Nominating Committee Selects Slate for 2006 Election

In accordance with Article V, Section 2, of the Society By-Laws, the Nominating Committee for the 2006 United States Stamp Society election, consisting of William Schuman (Chairman), Lynn Batdorf and Frank Braithwaite, has submitted a slate of nominees to serve as Officers and Governors.  They will serve a three year term running from January 1, 2007 through December 31, 2009.

In addition to the members running for Chairman, President, Vice President and Secretary, nine members have been nominated for the Board of Governors, two of whom will be running for the first time.  The Treasurer, Editor, and Executive Secretary are not elected but rather are paid employees of the Society appointed by the Board.

The election ballots will be included with the annual dues mailing in the Fall.  The Executive Secretary will then tabulate the ballots and report the results to the membership.

A brief background of each of the nominees is presented below.

Candidates

Chairman - Roger S. Brody, Watchung, New Jersey, has served the Society as a Board Governor since 1994 and as Chairman since 1998; he is Past Chairman of the Series 1902 Committee.  He is a collector of U.S. regular issue and commemorative postage stamps with particular interest in color varieties and specialized interest in the Series 1902, Prominent Americans and Great Americans regular issues.  Additional interests include postal history, coils and booklet panes, airmail and revenue stamps and British North America.

As an exhibitor Roger was the recipient 1996 Hopkinson Trophy.  He has authored articles for The United States Specialist, The Collectors Club Philatelist, Linn's Stamp News, Perfins Bulletin, The Vermont Philatelist and PF Opinions VII, and is a two-time winner of the Society's Hopkinson Memorial Literature Award.

Roger also serves as Governor and Vice President of The Collectors Club, New York, an APRL Trustee, and a member of the Smithsonian National Postal Museum's Council of Philatelists.

President - Nicholas A. Lombardi of Mountainside, New Jersey is currently the President of the Society and has served in that position since 2004.  Prior to that he had served a three year term as a Governor from 2001 through 2003.  He is also the Chairman of the Second Bureau Issue Committee.

Nick is also the President of the Westfield (New Jersey) Stamp Club and a member of the Board of Directors of NOJEX, one of the APS World Series of Philately shows.  In addition, he is a member of the APS, the CCNY, the RPSL, and the AAPE.

He collects U.S. stamps and postal history with a special interest in the Second Bureau Issue and registered mail.  He is a Gold/Grand exhibitor and won the Hopkinson Trophy in 2000.  He has also authored a number of articles for The Specialist and was the 2005 winner of the Hopkinson Memorial Literature Award.  His articles have also appeared in The Collectors Club Philatelist and The Philatelic Exhibitor.

Vice President - Jeffrey Shapiro of Massachusetts has been collecting stamps since he was eight years old.  His collecting interests have evolved into philatelic areas centering on U.S. Twentieth Century Postal History, the post-WWI German Inflation and World-Wide Aerophilately.  Enjoyment of these specialties has led Jeff to both exhibiting and philatelic writing.

Secretary - Joann Lenz resides in Sterling Heights, Michigan and is currently the Secretary of the Society.  She collects mint stamps of the U.S.A. and Germany; her prime interest is in current U.S. postal history usages from the Liberty era to date.  She also has an avid interest in dummy/test stamps, postal forgeries and new postal innovations.  Her specific stamp and postal history specialty is the 6¢ Theodore Roosevelt of the Liberty Series.  In addition, she has two single-frame exhibits that have won grand awards.  Her articles for The Specialist have concentrated mostly on Dummy/Testing material.

Governor - Doug D'Avino currently serves as Chairman of the Marginal Markings Committee.  He has collected U.S. stamps for almost 50 years and specializes in siderographer and plate finisher initials on Washington-Franklins.  He has been a member of APS since 1974 and is also a member of APNSS and NJPHS.  Doug has authored numerous articles for The United States Specialist and other philatelic publications.  Doug and his wife reside in Mount Holly, New Jersey.

Governor - Paul Jenkins is an Idaho native.  He and his wife, Loa have four children.  He is a film and video producer.  His work has appeared on the Discovery Channel, E!, Learning Channel EPCOT Center, and network television.  He has served on several boards, including School Board Trustee and Chairman, Red Cross, Crimestoppers, Rotary, Advertising Federation, and even on the Sewer Board.  He is also a member of the Academy of Magical Arts, Society of American Magicians, the International Brotherhood of Magicians and International Quorum of Film Producers.  Paul was the past chair of the Liberty Series Study Group and has two prior terms as USSS Board member.

Governor - Kim Johnson lives in Champaign, Illinois and together with his wife Julie owns Westville Homes, a manufactured home sales center.  He has been active in the USSS for over 30 years since assuming the Plate Number Checklist Committee from Bill Patten in the mid-1970s and most recently has edited the last two editions of the Durland Standard Plate Number Catalog.  Working with John Larson he coordinates the monthly reports of the new plate numbers that appear in The Specialist.  He is a member of the APS and Champaign-Urbana Stamp Club.

Governor - Rodney A. Juell, of Joliet, Illinois, is completing his first term on the USSS Board of Governors.  He is the chairman of the Recruiting Committee, a member of the Marginal Markings Committee, and co-editor of the Encyclopedia of United States Stamps and Stamp Collecting.  A collector since childhood, he is a member of numerous philatelic organizations.  His primary collecting interest is the Series of 1922.  A Lutheran pastor, married, with two adults sons, he is the critical care chaplain at a regional trauma center.

Governor - Mike Lampson, of Charlotte, North Carolina, is webmaster for the USSS website, a member of the Dummy Stamps Study Group and a current member of the Board of Governors.  He is a member of several U.S.-related specialty societies and an APS member since the age of sixteen.  Mike serves locally as librarian for the Charlotte Philatelic Society and is exhibit co-chair for the CHARPEX stamp show.  Mike's collecting interests include Dummy Stamps, First Flight covers, Ohio postal history and many other areas.

Governor - John L. Larson lives in Champaign, Illinois and is a computer performance specialist at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications.  John has been collecting stamps for about 30 years and has interests in plate numbers, testing/training/dummy/printer's sample stamps, and U.S. in general.  He is co-Chairman of the Plate Number Committee that publishes monthly plate reports in The United States Specialist and co-Editor of the Durland Standard Plate Number Catalog.  He has been a member of both the APS and BIA/USSS for more than 25 years.

Governor - James H. Patterson is Chairman of the Society's Essay-Proof Committee and has written several articles for The United States Specialist about the design and engraving of 20th Century stamps.  He received the Society's Hopkinson Award for Literature in 1998 and is a member of the Arizona State Philatelic Hall of Fame.  He lives in Scottsdale, Arizona, and practices law with a Phoenix firm, where he specializes in commercial real estate development and financing.  His collecting interests center around his specialized collections of the 1938 "Eagle" airmail stamp and non-mailable and illegal matter.

Governor - Steven J. Rod, of South Orange, New Jersey, has been a USSS member for 25 years, and previously served on the Board of Governors from 1986-1992.  During that time he created the first full color membership recruitment brochure for the then BIA.  He has been a contributor to The Specialist and recently served as co-editor of the Encyclopedia of United States Stamps and Stamp Collecting.  He is the proud owner of George Turner's 1930-1993 archival indexed copy of The Specialist, and its predecessor publications, some of which appear on carbon tissue paper and mimeographed paper!

Governor - Jay Stotts was a co-founder in 1989 of the Fourth Bureau Issue Committee and currently serves as its chairman. He was appointed to the Board in 1991.  In June 1992, the Board elected him to fill the vacated Presidency of the BIA and he was re-elected, serving through 1997.  He again served on the Board until they appointed him to the vacated Presidency in 2000.  He served one more full term, returning to the Board in 2003.

Jay has won the Hopkinson Memorial Literature and Exhibiting awards of the Society and served as its annual show coordinator from 1991 through 2003.  He has been active in local philately in Cleveland, Ohio, and now in Houston, Texas, for over 25 years.  He served eight years on the APS Accreditation Committee and is an APS accredited national judge.  He currently serves on the Boards of the Southwestern Philatelic Foundation and the Texas Philatelic Association.