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Changing of the Guard

The Stamp Collecting Report, I'm Lloyd de Vries

The U-S Postal Service says it gets thousands of suggestions each year on what stamps 
should be issued. It ends up picking about 25 subjects. And it gets help from a panel 
called the Citizens Stamp Advisory Committee, or C-SAC.

"The object of CSAC is not just to say yea and nay. It's to take worthy subjects that 
have been proposed, and to make as much out of them as we can...to make them diverse, 
to make them interesting."
RUNS :12

John Hotchner is a well-known stamp collector who is leaving C-SAC after a dozen years, 
along with former Second Lady Joan Mondale. About 6 years ago, Postmaster General Jack 
Potter instituted term limits.

In their place, Potter has named two graphic artists Antonio Alcala and Eric Madsen, 
and the former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts Dana Gioia. 

While all the panel's members end up collecting stamps somewhat, Gioia told me three 
years ago that he's serious about it.

"I've been a stamp collector ever since I was a kid, and I collect first day covers, 
Vatican, American, Italian stamps, and I have a huge collection of poets on stamps, and 
also of patriotic covers from World War II.
RUNS :14

Gioia is a member of several stamp collecting societies, so stamp collectors' interests 
will still be represented on C-SAC.

I'm Lloyd de Vries of the Virtual Stamp Club. For more on stamps and stamp collecting, 
visit virtual-stamp-club-dot-com.

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