Society News

The main town post office situated in Smith Street is to close in the Spring of next year and will be operated from two Co-op stores.

The outlet in the Markets will be modernised and will become the main town post office, offering traditional post office counter services from its four counters, including a self-service kiosk. The Markets post office will also offer Guernsey Post’s collectable philatelic items. The second post office will open at the Co-op’s Terrace store, and will be the hub for business services, including PO boxes.

PIONEER AVIATION IN THE CHANNEL ISLANDS in two volumes by ROGER HARRIS

• This is the first comprehensive history of aviation in the Channel Islands
• Every known flight to, or within the Islands recorded and illustrated
• Biographies of the aviators and other famous characters involved
• OVER 1100 original photographs and images from the author’s own lifetime collections illustrate the two volumes
• Size A4, soft cover
• Volume 1: The Dawn to 1933 consists of 278 pages (ISBN: 978-1-8382059-0-4)
• Volume 2: 1934 – 1947 consists of 306 pages (ISBN: 978-1-8382059-1-1)

Both volumes are priced at £30 each plus £5 post and package per volume. Overseas buyers will pay the appropriate overseas postage rate.

SPECIAL OFFER FOR CISS MEMBERS: Each volume priced at £25 plus £5 post and package. BUY BOTH VOLUMES AT A SPECIAL PRICE OF £40 plus £5 post and package per volume. Overseas members to pay the normal overseas postage rate. REMEMBER TO QUOTE YOUR CISS MEMBERSHIP NUMBER.

To order contact secretary@ciss.uk or write to Richard Flemming, 64 Falconers Green, Burbage, Hinckley, Leicestershire, LE10 2SX, United Kingdom.

Due to the current UK Government Covid-19 pandemic guidelines the committee took the decision to move the Members Weekend, due to be held in April to the 23rd – 25th July 2021. Venue remains the same: The Three Swans Hotel, Market Harborough. As this weekend meeting was very close to the April AGM, it has been decided to move the AGM to September 2021. For further details regarding actual dates of the 2021 meetings programme please look on the “Programmes” page of the www.ciss.uk website.

Your Executive Committee together with our Website Administrator have worked hard during the lockdown to review the content of our existing website for the first time for some years. At the same time, we registered a new web address, www.ciss.uk, some seven letters shorter than our previous address.

We are therefore very pleased that you have chosen to visit our relaunched and redesigned website. Along with a new modern design, you will also find the website easier to navigate. The website has been designed to be viewed on a range of devices including computers, mobile phones and tablets.

New features include:

• Easier logging in – you can log in from any page via the login box on the right hand side.

• Updated Channel Islands Topics pages

• Members Discussion – you can post a reply to our newly added discussion board

• Latest News feed directly on the right hand side of the page.

And, of course, you have already discovered that your existing login will continue to work.

I hope you will find the changes we have made interesting and user friendly.

The Stamp Collector magazine is holding a month-long virtual “Summer of Stamps Festival” on its website from 9th July until 18th August. I am pleased to inform members that the Channel Islands Specialists’ Society is one of the featured societies represented in this Festival. To view the society’s listing please log-in to www.allaboutstamps.co.uk/stamp-festival. Click on “Featured Societies” and scroll down through the pages to find The Channel Islands Specialists’ Society entry for the Festival. Enjoy.
Keep safe. Keep healthy.

The dates for the Guernsey members of the RPSL/CISS group are as follows: July 31st, August 28th, September 25th, October 30th and November 27th. All meetings are Friday evenings between 7pm and 9pm. The July meeting will be held in the St Sampson Suite, Peninsula Hotel, Guernsey. The meetings for the rest of 2020 will be held in the Andrew Mitchell Library at Les Cotils, St Peter Port. If you are on Guernsey why not go along. PLEASE NOTE CHANGE OF VENUE FOR AUGUST 2020 AND BEYOND.

The Committee of the Channel Islands Specialists Society is pleased to announce that David Ackroyd has been declared the winner of the John Hirst Silver Salver for 2019 with his article Ted and James Birch and the Pigeon Post Stamp that appeared in the September 2019 journal.

The Forces Postal History Society (FPHS) has provided me with the following statement.

“During these difficult times we have made the decision to make our current journal available to the widest philatelic audience possible, free of charge. We hope that your membership can make use of this facility which is available as a download from the FPHS website front page at http://www.forcespostalhistorysociety.org.uk”

Richard Flemming, Secretary