Mid-Cities Stamp Club

of ARLINGTON and IRVING, TEXAS

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Welcome to the Mid-Cities Stamp Club Website. Whether you're a member or a visitor, thank you for taking the time to visit. We hope you'll find interesting and useful information at this site.

The Mid-Cities Stamp Club, founded in 1973 by Ray and Karen Cartier, is one of the largest and most active local stamp clubs in Texas. We counted 122 members as of March 20, 2008. The club hosts two meetings a month (one in Arlington, one in Irving) in the heart of the Dallas-Fort Worth area. We have an affiliate club in Granbury, TX. which meets once a month. More.

IRVING MEETING - JUN 18

Program is "Clean Out Your Closet," where members can sell their surplus philatelic items. The mixture pick will be Worldwide.

This meeting will be held at The Irving Garden and Arts Building at 906 Senter Street, three blocks north of Shady Grove Road. Meeting begins at 7:30 pm.

GRANBURY MEETING - JUN 24

Program to be presented by Dr. Ken Jones, on "Philately 101 – Back to the Basics." Please bring tongs, magnifying glass, and perforation gauge. The meeting will be held at Tarleton State University"s Langdon Center, in the Studio (corner of Bridge and Stockton Street) at 7:00 p.m.

ARLINGTON MEETING - JUL 2

Program will be "Your Most Unique Stamp," during which members are asked to talk briefly about their ugliest stamp, or most prized stamp, or most unusual stamp, etc. Meeting will be held at the Bob Duncan Community Center, 2800 S. Center Street in Vandergriff Park. The meeting will begin at 7:30 pm, with the room available around 6:30 pm.

IRVING MEETING - JUL 16

Program will be a club auction.

This meeting will be held at The Irving Garden and Arts Building at 906 Senter Street, three blocks north of Shady Grove Road. Meeting begins at 7:30 pm.

GRANBURY MEETING - JUL 22

Program to be announced. The meeting will be held at Tarleton State university"s Langdon Center, in the Studio (corner of Bridge and Stockton Street) at 7:00 p.m.

ARLINGTON MEETING - AUG 6

Program will be "Aircraft Built in Ft. Worth." Members may turn in auction lots for September. Meeting will be held at the Bob Duncan Community Center, 2800 S. Center Street in Vandergriff Park. The meeting will begin at 7:30 pm, with the room available around 6:30 pm.

IRVING MEETING - AUG 20

Program will be an APS Slide Show. The mixture pick will be a very good U.S. commemorative mix.

This meeting will be held at The Irving Garden and Arts Building at 906 Senter Street, three blocks north of Shady Grove Road. Meeting begins at 7:30 pm.

GRANBURY MEETING - AUG 26

Program is a 2004 slide tape program by The National Postal Museum, Smithsonian Institution - "BY THE SEAT OF THEIR PANTS: THE EARLY YEARS OF THE AIR MAIL SERVICE", featuring a small band of pilots who flew nearly 14 million miles delivering letters across the U.S. from 1918-1927. The meeting will be held at Tarleton State university"s Langdon Center, in the Studio (corner of Bridge and Stockton Street) at 7:00 p.m.

GREATER HOUSTON STAMP SHOW SEP 19-21

The Houston Philatelic Society will host the Greater Houston Stamp Show on September 19 – 21, 2008, at the Humble Civic Center, 8233 Will Clayton Parkway, Humble, TX., just east of Hwy 59N, north of Houston, near the Bush Intercontinental Airport.

The show will feature:
• 30+ dealers from around the U.S.
• Hourly door prizes
• Sat. floor auction by Sam Houston Philatelics
• Over 80 frames of exhibits
• Seminars
• USPS sub-station
• Cachet/cancel - 50th anniversary of NASA
• Large Beginner’s Booth
• On-site concession area
• A FUN awards BBQ buffet

The Texas Philatelic Society will hold meetings and have a table. The American Philatelic Society will also be attending and will have a table.

Hours are Friday and Saturday 10am – 6pm; Sunday 10am – 4pm. Admission and parking are free. For a map and more information, please check the Houston Philatelic Society web site, or e-mail Denise Stotts.

DALLAS POSTCARD CLUB 25TH ANNIVERSARY

From club member and newsletter editor Peter Elias comes word of the 25th Anniversary Party for the Dallas Postcard Club to be held Sept. 13 at 1pm at the Timberglen Recreation Center, 3810 Timberglen Rd. in Dallas (near George Bush Tollway and Midway Rd). Pizza provided by the club. Some members will share club memories about the history of the club, after which there will be a member postcard sale. If you collect postcards, or if you simply scan for stamps, post- marks, etc., this event might be for you. (Note: we would like to hear from any member who is able to find something philatelic they can use.)

MCSC IRVING AUCTION

The club auction held in Irving on July 16th was a real success, with club auctioneer Jerry Potter selling off 44 of 45 lots. More than 20 members were in attendance. If you are a club member and would like to submit auction lots in the future, you can download the club "Auction Lot Sheet" as a WORD document, or as a PDF file. The PDF version includes a page of instructions should you need it.

MCSC VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

The club need volunteers in the following area:

• a Programs Chairperson for the Arlington meetings. Contact Dick Phelps.
• a Programs Chairperson for the Irving meetings. Contact John Barrett.
  
  NOTE: Read John Barrett's recent "challenge" memo as a Microsoft Word document.

HONORARY LIFE MEMBERS NAMED

The MCSC has bestowed upon Dick and Margaret Anne Little the designation of "Honorary Life Members."

BOARD OF DIRECTORS ELECTION

Jim Camak, Stanley Christmas, Jerry Potter and Dave Stockbridge, have agreed to serve on the Nominations Committee for the Board of Directors elections to take place in November, 2008. Any MCSC member who wishes to run for an office should contact one of the above by August 31, 2008.

Read pertinent Constitution and Bylaws BOD election information as a text file.

HANDBOOK UPDATES

If your collecting interests have changed from those listed in the current MCSC handbook, please send a notice to Judy Christmas. The updates will be collected by Judy and then sent to all members.

THANKS TO EXPO 2006/2007 DONORS

Two of our EXPO programs, the Chance Board and Silent Auction, literally depend on club member time and/or material donations for their success. We are grateful to the following members for their contributions to these EXPO programs: [Due to space limitations, the list of donors is now maintained on a separate page.]
EXPO 2006 Contributors     EXPO 2007 Contributors

MCSC 2007 SPONSOR DONORS

The club is thankful for its' many "sponsor" members. Sponsor members donate $25.00 or more to the club in lieu of the regular dues amount. The following members are Sponsor Members for 2007:

Susan Baker, John Barrett, Eric Bomgren, Bill Bradshaw, Robert Bray, Dr. James Camak, Malcom J (Jim) Carpenter, Stanley and Judy Christmas, Kenneth Cox, Thomas Cunningham, Herman Dallof, Shea and Von Dunn, Peggy Duvall, Travis Eaton, Peter Elias, John Farr, Jean-Marc Fix, Kaye Harrison, Richard Hildebrandt, Kenneth Kurruish, Dean Latas, Thomas (Tom) Little, Jr., Steve Magyar, Jerold L. "Jerry" Mertz, Joe Nazzaro, Dick and Penni Phelps, Jerome "Jerry" Potter, Jim Rickman, Leona Faye (Lee) and Roy E. Swafford, Bob Tallon, Martin Towb, Tom Turner, Stephen (Steve) Twenge, Robert (Bob) and Jean Werry, Ken Wills.

MCSC WELCOMES NEW MEMBERS

The Mid-Cities Stamp Club continues to grow. We now have 113 members. The following new members have recently joined the Mid-Cities Stamp Club: Stephen M. Robbins (#434), Margaret S. Robbins (#435), Patricia Weidman (#436), Jean-Marc Fix, and Nathan Yawn. In addition, Billy Sack has rejoined the club. We hope you each enjoy your membership in the club.

For questions, suggestions, problems, etc. regarding this website, please contact Jim Myers at jasdmyers@earthlink.net

This website was last updated: August 26, 2008.

Count for 2004-7:

MCSC QUICK INFO LINKS

Irving Meeting   dates and locations.
Meet'N'Eat   list of dates and locations.
Newsletter   current ed (full-graphics vers).
Stamp Show   EXPO 2008 information.
Website   recent changes.

Newly updated for:

• Arlington Aug/Sep Meet'N'Eat Locations.
• Irving Oct/Nov Meet'N'Eat Locations.
• June MCSC Newsletter.
• EXPO 2008 Stamp Show.

EXPO 2008 QUICK INFO LINKS

Advance Flyer      Official Hotel      TPA Promotional Article      

EXPO 2008 THEME CHOSEN

The theme for EXPO 2008 will be “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.” Everyone should "pitch" in and help make this show a success.

EXPO 2008 FLYER

EXPO 2008 Chairman Stan Christmas has released the new color flyer for the 21st annual Mid-Cities Stamp EXPO

The EXPO 2008 Flyer can be viewed as a WORD document.

If you know an interested collector who is not on the club EXPO mailing list, why not email or mail them a copy of the flyer ? To get more information on EXPO 2008, go to our Stamp Show page.

TSDA STAMP SHOWS

The Texas Stamp Dealers Association (TSDA) is sponsoring a stamp show in Dallas, Jul 18-19, at the Richardson Civic Center (new location for 2008), 411 West Arapaho (exit US 75 at Arapaho and go west about 2 blocks), Richardson, TX 75080-4551.

The next show after the Dallas show will be in San Antonio, Aug 23-24, at Hotel Monarchy, 2635 NE Loop 410 (exit 25B - Perrin Beitel, San Antonio, TX 78217.

NOTE: The TSDA San Antonio show has been canceled, due to the death of long-time San Antonio dealer and TSDA member John Pearson, who also was the show organizer.

The next show after the (canceled - see above ) San Antonio show will be in Dallas, Sep 5-6, at the Richardson Civic Center (new location for 2008), 411 West Arapaho (exit US 75 at Arapaho and go west about 2 blocks), Richardson, TX 75080-4551.

All Dallas TSDA shows for 2008 will be held in a Fri/Sat format, with Fri. hours being 3pm-8pm, and Saturday hours being 9am-4pm. All other TSDA shows (Houston, San Antonio), will be held Sat/Sun, with the hours being 10a-5p Sat. and 10a-4p Sun.

Other upcoming shows where you might find TSDA members are the annual Greater Houston Stamp Show Sep 19-21, and the 21st annual Mid-Cities EXPO Nov 8-9.

CHARLES SHREVE GIVES DPCPS PRESENTATION

The June 11 meeting of the Dallas Park Cities Philatelic Society (DPCPS) featured guest speaker Charles Shreve, who spoke about his experiences in helping William (Bill) Gross assemble the finest US collection to date. Shreve took his audience "behind the scenes" with some of the fascinating events during that time, including the story of how the auction alias ("Monte Carlo") for Gross was chosen (despite rampant speculation at the time, it was simply the name of the street where Gross lived), and how his (Shreve's) young son became the recipient of a 30K Confederate cover thanks to Gross. DPCPS supplied wine and snacks to accompany this fascinating presentation.

HOW'S YOUR PHILATELIC KNOWLEDGE ?

Our NEWS section contains capsulized items of philatelic interest. While not necessarily "up-to-the-minute", the selected items are thought to be of general informational value.

Do you know ...

• which philatelic organization sponsors an annual Holiday Cover contest through its' Texas Philatelist journal ?
  
  
• the year railroad cars were first used for mail service in the U.S. (and why this service came to an end on Sept. 28, 2004) ?
  
  
• which US stamps, valued at $22,000, were reportedly stolen in-transit from a FedEx shipment Sept. 1. ?

MCSC NEWSLETTER -
STAMPING AROUND

The current edition (June, 2008) of our award-winning newsletter is now available from this site. (Note: this is the full-graphics version, best accessed via broadband.) Back-issues can be accessed at our newsletter storage site. Also, the current issue is available there in compressed format.

2007-08 MID-CITIES STAMP CLUB
OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS