FIP Philatelic Literature Commission

1. COMMISSION MEETING 3 JUNE 2006 AT 'WASHINGTON 2006'

This meeting was poorly attended with only eight people present - Commission Chairman Francis Kiddle, Bureau Secretary Norman Banfield, Bureau Member Toke Norby, new Paraguay Delegate Roberto Eaton, Michael Ho (Taiwan) and three from the USA - John Doyle, Reuben Ramkissoon, David Straight.

Those present stood in memory of the late Herbert Moll (Peru) and Harry Sutherland (Canada).

2. BUREAU MEMBERSHIP

The FIP Board will submit to the FIP Congress in Málaga a number of changes to the FIP Statutes - some of the proposals directly affect the FIP Commissions. These are with the changes in bold type: Article 42.2: Elected Membership of the Bureau shall be restricted to the delegates to the Commission Article 42.3: Five members of the Bureau shall be elected by vote of all the delegates present or holding a proxy in the following sequence:

1. The Chairman.
2. The Secretary.
3. Three ordinary Bureau members. Each Continental Region or Continental Federation should be represented by at least one of the five elected Bureau positions.
4. Two additional ordinary Bureau members shall be appointed by the Chairman of each Commission.

Article 42.4: [Sentence added] Each nominee for Commission Chairman shall have served as a Bureau member of the appropriate Commission but must be at least a qualified FIP juror.

Article 43.3: Each Continental Region or Continental Federation is to be represented on the Bureau by one ordinary member.

3. CHAIRMAN'S REPORT TO 2006 FIP CONGRESS - Francis Kiddle, RDP, FRPSL

This appears with the Agenda for the Commission meeting in Málaga on 12 October 2006. (and can also be found on this web site: Congress 2006 Report).

4. SUPPLEMENTARY RULES for the PHILATELIC LITERATURE CLASS IN FIP EXHIBITIONS These have been updated and are being sent to the FIP Board for approval. The updated version with amendments in bold type appears below.

Supplementary Rules for the
Philatelic Literature Class in F.I.P. Exhibitions

[The changes are shown in bold type. Before publication, the old references/wording to be removed]

Rule 1:
These supplementary rules for the admission of Literature Exhibits have been developed under Article 3.3 [was 4.9] of the General Regulations of the F.I.P. for Exhibitions (GREX) and will apply to all literature entries in General and Specialised Exhibitions of F.I.P. (GREX Article 2).

Rule 2:
In amplification of Article 17.1 [was 16.1] (GREX), entries may be exhibited by the author, compiler, editor, publisher, sponsoring organization or society, or any other individual holding proprietary rights.

Rule 3:
A literature exhibit may be admitted provided the exhibitor, as defined under Rule 2 above, meets the qualification requirement of GREX Article 10.1 [was 9.1]. Recently published works which have not had the opportunity to be exhibited at a national exhibition may directly participate in a F.I.P. exhibition (GREX Article 10.3). [Delete: Waiver of GREX Article 9.3, as authorized under GREX Article 4.9.]

Rule 4:
A separate form will be used for entries in the literature class. In addition to the other information needed by the Exhibition Management, this form should also include the publication date, publisher, number of pages, frequency of publication (for periodicals) and means of ordering the publication (address, price).

Rule 5:
Two copies of each literature exhibit shall be provided by the exhibitor: one copy for judging and the other for a reading room as per Article 6.8 of GREX. Following the exhibition these copies shall be sent by the Exhibition Management to a library designated by the member federation hosting the exhibition, unless the exhibitor specifically asks for the return of these copies. [Delete reference to one copy going to the FIP library which does not exist].

Rule 6:
The entry fee for a literature exhibit shall be equivalent to the price of one frame in the general competition class of the same exhibition.

Rule 7:
The Exhibition Management shall furnish the judges a list of literature entries at least three months prior to the exhibition.

Rule 8:
Handbooks and special studies must have been published not earlier than 5 years prior to the exhibition year. For all other entries the publication date should be not earlier than 2 years prior to the exhibition year. For multivolume works, the date of publication of each volume shall govern. Revised editions will be considered as new publications. For periodicals, the most recent complete volume or year shall be exhibited. A selection of at least ten different newspaper articles is required for exhibition.

Rule 9:
Medals in the literature class will bear the word "Literature" either abbreviated or in full. Literature entries are also eligible for special awards (Article 8.6) [was 7.5] GREX.

Rule 10:
Literature judges must have a reading ability in at least two languages, one of which must be any of the four [was five] official F.I.P. languages (Article 29.3) [was 27.1] of the Statutes).

Rule 11:
In the event of any discrepancies in the text arising from translation, the English text shall prevail.

Rule 12:
The Supplementary Rules for the Evaluation of Philatelic Literature Class in F.I.P. Exhibitions have been approved by the 54th F.I.P. Congress on 5th November, 1985 in Rome, and replace all previous special regulations for literature. They came into force on 5th November, 1985 and apply to those exhibitions which are granted F.I.P. patronage, auspices or support at the 54th F.I.P. Congress and thereafter.

Note: Cross-references to the Statutes and GREX have been updated to refer to the Statutes and GREX approved by the 69th F.I.P. Congress on October 13th, 2006 at Málaga.

28.8.2006

5. ACCEPTANCE OF PUBLICATIONS FROM POSTAL ADMINISTRATIONS

These were originally excluded because they had an unfair advantage e.g. authors being paid and funds available for a high class production. The situation has since changed and it is often difficult to decide what is an official publication and what is a private publication. It was agreed at the Commission meeting in Washington that in future all publications should be accepted except those produced purely as a commercial sales production.

6. JUDGING CDs

The judging of CDs does not present any major problems except that of time. They need to be judged prior to an exhibition - perhaps one month before. CDs can be time-consuming due to different software and foreign languages. Most lacked a search facility. The Chairman's report mentions that at Washington 2006, there were 10 CDs - these take, on average, half an hour of a judge's time, and we do not have the luxury of time at any international, especially those that are open for just say four days (Pacific Explorer 2005).

Two recent printed publications include CDs:

1. Ethiopia, Tewedros to Menelik: postal history from the Napier expedition to the independent Imperial Post 1867-1908 published 2002 by Roberto Sciaky. This included a table of all recorded covers and the table was also on an accompanying CD. The purpose of the CD was that collectors could update it with further discoveries.
2. From the Reichspost to Allied Occupation - Third Reich Mail Processed after the German Capitulation in 1945 published 2005 by Benjamin R Beede. This book is 170 pages of text including illustrations. The appendix contains the references in all the official documents and is approx 300 pages. This appendix is only on the CD which comes with the printed text. Thus, for the complete story and background one must access both the book and the CD.

It was agreed in Washington that CDs should be judged but that some additional rules would be necessary as to time of submitting entries and judging - possibly with a specified format.

7. WEBSITES

The Chairman was generally against including websites at exhibitions because they were normally too big and often changed frequently. However, if exhibitions wished to include websites then there should be some rules and guidelines for judging to cover, for example, search facility, usability, accessibility and technical matters. Also, refer to the article by our Chairman, Francis Kiddle, in the last Newsletter.

The FIP website contains an article from the AIJP [Association Internationale des Journalistes Philatélique] which recommends exhibitions to accept websites with perhaps a maximum number of pages.

Provision is made at exhibitions for a reading room for printed books etc - a similar facility would be needed for CDs and websites. For websites it would need to be an on-line computer.

There are strong views both for and against websites being entered in exhibitions - What are your views?? This will be discussed at our Literature Commission meeting in Málaga.

8. SMITHSONIAN PHILATELIC ACHIEVEMENT AWARD TO FRANCIS KIDDLE

At a Gala Dinner in Washington on 27 May 2006, the Smithsonian Philatelic Achievement Awards for 2006 were presented. These awards are made every two years beginning in 2002 with three people being honoured and a further three in 2004. The award honours Americans and individuals from around the world for outstanding lifetime accomplishments in the field of philately. The achievements can include original research that significantly advances our understanding of philately and postal history; exceptional service to the philatelic community, and, the overall promotion of philately for the benefit of current and future collectors. In 2006 one of the three people to receive the award was our Chairman, Francis Kiddle. The citation read: "Francis Kiddle is philately's Renaissance man. His research, service, and promotion of philately encompass every philatelic discipline-and amazingly, he does it worldwide. He has contributed to philatelic literature through his research, writing, librarianship, curating, and judging. His promotion of Cinderella philately has brought visibility and recognition to this field. As president of the Royal Philatelic Society and the FIP Philatelic Literature Commission, as chair of the Cinderella Stamp Club, the British Philatelic Trust, and the United Kingdom National Exhibition Committee, he has demonstrated initiative, dedication, and dynamic leadership."

Congratulations Francis!

9. NEWSLETTER

As always we need contributions to the Newsletter. Please send us something about philatelic literature events and news in your country. Preferably by email - to the Secretary, Norman Banfield - email address on page 1, postal address: 14 Rata Road, Raumati Beach, Kapiti 5032, New Zealand.

10. EMAIL ADDRESSES Communication by email is becoming normal today - if you receive this Newsletter by post it means we do not have an email address for you. If you have one, please advise the Secretary, Norman Banfield at: normanb@xtra.co.nz

31.8.2006

Norman Banfield
Secretary, FIP Literature Commission.