December 2003

Greetings!

I have recently been appointed as the new study group leader for St. Vincent. To those that know me I will be wearing the same shoes twice as I have the same position for the US-based "British Caribbean Philatelic Study Group". I specialize in collecting all aspects of St. Vincent philately since about 1975 (back when I was a teenager).

I see my role as one where I can help gather and disseminate information regarding all aspects of St. Vincent philately (this can take the form of regular stamps, varieties, postmarks, postal history, postal stationery, fakes & forgeries, registration labels, REVENUE stamps & documents, post offices and others just to name a few...). To aid me in this, I have set up a "Yahoo! Group" called "stvincentstamps". The group "website" is at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stvincentstamps

For those of you not on the internet, "Yahoo!" is a large portal ("starting point) website. They provide members (free to sign up) a place where you can have a "group". They will give a fair amount of free "space" on their servers allowing you to post photos and files (meaning in our case "scans of philatelic materials"). The other part is being able to "post" messages to the "group". When you write an e-mail to the group, it will automatically be forwarded to every member of the group. When you receive such an e-mail you can reply (if you wish) back to the group or to the individual if needed.

We currently have approximately 20 members (several of which are from the BWISC and the BCPSG groups). I've posted a number of interesting items to view at the site (and to download if you wish).

Subscribing is easy: simply send an e-mail addressed to stvincentstamps-subscribe@yahoogroups.com . If you wish to access the site, change e-mail notification options, view archives & photos, etc, you will have to become a member of "Yahoo!" first. Don't worry, it's fairly painless...

I also own the domain name www.stvincentstamps.com; and while I have a website there, I do have a more comprehensive and updated site with much interesting St. Vincent information available at www.freewebs.com/stvincentstamps. The "freewebs" site is just that, "free" (and no annoying pop-up ads or banners either). I ran across freewebs a while back and it is very quick and easy to set up. They give you the ability to create up to seven free pages using their online tools. You can create a very nice looking site in less than an hour! To create your own site, go to www.freewebs.com and follow the instructions. I thought I would mention this as it is a great way to help promote the hobby and your own specialty.

There are a tremendous amount of free resources available to us on the internet, and I urge all of you to take advantage of that to help enhance our hobby.

I am also fortunate to live about 6 miles from one of the larger philatelic libraries in the United States, the "Wineburgh Philatelic Library", which is housed in the main library of the University of Texas in Dallas (Richardson branch).

If you need to contact me, please send an e-mail to info@stvincentstamps.com or snail-mail to Peter Elias, PO Box 940427, Plano, Texas 75094-0427 USA.

I am looking forward to seeing many of you join the "St Vincent" Yahoo! Group and to partake in discussions regarding St. Vincent philately!