Chairman's Notes July/August 2011 by Melvyn Gallagher

Back in September 2010 I wrote questioning the origins of the U.S.A. "Scouting" stamp issued that year.  Randall Frank published an explanation in a later SOSSI Journal and member Frederick Oppliger from the U.S.A. has written to me regarding this interesting issue.  It seems that the U.S. Postal Service no longer recognise organisations on their stamps due to the vast number of requests that they receive.  But occasionally they will "do" activities, things like Scouting.  Although the Scouting stamp coincided with the 100th Anniversary of the American Boy Scouts the manager of stamp development for the U.S. Postal Service said "It's not only Boy Scouts, but it's Girl Scouts, it's Camp Fire U.S.A. - it's all organisations that embody the ideals of scouting".  The designer, Craig Frazier, was faced with a difficult challenge designing what we call a "fudge", a Scout stamps that is not a scout stamp! His chosen design shows a "dual read" an image within an image, the figure suggesting a bygone era more romantic that historic. Like many of you this summer I am taking my Scouts camping and some of you will no doubt be attending the World Jamboree, where I hope you will be able to obtain some philatelic souvenirs and I am sure that we shall see plenty of new issues linked to this event from many lands.