This month, The Collectors Club in New York is presenting the prestigious Alfred F. Lichtenstein Award to George Kramer, American Philatelic Society Life Member and chairman of the Philatelic Foundation from 2003 to 2011. The APS honored Kramer in 2013 with the Luff Award for Exceptional Contributions to Philately.

      According to The Collectors Club, there are four areas of excellence to earn the award: philatelic leadership, philatelic research and scholarship, exhibiting and collecting achievement and previous awards and honors.

     George has contributed through his exceptional research and exhibiting. He holds the distinction of having won the Champion of Champions Award three times in three different decades. He is actively exhibiting again and may be working toward a fourth. He also received the Grand Prix National at Pacific 97 and has been nominated for the Grand Prix Internationals at two other FIP exhibitions.

     Aside from serving as chairman of the Philatelic Foundation, he has served as a U.S. commissioner at four overseas exhibitions and Washington 2006, is an accredited APS judge for more than 30 years and served on multiple APS committees, including the Joint Finance Committee. Throughout all of his service, George has done it on behalf of the hobby and not in hopes of recognition.

     For visitors to the American Philatelic Center, George’s name will be memorable because we house the George and Carole Kramer Gallery for notable artwork from the Centre County area. The gallery was the result of a $100,000 donation in support of construction a t the Match Factory. Today, the gallery is one of the must-see stops on our tour and one of the most memorable. I will be in New York for the event to congratulate George in person for this well-deserved honor and thank him for all the great contributions he has made to the hobby. Congratulations, George!

Young Philatelic Leaders Take on Filatelic Fiesta

     In 2017, the San Jose Stamp Club took a bold step in naming one of its youngest members, Jessica Rodriguex, to chair its annual World Series of Philately show, Filatelic Fiesta. For APS members, Jessica is the 2017 Lauson H. Stone Fellow of the Young Philatelic Leaders Fellowship program. Her fellowship was sponsored by Harlan F. Stone and Helen M. Galatan-Stone in memory of Harlan’s father.

     Jessica has been a member of the San Jose Stamp Club since age 20 when she inherited her grandfather’s stamp collection. She is becoming more active at the national level, including serving as exhibit awards coordinator for the U.S. Philatelic Classics Society.

     In May 2017, Jessica volunteered to serve as chair of Filatelic Fiesta and San Jose Stamp Club President Brian Jones turned over the reins of the show, making Jessica the youngest WSP show chair in the country. As a fellow member of the club, I received all the updates on organizing the show and Jessica is definitely a leader! Filatelic Fiesta was held November 11-12 and was successful on all fronts.

     On that success, Jessica recently announced the 2018 organizational committee, which included three more YPLF alum. They are: Ryan Wellmaker, bourse chair, 2011 Author Track Fellow; Ian Hunter, marketing chair, 2017 Central Atlantic Stamp Dealers Association Fellow; and Katie Vasicek, awards chair, 2013 Schuyler Rumsey Fellow. You can see their hard work in action this year at Filatelic Fiesta on October 20-21, 2018. For more information go to: www.filatelicfiesta.com.

     In this month’s issue, we do a 10-year retrospective of the YPLF program and catch up with several of the alumni and what they’re doing now. Some have come to philately professionally, others are actively leading in other meaningful ways. However, Filatelic Fiesta has definitely become home to some of the best and brightest members of the YPLF program. I applaud Jessica and the San Jose Stamp Club for giving our young leaders a home to make a big impact on the hobby. If you’re interested in supporting the YPLF program, go to: www.stamps.org/Young-Philatelic-Leaders.