The Royal Philatelic Society of Canada (RPSC) has decided against allowing non-members to represent the country at international exhibitions.
A suggestion to withdraw the requirement for exhibitors to have a “direct RPSC membership” to represent Canada internationally was discussed among RPSC officials “at great length” during their recent board meetings, according to President Ed Kroft. The motion suggested changing the requirement from membership with the RPSC to membership with one of the RPSC’s roughly 80 chapter clubs.
“After much debate, the answer was people still had to be members of the RPSC itself, our society, and not necessarily a chapter which was a member of our society,” said Kroft at the group’s annual general meeting, held virtually in June.
At the board meeting where the motion to loosen the requirement was defeated, some officials expressed concerns about tracking chapter memberships, the impact to RPSC membership numbers and requirements with the Fédération Internationale de Philatélie, which oversees international exhibitions.
While the RPSC was forced to cancel its in-person convention in 2020 and 2021, it hosted a virtual national-level exhibition on Oct. 14-17 as part of this year’s online-only Royal Convention.
The prospectus for this year’s exhibition explained eligibility was only open to RPSC members (or for international residents, members of the national philatelic body in their country).
Past RPSC exhibition prospectus used the same wording: “This national-level exhibition is open to all individual collectors who are members of The Royal Philatelic Society of Canada, or if non-residents of Canada, are members of the national philatelic body of their country of residence.”