Club History
Under the guidance of Jim Alsop, a group of 12 stamp collectors met on April 3rd 1985 at the Owen Sound Public Library and formed the Owen Sound Stamp Club.
From those in attendance a slate of officers were nominated and elected. Jim Alsop became the President, John McTavish the Vice President, Chris Pointon the Treasure and Axel Sorenson the Secretary.
At the meeting it was proposed that the newly formed club should apply for a charter in the Royal Philatelic Society of Canada. The proposal was carried out and on June 5th 1985 the R. P. S. C. Certificate was received. The Owen Sound Stamp Club was officially Chapter 191 of the R. P. S. C. as of May 14th 1985. Jim Alsop became the club liaisons for the club when dealing with the R. P. S. C.
Meetings were held twice monthly on the 1st Wednesday and 3rd Tuesday, and arrangements were made to meet at West Hill Secondary School Room 108.
The fiscal year was established as September to August and the first Annual General Meeting was held on September 17 1985. The current executive was acclaimed at the AGM.
At a meeting on September 2nd 1987 John McTavish reported that he had formed a junior club. The junior club would meet at the library on Saturday morning’s bi monthly. John also requested some assistance.
At the AGM on October 7th 1987 new Executive Officers were elected. John McTavish and Bob Ford as co Presidents and Doug and Mary Maher as co Secretary.
On January 24th 1988 the executive of John McTavish, Bob Ford, Chris Pointon and Axel Sorenson met to draft a Constitution and By Laws for the club. The Draft was presented to the club membership on February 3rd 1988 and was approved. Copies were distributed to the membership at the February 16th 1988 meeting.
At the September 20th 1988 meeting a motion was entertained to discontinue the Junior Stamp Club as no one would step up and run it.
The AGM was held on October 5th 1988 were the present executive was acclaimed.
The club moved its meeting venue to St Georges Anglican Church as of September 6th 1989. The club was still meeting bi monthly. Meeting fees of $0.75 per member were to be forwarded to the church.
AGM was held on October 4th 1989. Reg Zeller was elected President, Chris Pointon as Treasure, Bob Ford and Axel Sorenson as Secretary.
On March 20th 1990 a motion was made, to go to a single monthly meeting and to keep the 3rd Tuesday as the meeting night.
The oldest newsletter we have on file is from 1996 so the club history is pretty sparse between 1990 and 1997. John McTavish was President and Bob Ford was treasurer. Sometime during this period Bob Pike was elected as the club President. Meetings were at 7pm. St . George's Anglican Church on the third Wednesday of each month .
In 1997 the club President was Bob Pike and club Treasurer was Bob Ford.
September 2000, Bob Pike moved from the area and resigned as club President. In November 2000 the new OSSC executive committee was elected: Bob Watson, President, Bob Ford remains Secretary/Treasurer (thank goodness)! Charles van Rompu is the Vice President. The executive committee also consisted of two Members-at-large: Bob Ebel and Ken Knight
In April 2001 John Cortan is added to the executive committee as a member-at-large.
Early in 2002 several more club officer positions are added. Auctioneer: John Cortan, Circuit Books: Bob Ebel, Librarian: Sheila Gunby, Youth: Kim Scarrow, Webmaster: Alan Charlesworth, Newsletter Editor: Bob Watson. The club has about 30 members. In August 2002 Alan Charlesworth became the club Auctioneer and the Webmaster position disappeared.
Not much changed in 2003. In April 2004 the offices for Circuit Books and Librarian no longer appear in the list of officers.
March 2005 President Bob Watson retired and Alan Charlesworth was elected as club President. All other officers remained the same. In March or April 2005 the position of Auctioneer disappears and the Youth position disappears in June.
In October 2006 Perry Cockburn assumes the position of interim Editor for the newsletter. December 2006 Perry Cockburn and Charles van Rompu both passed away.
In February 2007 John Cortan became Vice-President and Marion Ace became Newsletter Editor.
Club president Alan Charlesworth moved in the fall of 2008 and Phil Visser was elected as the new club President. The club meeting place changed to St. Mary's High School in September 2012; nothing else much changed until early 2013.
In February 2013 Larry Crane took over the position of Vice-President. Marion Ace retired as Newsletter Editor in May 2014 and President Phil Visser assumed responsibility for the club newsletter. Club circuit books were restarted by member Chris Tschirhart.
February 2017, after serving a little over eight years, Phil Visser stepped down as President of the Owen Sound Stamp Club but remains as Newsletter Editor. In the following part of the meeting, Larry Crane was acclaimed as the President, John Lemon was acclaimed as the Vice-President and Bob Ford remains as the Secretary/Treasurer. The club circuit books were digitized and entered into a database using a new software program developed by member Randy Rogers to assist the circuit book manager in tracking sales, payouts, and auditing. In April 2017 the club website was redesigned and Randy Rogers became our new Website Coordinator.
President Larry Crane passed away during the summer of 2018 and John Lemon was acclaimed as our new club President. The position of Vice-President remained vacant until March 2019 when Marion Ace was elected as Vice-President.
John Lemon retired as club President at the end of December 2020. Marion Ace has stepped up to take on the role of President and we are seeking a volunteer for Vice-President.
The Covid-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns forced the club to cancel most of its 2020 meetings and annual show. We have purchased a Zoom account and will be holding monthly virtual meetings until we can physically get together again.