheets both perf. and imperf. unmounted mint made £850 while a Mafeking 1d Cyclist on cover reached £3900.  Despite the recession, scarce material still appears to be making good prices.

On reading the April 2009 issue of the Philatelic Exporter I was surprised to read a letter from an Ohio USA correspondent concerning the way that the US postal authorities handle registered mail.  He writes that "registered mail is no longer handled in secure containers but is treated as Certified Mail with signature required.  Registered mail can still be covered by up to $25.000 insurance, yet is still handled like regular mail.
Foreign registered mail receives no backstamps in the USA. I have complained to the Universal Postal Union but it says the handling of the mail is up to the individual countries.  I am upset because foreign senders are paying for security in registered mail in the USA they are paying for something they are not receiving." Those who send items by the daft name "International Signed for" to the US should realise that there is very little security once it reaches the United States.

Two dates for your diary.  Please try and attend our AGM June 20th at the HQ Training Ship at Docklands Scout Project, London and then ThematiX '09 at Twickenham on 26th/27th June.