WPS100 Stamp Show – 11-13 November 2022

Welcome to the WPS100 website

The Wellington Philatelic Society welcomes you to the website for WPS100 Stamp Show 2022. The exhibition celebrates the centenary of the society which is proud of its part in the philatelic activity of Wellington, the Wellington region and New Zealand over its one hundred years and plans to contribute for many years to come.

Australian Commissioner/Judges

The changed dates have affected the availability of some of the people previously appointed. The full list of commissioner/judges can be found at Prospectus & Entry Form.

Car travel to Wellington

The long-awaited ‘Transmission Gully’ Motorway is now open. Travelling by car to the venue or your accommodation could well be affected by this. Please check Getting there.
Posted 1 April 2022

WPS100 – dates changed

With the NZ Government announcement late February on its Covid strategy the WPS100 organising committee considered its options. If the show continued in July, it seemed unlikely Australian visitors would be able to attend without first going into isolation for a period in New Zealand. The July date was thus no longer viable, and the strategy indicated Australians could probably attend without self-isolation after early October. This period coincided with the venue’s busy period, but we were fortunate other bookings could be moved enabling us to book in the second week of November.
WPS100 Stamp Show will now run from Friday 11 to Sunday 13 November 2022.
The organising committee imagines this may affect some potential exhibitors and visitors. (For example, these dates coincide with the FIP Cape Town 2022 exhibition). We do regret any inconvenience the change might cause but felt we had no alternative.
The Prospectus has been amended and can be found at Prospectus & Entry Form
If you have any queries, please contact secretary@wps100.nz

Posted 7 March 2022

Wellington Philatelic Society The First 100 Years

The society is publishing a book to celebrate its first 100 years from its founding as the Donbank Philatelic Society in 1922 to its status as the Wellington Philatelic Society in 2022.
The author, Sue Vernall, has researched the society’s history in depth. She has captured the personal memories of current and past members relating to the society and its activities but more importantly the people who formed part of the society they knew.
Profusely illustrated in full colour the A4-sized book will have over 140 pages and be professionally typeset and printed.
TO BE PUBLISHED IN JUNE 2022.
A pre-publication order form, which must be received no later than 30 April 2022< to guarantee delivery can be found at WPS100 Shop.

Posted 7 March 2022

Wellington Philatelic Society Incorporated

The society can trace its roots back to the formation of the Donbank Philatelic Society in 1922 by a group of enthusiastic teenage stamp collectors.

The founders resided at the Donbank YMCA Hostel that provided accommodation for youths and young men who worked in the city or were students at the university.

In 1940 the Donbank Philatelic Society formally changed its name to the Wellington Philatelic Society. The society is currently preparing a book to record and celebrate its one hundred years. They will have this available for purchase at WPS100.

Greater Wellington and Porirua

Wellington City is more densely populated than most other cities in New Zealand. It has very few open areas in which to expand, and this brought about the development of “suburban” cities. The Greater Wellington area stretches across areas administered by the city councils of Wellington, Lower Hutt, Upper Hutt and Porirua. One of the consequences is the Greater Wellington area has the most extensive public transport system in New Zealand.

Lower Hutt and Upper Hutt, collectively referred to as the Hutt Valley, are areas to the northeast of Wellington City. Our colleagues the Hutt Valley Philatelic Society and Upper Hutt Stamp Club provide philatelic clubs for those residing in this area.

Porirua City lies to the north. The Wellington Philatelic Society has traditionally served this area. Since 2013 our society has operated an outreach programme to Porirua with the formation of the Porirua Stamp Group. Therefore, it seems appropriate our celebratory exhibition should be held in Porirua.

The venue

Te Rauparaha Arena is a multi-purpose indoor sports and entertainment centre officially opened on 21 November 2008. The venue was named by the Ngāti Toa iwi after one of their most famous leaders, Te Rauparaha best known perhaps, but certainly not his most important legacy, for the haka Ka Mate used by the All Blacks before each of their games.

The arena includes a three-court main hall, a single-court warm-up hall, gymnasium, lecture theatre, cafe and administration offices adjacent to an aquatic centre.

WPS100 plans to take full advantage of the facilities and you can look forward to more information between now and the exhibition.

More information about Te Rauparaha Arena will be found at Venue.

Exhibition

The organising committee, headed by Chairman Patrick Brownsey (President of the Wellington Philatelic Society), has people with experience in running national exhibitions. They are listed at Organising committee.

The Prospectus (including the exhibition regulations) can be found at Prospectus and the entry form at Entry Form.

Australasian Challenge

Apart from the normal diversity of interesting exhibits available at New Zealand National Exhibitions WPS100 includes the 2022 Australasian Challenge. The Challenge, held every three years, is between teams from Australia (Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, New South Wales, Canberra [ACT] and Queensland) and New Zealand (North Island and South Island). The Challenge is hotly contested, and we expect a broad range of quality exhibits.

Each of the named six states and ACT has appointed a Commissioner. They will be seeking entrants for the challenge and other Australian entries. ALL exhibitors from Australia must use one of these commissioners – their names and contact details can be found in the Prospectus.

Advertising, sponsorship and donations

You can let people know about the services your organization or company provides through a wide range of advertising opportunities which are available. This includes advertisements in the Bulletins, show catalogue and other publications. Advertising will greatly assist the organising committee to cover the costs of publishing various documents but also help with other aspects of running the show.

We are very grateful for the sponsorship we are receiving from NZ Post and the Porirua City Council. There may be a specific activity you or your company or society might wish to sponsor, or it may simply be sponsorship of a single frame or two as a personal way of assisting.

Donations are most welcome and will be acknowledged.

For the full range of options available please visit wps100/shop or contact our shop manager at shopmanager@wps100.nz or write to Shop Manager WPS100, PO Box 2146, Wellington 6140, New Zealand.

Volunteer helpers

Exhibitions require a lot of voluntary assistance from well beforehand but more particularly at the setting-up stage; during the event; and, immediately afterwards. The range of tasks means there will be one that will fit YOU and the time you have available. Please consider volunteering – you will have a great time and meet many interesting people.

Register your interest

Would you like to register your interest in volunteering to assist WPS100? If you do please complete the form at Volunteers.

The organising committee will be appointing a person to manage volunteer help. They, or one of their assistants, will contact you if you register to identify how you could help and confirm or amend times you are available.

Product

Members of the Wellington Philatelic Society were actively involved in the New Zealand Centennial Exhibition held at the Dominion Museum in Wellington 15-23 April 1940.

The society has held several National Philatelic Exhibitions and supported those held by our neighbouring societies.

It seems appropriate therefore the personalised stamps (commonly called CALs} issued for WPS100 should celebrate those past National Exhibitions run by the society.

 

Welpex ’72

The first of these, Welpex 1972, celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the society.

The chairman of the organising committee was Marcel Stanley, former secretary (1936 [aged 18]-1939) and president (1960 69) of the society and a life member from 1975. In 1971 Marcel was invited to sign the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists and was, at the time, reputed to have the best collection of ‘New Zealand Chalon Heads’ in the world. A Fellow of both RPSNZ and RPSL he was awarded an OBE for services to philately in 1990.

Stampex ’95

The second CAL celebrates Stampex ’95. This was primarily a Youth Exhibition but also included a strong Adult one-frame competition.

The driving force for this exhibition was one of our current life-members, Geoff Tyson, at that time President of the society and a keen advocate for youth – then and remaining so now. It was his first foray into organising an exhibition. Alongside him were two other novices who are part of our current organising committee Leigh Gravestock and Bob Gibson. It proved to be a tough learning curve but clearly it did not dampen their enthusiasm for exhibitions.

A range of products incorporating these CALs have been produced and while stocks last can be purchased by completing the Order form or through our Shop.

Keeping in touch

We plan issuing three Bulletins. The first, containing much of the above material can be found as a PDF file at Bulletin 1.

The bulletins will provide more information about the exhibition including updates on planned activities and products that will be available. You can register your interest in receiving this information at Contact Us.

If you have any queries about the exhibition, please email secretary@wps100.nz or write to Secretary WPS100, PO Box 2146, Wellington 6140, New Zealand.

12 September 2021