MPHS Collaborative Efforts at PIPEX 2024

The PIPEX leadership team were fully supportive of efforts that organized two collaborative sessions involving all of the convening societies for the May 3-5, 2024 Exhibition held in Clackamas, Oregon. Initial discussions commenced 8 months prior to the show and the first zoom meeting with representatives of the convening societies was held in November of 2023. Society representatives from the Auxiliary Markings Club, The Rhodesia Study Circle, Society for Czechoslovak Philately and the Military Postal History Society discussed numerous useful focal points for the two sessions and eventually directed attention to the following:

• Best Practices Amongst the Convening Societies. Representatives from each society share successful strategies being used to support members, growth of the society, abilities to capture knowledge, etc.
• Philatelic Research: What does it require, look like, feel like to be successful? A session on educational methods and sources used to facilitate the necessary understanding around philatelic items…. concluding with Q & A.

The first session was scheduled before the start of the show on the first day as it was intended to be specific to the members of the specific convening societies and to not interfere with access to the show itself. The second session was open to the public. Each session was 90 minutes in length involving extensive discussion, presentations and handouts, such as:

• Top Eleven Things to Pursue to Guarantee a Successful Society
• Assessing the Success and Needs of Your Society

Feedback received on the sessions from the PIPEX team and convening societies was positive and included the following comments:

• I am an enthusiastic fan of what you and the other convening societies are working toward. It was a pleasure having all of you at PIPEX this year.
• I now firmly believe that every WSP show (and perhaps larger FIP type shows too) should host a meeting with the convening societies present to discuss ways to collaborate. I am not sure, however, how to propose this to the many WSP shows.
• ….each comment was meaningful because of the challenges each group faces (for example, aging or declining membership), and each group addressed the challenge in different ways. John Hotchner's handout will be extremely helpful as the SCP moves forward.
• The richness of our interactions extended beyond the sessions and represented true collaboration with conversations about society strengths and challenges.
• Loved the in-session collaboration that just naturally emerged during presentation of the Shanghai Cover.
• I felt more engaged than ever with the show as a result of the collaboration efforts.

References were made at each of the sessions to the emerging focus points and directions of the Collaboration Crew. Interest in the work of Collaboration Crew was evident with several questions and one convening society member even asked how he might become part of such an important group.

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Updated 24 June 2024