I Was Looking for a Stamp Club. I Found a Philatelic Community.

When I decided that I was going to combine two of my interests—stamp collecting and Freemasonry—I discovered something I hadn't really considered before: I could actually create philatelic exhibits.

That sounded exciting.

There was just one problem.

I had no clue what I was doing.

I knew enough to realize that collecting stamps and creating a competitive or educational exhibit were two very different things. If I was going to try this, I was going to need help from people who actually knew what they were doing.

So, I started looking for a local stamp club.

That turned out to be more difficult than I expected.

I found lists of old stamp clubs in the area and started making some trips to see if

I could find meetings. More than once, I would make the drive only to discover that the club I had found on an old list was no longer active.

Eventually, I came across the Dayton Stamp Club.

At that point, I had a decision to make. I could make another drive and hope that this club was still around—or I could do something much simpler.

I sent them an email.

I figured that if they were defunct too, at least I wouldn't have wasted another trip.

Instead, I was blown away when they responded.

Not only was the Dayton Stamp Club still active, but I quickly discovered that it was a vibrant club filled with people who were willing to share what they knew.

And they didn't just tell me where to look for information.

They assigned me a mentor.

Carol Costa became instrumental in my development as a philatelist and exhibitor. She patiently helped me begin putting an exhibit together and taught me things that I simply didn't know I needed to learn.

That first step turned into many more.

Through Carol, I was put in contact with Vera Felts, a former head of the American Topical Association. I also had the opportunity to connect with Roger Zwillinger, author of The Path to Gold. These weren't simply names I had encountered while searching the internet. They became people I could learn from as I began figuring out this new part of the hobby.

Carol also directed me toward some of the national organizations that have become important parts of my philatelic journey, including the American Topical Association, the American Philatelic Society, and the American First Day Cover Society.

What I had originally thought was going to be a search for someone who could teach me how to build an exhibit was becoming something much bigger.

I joined the Dayton Stamp Club and began getting to know the people who make the club what it is.

Mike Komiensky has been invaluable in helping me continue to develop as a collector and exhibitor. His willingness to share his knowledge has given me another resource as I have continued learning.

Then there was Doug Fite.

Doug helped me take another step that I hadn't originally planned on taking—becoming a stamp author.

The more involved I became, the more I began to understand that philately wasn't simply about putting stamps into an album.

There was research.

There was writing.

There was exhibiting.

There was learning how to tell a story with the material you had collected.

And, perhaps most importantly, there was a community of people willing to help you learn.

AIRPEX became an important part of that process for me as well.

I've had the opportunity to display my exhibits at AIRPEX and, just as importantly, receive feedback on them. That has allowed me to see what works, what doesn't, and what I can improve before eventually submitting an exhibit to be judged.

That experience has been especially valuable because I am still learning.

I'm not someone who came into philately already knowing how to build an exhibit. I had to learn it one step at a time—and I am still learning.

Looking back, I'm glad I sent that email to the Dayton Stamp Club instead of making another trip based on an old list.

I was looking for a stamp club.

What I found was a community.

I found a mentor in Carol Costa. I found people like Mike Komiensky and Doug Fite who have helped me develop in different ways. I found connections to people such as Vera Felts and Roger Zwillinger. I found organizations such as the ATA, APS, and AFDCS that opened additional doors.

And I found opportunities to exhibit, write, research, and continue developing the stories I want to tell through philately.

My original goal was simply to figure out how to combine stamp collecting and Freemasonry.

I didn't realize at the time that finding the Dayton Stamp Club would become one of the first major steps in building an entirely new part of my journey.