Chairman

The 2023/2024 season overall, has been very successful and there have been many positives. Attendances at our meetings in London are picking up again following the Covid hiatus and, as you will read from Bryan in his report, the Society continues to be in a very healthy financial position. Technology continues to play an important part in our activities going forward, which is evidenced by the continued success of our auctions as Nick S will confirm in his report.

Importantly, we completed the exercise of digitising our Journals back to 1975, all of which are available on our website, and are searchable. If you haven’t used this service, I recommend it to you as, from personal experience, I have found it incredibly helpful in researching some new collecting interests of mine. Feedback has been very positive.

Back in November, we held a Technology Review meeting with the full committee and our webmaster present. Consequently, we have a full programme of enhancements scheduled going forward, including the commencement of digitising our Bulletins, the introduction of a new on-line payment system called “Stripe” and a complete review and upgrade of the website. So, watch this space.

The one downside was the most unfortunate cancellation of our long weekend in Salisbury due to circumstances beyond our control. Essential refurbishment to the hotel was substantially delayed but not to disappoint our members, we did hold a very successful additional Members’ meeting on 20 April in replacement. We are looking at having more meetings in the provinces following the success of Alan Whittaker’s meeting in Chandlers Ford which he will be running again next year, and Gerald Marriner has agreed to run a similar one in Market Harborough next year. Thanks go to both Alan and Gerald for taking on this responsibility. It is great to meet members at these meetings who we do not usually see in London.

Finally, in this section, I would like to pay tribute to David Gurney who made the difficult decision to step down as our Editor after 25 years. His tenure was a tremendous achievement and one which is unlikely to be replicated. In addition, David has held many other positions on our committee including, of course, President. Our wholehearted thanks, David.

 I am delighted that the transition from David to Nick Martin, our new Editor, has been seamless and it is gratifying that our well-respected Journal continues to be in such good hands. Feedback again has been very positive.

I would now like to move on to next year which will see our Society celebrate its 75^th Anniversary. We officially started planning for this back in January this year and are continuing to hold updating meetings of the Full Committee every two months to keep on top of the planning. We begin on 9 January 2025 with an invitation to display to the RPSL fellows and members. We have made excellent progress with around 20 members agreeing to supply sufficient top class C.I. philately to fill 54 frames – that’s 864 sheets! A terrific spread of material across the ages will be on show and Nick Martin is pulling together, what I believe will be, an excellent commemorative brochure, a copy of which will be sent to every member of the Society.

We are also well in advance with our arrangements for our long weekend in Guernsey which takes place on the 11 – 13 April. We are fine tuning our plans with the hotel and are looking to make it a memorable event. We will be issuing the booking form early – probably in September – and the hotel will be accepting bookings without the need for a deposit. Early booking and the finalising of travel plans is recommended.

Bryan has progressed well with his Member Profiles project, and it is hoped that this will be completed in time for each member to receive a copy of the booklet with the March 2025 Journal.

Finally, the Society has agreed to support Europhilex 2025 by booking a two-hour slot for a meeting in Birmingham on Saturday 10 May 2025 between 13.00 -15.00, and we hope those members attending the show will stop by to see some displays. We will keep you fully advised of progress with all these events so please keep a close eye on the website for the latest news.

I would like to finish by thanking my team for all their hard work and commitment during the past twelve months. I emphasise the word team because without teamwork, this Society would not function as it does. We all work together in a collaborative way, there is good communication between us, and we are all pulling in the same direction to do our utmost for your Society which, I assure you, is not necessarily mirrored in other Societies. Next year, as we celebrate our 75^th anniversary, will be very challenging. However, I am confident that we will go about our business in a professional manner to ensure that we continue to be successful in all that we do.

As part of our Anniversary Celebrations, the CISS has been invited to provide a full presentation to the Royal Philatelic Society London on 9 February 2025. Members interested in displaying should please contact: anniversary@ciss.uk. More information to follow.

The huge project of digitizing our Journal going back to the first issue in December 1975 was completed last year. This should be a valuable resource for all our members and all the individual journals can be downloaded through the Our Journal menu on our website. Individual references or a word search can be conducted through the Search button on the top right of every page.

As part of our offering to Channel Islands Specialists’ Society members, we have for many years listed details of New Stamp Issues in our Journals.  These listings have been popular as they have provided members with an overview of any new stamp issues planned over the following year. 

We are very grateful for the assistance the Postal Authorities of Guernsey and Jersey have given us by providing details of the new planned issues over many years and this will, of course, continue with our revised arrangements with them.

In a recent survey of our members, it was made clear that they wanted more information on each of the issues planned.  We have therefore looked to include a New Issues section on the Society website.  We felt it appropriate to include not only the details of the individual items within each issue, but also a description of the whole issue, the specifications (designer/artist, printer, perforation etc) as well as an image of each item in colour. This information will appear around two weeks before the release date to coincide with the issue being available for pre-order at the relevant Postal Authority.

It is my hope that by advertising details of new issues to our members in a more detailed way, it will encourage them to purchase new issues at release time. This development will begin with the New Issues for 2023.

As part of our offering to Channel Islands Specialists’ Society members, we have for many years listed details of New Stamp Issues in our Journals.  These listings have been popular as they have provided members with an overview of any new stamp issues planned over the following year. 

We are very grateful for the assistance the Postal Authorities of Guernsey and Jersey have given us by providing details of the new planned issues over many years and this will, of course, continue with our revised arrangements with them.

In a recent survey of our members, it was made clear that they wanted more information on each of the issues planned.  We have therefore looked to include a New Issues section on the Society website.  We felt it appropriate to include not only the details of the individual items within each issue, but also a description of the whole issue, the specifications (designer/artist, printer, perforation etc) as well as an image of each item in colour. This information will appear around two weeks before the release date to coincide with the issue being available for pre-order at the relevant Postal Authority.

It is my hope that by advertising details of new issues to our members in a more detailed way, it will encourage them to purchase new issues at release time. This development will begin with the New Issues for 2023.

However, I regret that due to the death of H.M. The Queen, both Postal Authorities have had to make changes to their stamp production calendar and whilst we have received the information for Guernsey, at the time of writing, we still await that for Jersey. This will appear on the website as soon as it is available.