Philatelic Youth Council (PYC) New Zealand - Youth Philately
Philatelic Youth Council of New Zealand Inc.
Chairpersons Report – February 2020
PYC has struggled in the last year as a number of our activities due to an aging and busy committee and clubs suffered with low youth involvement which has also made it tough.
The website is assisting PYC maintain its profile the youth of today look to online content as the basis of their continued interest. There is still a lot of work to do and we need additional help to achieve this. Making stamp collecting desirable again to the technically savvy youth of today is the key to our future. Paul McTaggart is continuing to do a great job from a technology perspective with our online website presence.
The COGS funding, we receive, thanks to Graham Gauld’s efforts continue to make our activities viable. PYC also had a good year with good sales of our protectors which does provide additional funding to keep our other projects moving, thank you Barbara for your efforts.
The 2019 stamp camp had to be cancelled due to low registrations. This was the first time a camp did not occur in a year since 1966. Although disappointing it is hoped that camps can continue, with them being our flagship training forum. Camps have provided the main source of exhibitors over the years which has provided PYC great recognition both nationally and internationally.
Fun Philately has also gone another year without an issue being produced. I have to shoulder blame for this as we have an able editor come forward, Josh Black, however I have not managed to pass over the material to him and help him make a start.
The other area of concern is attracting youth to our youth clubs. Attracting youth continues to be a challenge. We did manage to participate in the Waikato Ambury Shield day with a display of youth exhibits, unfortunately we did not get sufficient numbers to make a Youth Interclub competition occur. The positive was that we were not able to put together a display in 2018, so at least we have provided some visibility in 2019. The work our youth club leaders do is invaluable and we appreciate their efforts.
The PYC executive is a committed group who do a great job with the resources we have. A challenge is still to bring in new people on to the team. It is with regret that we had received resignations from the executive from Anne and Trevor Bevan. The Bevan family has been involved with PYC since the beginning and we hope that can continue in some form, however ill health and age has resulted in both Anne and Trevor making this decision. Their support and involvement has been invaluable over the years and it will be missed. On behalf of PYC I want to thank both Anne and Trevor for their work over the years and continued support.
It is hoped that the NZ2020 international exhibition in march will provide a boost for youth philately. PYC will have a presence and it is hoped that we can generate some interest in youth attendees.
Once again thank you to the whole executive and others for the work you all achieve and look forward to your continued support.
Tim Beach
Chairperson, PYC