John Burnett and Peter Jacobi shared the hospitality suite and hosted the after dinner crowd to refreshments and a place where we could all tell our lies, trade stamps, and just enjoy each others company.
The PNWRG had arranged for a dealer to attend the first evening and he set up a small bourse in the bed room.
 The hospitality suite was well attended Friday evening. |  Jon Johnson kneels to the great bourse god in the hospitality suite as Peter Fralick and Cec Coutts look on. |
Saturday was the big day of the meeting. We started out with our philatelic program. Gary Dickinson lead off with a very informative talk entitled "More Than Just a Pretty face", a really interesting presentation on first day covers. Gary rekindled my interest in first day covers. I had no idea collecting them could offer the challenge it does.
Following Gary our BNAPS Webmaster, Bob Lane, gave a very informative talk on RPO cancels and included some of the real difficulties one incurred as he tried to service mail under heavy time constraints and of course in a darn moving vehicle. I often have trouble reading the full RPO cancel, never did understand all the various terms in the cancellation. A few questions to Bob and I came away much smarter than when I sat down.
 Gary Dickinson tells the story of some of Canada's earliest first day covers and unearths some interesting questions about how some of these early covers were created. |  Bob Lane presenting his very interesting talk on RPO's and answering the writers many questions. |
We finished up our morning philatelic session with an hour devoted to the business of the region.
Gary Dickinson has agreed to act as Chairman of the region (replacing Peter Jacobi) for the next two years, Peter Fralick has volunteered to take on the job of newsletter editor as I and my wife have elected to return to Alabama and will not be available to do the job in the future.
I also updated the members on our plans for BNAPEX 2010 in Victoria. This event will be held at the Empress Hotel and Victoria Conference Centre. The region has negotiated tremendous rates with the hotel and we look forward to a world class event in 2010. Saturday afternoon was spent in our social side. We all went to a no host lunch and then proceeded to Cedar Creek Estate Winery for a progressive tasting.
 Organizers John Burnett and Pete Jacobi take wine-drinking lessons from Gail Lane |  Vine-growing expert tells his secrets to attentive members. |
After having filled our tummies we sat back to listen to Dr. Maurice Williams a professor of History at UBC Okanagan. Dr. Williams is in the middle of an archeological dig in Myra Canyon. He has written a book about the people who built the Kettle Valley Railroad through this most treacherous and dangerous track. I do believe he is the best after dinner speaker we have had to date. He has written a book "Myra's Men" all about the characters who accomplished this undertaking. I bought the book and can say it is a great read!
Dr. Williams speaks.
Sunday morning was again devoted to our philatelic side. Bill Topping held the floor first thing in the morning and spoke on "Union Steamships Way Mail" on the west coast.
Bill Topping speaks
Bill Topping holds the audience's close attention with his talk on the Union Steamship Way Mail.
John Burnett talks of the wide open collecting field available to everyone who wishes to pursue the postal history of the KGVI era.
Pacific Northwest Regional Group of BNAPS
The PNWRG held its annual meeting at the Fairmont Hot Springs Resort in the East Kootenays of British Columbia and the meeting is history and we had a ball, Peter Jacobi and John Burnett put this meeting on..
Arline Burnett enjoying the view at this wonderful location in the East Kootenays.
The format for this meeting was a little different than our previous get-togethers. Pushed by member Bev Wallace, we changed our meeting format to "philatelic and regional stuff" in the morning and "social activity, attended by all" in the afternoon. I think this worked really well and will become the way we do business in the future. I really enjoyed the afternoon out with all the folks and I enjoyed my time at Fort Steele.
A small group met, but small groups tend to get things done.
Pete Runs a Fun Meeting
Pete works hard at getting his point across
Our regional meeting locations have allowed us to see a number of places such as Barkerville, in northern British Columbia, to Tacoma in Washington State, and from Galliano Island in the Gulf Islands to Fairmont in the East Kootenays. These meetings have been fun; we've had a chance to get to know other serious collectors and to bond socially with them. We count many of these fellow collectors among some of our best friends. So while these regional gatherings are ostensibly to enhance philatelic knowledge, they have also become mini social events, in which we and many have enjoyed participating.
We tried something different this year, and our choice of location didn't go over very well with the membership. The accommodation was reasonably priced and the location was tremendous, but it seems members want something closer to home. Our business meeting was productive and one of the main items that came out of the meeting was that rather than asking for additional dues for regional group membership we will spend down our accumulated funds. Effective immediately every person residing in our regions area is a member of the PNWRG. And everyone is invited to attend future regional meetings. We will continue a "no dues" policy until our funds run low and we need money to operate.
Pete Jacobi agreed to Chair the regional group for two years 2008 and 2009, John Burnett, our newsletter editor will take over for 2010 and 2011. Cec Coutts has agreed to become our Treasurer.
John Burnett announced that he had been approached to Chair the 2010 annual meeting of BNAPS in the greater Vancouver area. Peter Jacobi will assist and John Keenlyside has already volunteered to help also (John Keenlyside being a national judge will be asked to handle the judging)
After a business meeting, we ended the day with a clothesline exhibit by several members.
After a no host lunch, a group of 10 of us in 3 cars drove to the historic Ft. Steele Regional Park for a very enjoyable afternoon of tours and a trip down nostalgia's road.
Supper that evening was an "Italian Buffet". We all enjoyed dinner and fellowship here.
Ed Harris and Cec Coutts have a hearty discussion while June Coutts and Jon Johnson look on.
Dorothy Blunden speaking to us on her subject of the Columbia Valley history.
Everyone at John Arn's table was captivated by our speaker.
Ed Harris was the first to be asked to wear a hat as the talk discussed local Indian traditions.
By the time Dorothy had finished a lot of folks were wearing hats from the various eras in the Columbia Valley historical times.
Fort Steele was approximately an hour's drive from Fairmont, but it's a neat drive through some very impressive scenery. The Fort is like a restored town with many people acting the part of its citizens of the mid 19th century. Every actor was having fun doing their job and that just made you enjoy being around them and listening to their talk on their specialty. The museum is great and I wish I had more time for that visit. I think everyone came away with a new found appreciation of BC's early years. Peter Jacobi having spent years in the area in his former life as a mining engineer was a great tour guide and Cec Coutts added his own slant on the police barracks as he was with the RCMP before his retirement.
Fort Steele is laid out with lots of space and many things to see and do. I really enjoyed the blacksmith's presentation.
The Northwest Mounted Police barracks at Fort Steele, as you might expect the officers lived a lot nicer than the enlisted folks.
A group of PNWR folks exploring some back areas (probably looking for some old covers)
Peter Jacobi then put on a talk "The History of Cominco"
Peter Jacobi held his audience with a great talk on Cominco.
This Kootney based resort is also a spa and partners can subject themselves to being boiled in oil, having cucumber slices placed on their eyes and hot rocks on their backs while the other half enjoys a philatelic meeting. The golf course will be open and the Fairmont has lots of classy RV parking.
Because of it's location the PNWRG hopes many of their Alberta based counterparts will join them for the meeting.
Registration is through PNWRG Chairman Pete Jacobi or Editor John Burnett. Email Pete at pjacobi@shaw.ca or John at jb45855@aol.com and they will see you get registration material. Registration will also include an Italian buffet on Saturday evening and a really neat after dinner speaker.
Over the weekend of October 13 - 15, 2006, the PNWRG held its semi annual regional meeting at the Pacific Inn near White Rock BC. The meeting started on Friday evening with a two dealer bourse and an honor bar in our hospitality suite. We sure hope our dealers made some money from the event. I can attest to doing my share!
The regional meeting on Saturday had two distinct parts, the first a day excursion for the non collecting partners and the second a philatelic day for the members.
The partners excursion was led by Eileen Jacobi who took the spouses on a short tour of the coastal city of White Rock and then onto Steveston, on Lulu Island for a tour of the Gulf of Georgia Cannery. My wife tells me it was cold in the cannery, but the tour was great. The group then had a no host lunch in Steveston.
Arline Burnett persuaded the majority of spouses to join her at "Dave's Fish and Chips". I was raised on Lulu Island and believe Dave's makes the best fish and chips on the west coast, this seemed to be borne out from the comments I heard later in the evening. The group then headed to a wine tasting at "Domaine de Chabertin" a winery in Langley BC.
The philatelic program was a gem. We had five speakers each taking about one hour.
Ken Pugh spoke on forgeries of the Ottawa (Senate) and the Victoria and Esquimalt crown cancels. It is amazing just how many forgeries there are on these cancels. Ken has a new book in process and I can't wait to get my hands on one. We also welcomed Ken as a new BNAPS member. It is conceivable that he is the shortest tenured member to address BNAPS, having been a member for only a few minutes before he spoke.
Tracy Cooper put up a marvelous exhibit of advertising covers of Vancouver. I'm a native of Vancouver and was amazed at how many memories he brought back for me. I guess I'm getting old when someone puts up exhibit material from places I used to frequent as a youth.
Peter Jacobi showed a great collection of covers from the Arrow Lake Routes from Revelstoke to Robson. Some of these cancels are extremely rare as some of these towns were drowned with the damming of the river to form the lake and it was a pleasure to see them. John Burnett showed an overhead view of his small queen collection and told some stories that were tied to a number of the acquisitions. The philatelic day ended with another new BNAPSer, Tim Woodland spoke on the lumber industry post offices of the British Columbia coast. Again, another great presentation just full of information.
In the evening we met for a catered dinner and a guest speaker. Roy Strang spoke to the group on an area in Surrey British Columbia known as "Sunnyside Acres" an area of 120 hectares set aside in Surrey to remain an untouched forest. This feat of putting aside the last remaining transition woods on the lower mainland was a very difficult thing to accomplish. Just think of the value of this property to developers, yet this man along with other volunteers got the law changed to protect this property in perpetuity, well don Roy! Sunday morning saw us join and have a neat breakfast and say our farewells for another six months.
- John Burnett, event reporter
Please note that several photos will be added during the last week of October.
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