I am very pleased to thank our Board of Directors for electing me president of the FCPS. I hope I can follow the excellent job done by outgoing president Dick Stevens who has given the Society nearly two decades of faithful and efficient service as our President. We also welcome our new Vice President, Ken Nilsestuen. Ken and I seem to be very compatible, and I am certain that he will do a fine job. Ken and I think of ourselves as the "kids" of the FCPS, but I noticed that my new member announcement appeared in the April 1986 FCP, and Ken had an address change listing there. So, I guess we have about 40-years of combined membership in our society. OK, maybe we're not exactly kids anymore.

Dues Increase

[In the July issue of the Philatelist] is an announcement of a dues increase. Although we all hate paying more for anything, I feel that the FCPS is still very much a bargain. Our journal is one of the finest for providing information to the membership, and our dues are comparable with other major societies. It is a simple matter of economics, when printing and postage costs rise, we all have to accept the fact. I hope all members will remain with us during this transition.

My "Platform"

The roots of the FCPS lead directly to New York City and the Collector's Club of New York. In the early years, there was a large and very active group of interested philatelists in New York. As the organizers of our Society, our bylaws are focused on this core group. Through the decades, the FCPS has grown into a national and international society. For some reason, our meetings and participation in exhibitions are not well-attended. To this end, I will be asking our Board to amend the bylaws in several areas.

Most importantly, I hope to raise our profile and create an environment that will foster more interaction among the membership. The foremost change will be to allow the Annual General Meeting of the Society to be held at a venue selected by the BOD. The most obvious way to do this is to have our meeting at each annual APS Stampshow or perhaps at the APS winter show, depending on the location of the venue. Typically, more members of all societies attend these major shows. To this end, I have scheduled a meeting room for us at Stampshow 2005 to be held in Grand Rapids, MI in August 2005. This will either be an "official" meeting if our bylaws have been changed, or simply an unofficial get together if not. In either case we can see if more interaction and comraderie can be generated.

I hope to increase our interaction and participation with our sister organizations the France and Colonies Society of Great Britain and ColFra in France. To this end, I plan to reserve meeting space at Washington 2006 so that we can have a joint meeting (format to be determined) with any visiting overseas collectors. I have already contacted the presidents of both groups to get their thoughts on such a meeting.

Finally, I will work with our esteemed editor, Stan Luft, to see what ways we can use to contain FCP costs while continuing to have a superior journal. My own editorial and computer experience will be brought to bear on this issue.

Well, I don't want to wear out my welcome with this first note, so I will close by again thanking the board for their vote of confidence in me and Ken.

A Brief Introduction to your new Vice President

Stan Luft introduced Dave Herendeen and me when we were both his houseguests during last May's Rocky Mountain Stamp Show. One of our many conversation topics was our fine society and the desire of its leaders to pass the torch. I was impressed by Dave's ideas and agreed to consider the vice presidency. You can see that I accepted the invitation.

I have collected French colonial stamps since I was a child. That started because I wanted to complete a country at the back of the alphabet in my Scott International album, and I chose Wallis and Futuna. My specialty turned to French Africa in the 1970s, and I slowly added some postal history as the missing stamps got more expensive and hard to find. By the mid 1980s I focused on Algeria, which is still my principal interest. I have exhibited my Algerian collection twice in national shows, earning a vermeil and gold medal. You will find a few of my articles in the France and Colonies Philatelist over the years. I am a newly accredited APS judge and a member of several national philatelic societies in addition to this one.

I am a CPA by day, employed by one of the Big Four international accounting firms. My wife and I have four grown children. We make our home in Akron, Ohio, where we have lived for more than twenty years.

I am interested in helping Dave execute his ideas to improve our society, to listen to you and to team with the other officers and directors to strengthen and grow our membership. Please reach out to me at any time you have a suggestion for improvement or a need that our group can fulfill. I look forward to meeting many of you at stamps shows or otherwise.