Q. I am very keen to start a club but don't really have any ideas about what to do! Can you help?

Well here are twenty ideas that should keep your youngsters entertained.

1. Tap all relations, friends from the extended family and from a group/school, to send an envelope, with a selection of different stamps, addressed to the school/college club from any foreign holiday destination. (The club could provide pre-addressed envelopes.)
2. Use the above resource for display, basic geography of the Mediterranean region, the EU, currency, national names of the country, ego Estonia/Eesti etc.
3. Take an A5/4 size map such as of South America, mount on A3 card, then try to get a stamp for each of the countries..... mount with basic information about each country.

Ideas linked to research on the Internet

4. Group of stamps from GB, such as 1965 and 1974 Churchill' display as a time line with information about his life and comments relating to the periods depicted on the stamps..... Queen Mother issues, Francis Chichester issues, early 1970's explorer issues and others. This could be set as a competition. Research from the Web.
5. Similar to above. . . collect a group of stamps showing GB Knights, i.e." Sir such and such", e.g. Sir Walter Scott 1971 issue, Sir Bobby Moore 1999 Millennium issue, Sir Isaac Newton 1987 issue. Research basic information: birth, death, why they were knighted.
6. "Story behind the Stamp", almost any interesting stamp.... ergo Egyptian Pyramids, Japan's Mt. Fuji, etc.. .. research from the Web. Again mini competitions and displays could result.

Different display ideas using the graphics on a computer

7. Christmas stamps set in computer generated Christmas cards.... design using Autoshapes in WORD
8. Works of Art on stamps set in a picture frame.... Autoshapes package in WORD
9. Railway turntable as at York Museum, with railway lines going to railway stamps 10. Design a ZOO (build up A4 sheets each having stamps with a different class of creature on them)

Competition each term, could be just one/two sheets of A4, within the club. Then once a year a competition where the whole school votes to decide the best entry?

11. Take a letter from the alphabet, selected from a hat by a club member. The Competition entry title must begin with that letter.
12. Thematic competitions. . . Women on stamps. . .Sports each beginning with a different letter. . .etc.
13. Machin definitive stamps... easy access to plenty and leave it up to their imagination what they do with it.
14. Five from each Continent or one from each of the 25 EU countries. . . etc.

Improving Stamp Knowledge

15. Borrow from local Philatelic Society watermark detectors and phosphor detectors, perforation gauges, and practice use of...................
16. Build up a Glossary of Philatelic Terms with examples.. ego Traffic Lights, Controls, Cylinder Blocks, vfu, u/m, FDC, booklets, etc.

Postmarks

17. Regional and County Sorting Offices..... how many different styles can you collect? . . . how many for neighbouring towns/cities/counties?
18. How many different times on postmark? . . . How many for your local sorting office?
19. Can you collect a postmark for each date of a particular month? 20.

Postmarks from Islands.

20 Have you a stamp collecting Network? It's easy to organise one in a school or college as many parents will work in offices/post rooms. You do need a continual supply of material and what you do not use can be given to Charity.



also see the Stamp Active Day page for other ideas

rnunning a club questions >>>>