The Germany Philatelic Society will be having its National Meeting at the Great American Stamp Show (GASS) in Hartford, CT, August 15-18, 2024. We will be giving out our usual National exhibiting awards at this show. But there will be differences. The American Philatelic Society now has a strict rule of no more than two awards per society as part of the show. We will thus not be able to give out all of our awards at the show awards ceremony. However, we will be able to give out awards at our General Membership Meeting at GASS. To do this we need help from our members and specifically our exhibitors.
All GPS exhibitors who wish to be eligible for the GPS National awards at GASS must first submit the usual entry form for the show to the APS. Information on entries may be found at https://stamps.org/great-american-stamp-show/exhibitor-information. Then, you must pre-register your exhibit with Ken Gilbert, the GPS Convention Awards Chair, at conventions@germanyphilatelicsocietyusa.org. Pre-registration will be used to create a list of eligible exhibits for GPS awards.
You must be a member in good standing to receive any GPS award. Those awards are the President’s Grand Award (GPS Grand Award), the Chris Hunt Award (GPS Reserve Grand Award), the GPS One Frame Grand Award, and the Herman L. Halle Research Award for Best Exhibit Research. A minimum of three exhibits is required to give any specific award. There are also GPS medals equal to the level awarded at the show. You do not have to be present to receive one of the top four awards. You MUST be present at the General Meeting to receive a medal. We will not mail medals. As of February 29th, entries for one frame exhibits for the Stamp Show and the National Topical Stamp Show sections are full (AmeriCover, the First Day Cover section, is still open). There was only one possible qualifying exhibit at that time, so we likely will not be awarding a One-Frame Grand this year.
Again, in order to receive any GPS Award, you must first submit an entry for GASS and then pre-register your exhibit at conventions@germanyphilatelicsocietyusa.org. APS has stated that entries for GASS will close May 3, unless the limit is reached before that date. Note: the GPS does not submit entries to the show. That is up to the exhibitor. The pre-registration deadline will be May 15, so that we can get the information to the show jury. You will not be able to do this at the show. German exhibits at the show that have not been pre-registered will be ineligible for GPS awards.