Dues for 2010 are $25.00 when paid after December 31st.  While most members have paid their dues, several members have not.  Please renew ASAP as it costs the Society money to send out reminder notices.  More importantly, we really don’t want to lose you as members.  So if you have set aside your dues notice, please pull it out and mail it along with your dues today.  Or you can pay your dues on-line via PayPal.  Go to our website www.usstamps.org and click on “Renew” and follow the instructions.

If you want a copy of the 2010 bound volume of The United States Specialist, pay for it now along with your dues.  It will be mailed to you in the Spring of 2011.  Lastly, don’t forget to send your free classified word ads directly to Leonard Piszkiewicz, the Editor of The Specialist.

—Larry Ballantyne
Executive Secretary

A major expense for the United States Stamp Society is postage.  Each year the official business of the USSS requires approximately $2,000 in postage.

Discount postage usually sells for 75% of face value.  Any member who wishes to make a contribution of discount postage will receive a tax deductible contribution for the full face value of the postage plus mailing costs (including insurance).

Please mail discount postage to the Treasurer for distribution, or drop it off at any show where the USSS has a Society table.  A receipt indicating the amount of your tax-deductible, charitable contribution will be sent for all contributions in excess of $5.

—David Sugar, Treasurer
20 North Wacker Dr., Suite 2250
Chicago, IL 60606

Here are the United States Stamp Society medal winners that have been reported from recent shows:

NOTE: If you have won a USSS award and have not seen it listed here, please let
me know and I will see that it is recorded.

Show Awards Chairs, please note:
USSS AWARDS PROGRAM

The USSS Gold Statue of Freedom Medal is sent automatically to all APS World Series of Philately shows.

The USSS Silver President’s Award medal is available upon request to all local and regional shows.

For more information, or to request an award, please contact me by e-mail or write to P.O. Box 690042, Houston, TX 77269-0042.

—Denise Stotts, Awards Committee

The second annual United States Stamp Society – Barbara R. Mueller Award for the best article published in a single year of The American Philatelist, as chosen by the members, the staff of the AP, and an award selection committee, has been awarded to Tom Broadhead for his charming piece, “Petite Messages – The Development of Carte de Visite Mail in Nineteenth-Century France.”

Tom Broadhead has been an incurable philatelist for almost fifty years, with time out for college and graduate school. Beginning as a worldwide collector at the age of seven, he now specializes in the stamps and postal history of late nineteenth and early twentieth century France.  He enjoys writing as a way to share his philatelic interests, and has written previously for The American Philatelist, and for the France & Colonies Philatelist.  Tom is editor of the Knoxville Philatelic Society Newsletter and is a member of the APS Writer’s Unit.  His lively exhibits, which can be seen both at stamp shows and through digital media, are logical extensions of his interest in communicating the excitement of philately.

In his “spare time” – away from philately, family and gardening – Tom is Professor of Geology and Director of Undergraduate Academic Advancement at The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where he occasionally offers a one-credit college seminar on stamps.

Mr. Broadhead’s “I Love Paris & Stamps II” video was one of the two runners-up in the APS YouTube Challenge.

Voting for the best article published in The American Philatelist in 2009 will be held from January 4 to March 1, 2010.  A form will be available on the APS website and in the January issue of The American Philatelist.