Annual General Meeting at ORAPEX, 2007

The IMCRSC (International Machine Cancel Research Society of Canada) will have a general meeting at ORAPEX (Saturday May 6, 2007, 3 pm).

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the objectives of the IMCRSC?

• identify individual daters used in all offices issued an International machine(s)
• identify machine types used in all offices issued an International machine(s)
• update early and late dates of use for daters, obliterators, and slogans for all machines in all offices issued an International machine(s)
• examine and report on dater time marks
• confirm and record all findings in an on-line database, available to all members
• publish IMCRSC findings in the form of a handbook

How does the IMCRSC work?
Research, in part, will be conducted by individual members. Members may choose to share their findings by publishing in the International Flier, the IMCRSC’s journal. All members are welcome to use the Flier to share their findings, make comments, ask questions, etc. In addition to the efforts of individual members, collective research will be ongoing. All regular members will be expected to fill out and return questionnaires that will be sent out with the Flier three times per year. The questionnaires will focus the attention of the group on establishing early and late dates of use for daters, obliterators, and slogans and identifying the individual daters used in each of the offices equipped with an International.

How do members participate in establishing early and late dates or identifying individual daters?
In each Flier, members will be informed of which offices are about to be studied. Current information on these offices will be provided. This information will include current early and late dates as well as a list of postmarks needed for scanning. Scans of postmarks are required for making comparative studies in the process of identifying individual daters. If, after reviewing the current information, a member can improve on an early or late date or can supply a postmark suitable for scanning he/she submits that information by filling out the questionnaire and returning it to the IMCRSC. The information will be processed and published in an upcoming Flier, and will be added to the on-line database. If work on an office cannot be satisfactorily completed it will be passed over and revisited at a later date when more data may be available.

What happens if data becomes available after an office has been profiled in the Flier?
If an office has been profiled in the Flier, the individual daters have likely already been identified. So, it’s probable the only information that would come to light after a profile has been published in the Flier would be an improvement on an early or late date. There is a small chance that an obliterator could also arise but, that is much less likely than a new date. Regardless of what new information should turn up members will be notified in the updates column of the Flier, and the information on the IMCRSC website will always be the most up-to-date. The profiles that appear in the Flier will have blank spaces provided so members may pencil in updates as required.

How will multiple machine offices be studied?
Multiple machine offices* – St. John's, Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg, and Vancouver – will be studied using a slightly different technique than single machine offices. Since multiple machine offices had, for at least some period, more than one machine in operation, it will be necessary to isolate postmarks made by individual machines before each of the daters may be identified. To simplify things the multiple machine offices will be studied one year at a time. Once postmarks in a single year have been isolated, the use, reuse, or recycling of daters may be determined. Guidelines will be sent out to members to help in distinguishing different postmarks in common years in single offices using multiple machines. This will aid collectors in targeting individual postmarks. Once complete sets of specimens from a single year from an office using more than one machine is complete the postmarks can be identified and work on the next year can begin. When a collection of specimens from all years is complete the postmarks may be analyzed to determine whether or not they were recycled.
* Camp Borden can be considered a multiple machine office but, since the two machines operated at Borden had different dater types, dater identification is not an issue.

How will the information collected be verified? 
Regardless of what type of information is collected it will be reported as "unverified" unless it is accompanied by a scan, or photocopy, or a photograph of the original specimen.

What will be the final result of the IMCRSC’s research?
Regarding the early and late dates of use for daters, obliterators, and slogans, as well as the individual daters for each office, the IMCRSC will publish it’s findings in the form of a handbook for collectors. The handbook will be published under the names of all Society members.

What is the Flier?
The International Flier is the name of the IMCRSC’s journal. It will be published three times per year – winter, spring, and autumn. Further information about the International Flier may be found below.

What information is contained in the Members Only area of the website?
The IMCRSC website links to a database of Canadian International machine information. Images of each dater and obliterator used in each town will be displayed, along with earliest and latest known dates of usage of each. New information is added as it becomes available and is confirmed. The information on the website may be accessed in a variety of ways.The website contains all of the most up-to-date information that we have.

I don’t think I have anything to contribute. Does that matter?
No. It doesn’t matter if you have anything to contribute as long as you fill out the questionnaires sent with the Flier and return them to the IMCRSC, you will remain in good standing. Anyone can fill out the forms even if they don’t have any Internationals. Of course, it’s best if you do have information to report but, not everyone will have material in their collections that will be of value to IMCRSC every time a questionnaire is sent out. The success of the group depends on active participation. If a request for information goes out to members they can respond by visiting nearby stamp shows to look for specimens, review collections of friends or local stamp club members, contact area museums or archives, and so on. There are many ways to be involved.

Do I have to be qualified in any way to join the IMCRSC?
No. The only thing you need is an interest and a willingness to take part. The society is, after all, about research.

What do I get if I join?
You’ll receive a membership package to help get you started. The package contains your membership card, a map of Canada showing the location of the offices, a dater checklist for all the offices that operated Internationals, terms of reference*, profiles of the executive, and a copy of IMCRSC by-laws. You’ll also get an annual subscription to the International Flier, the journal of the IMCRSC. The Flier will arrive three times per year – winter, spring, and autumn.

*All members are encouraged to use common terminology in describing machines, dater assemblies, parts of dater assemblies, cancels, postmarks, obliterators and so on. Terminology therefore has been standardized in the terms of reference material supplied by the Society. The intention of the IMCRSC in supplying terms of reference material is to provide a standard to facilitate effective communication between Society members. It is not an attempt to establish a universal correct usage standard for terminology relating to postal machine study.

How do I join?
Simply fill out the application and send it with your dues to the IMCRSC. The application may be obtained by emailing your request to the IMCRSC.

The IMCRSC is hard to say. Does the Society have a nickname?
Yes. It is affectionately called the "I’m See Are See" (IM = I’m, C = See, RSC = Are See" ). If that name doesn’t suit you, a growing number of folks are referring to us as "I’m Crazy" (IM = I’m, CRS-C = Craz-y). Take your pick – we’ll respond to either.

The International Flier

What is the Flier?
The International Flier is the name of the IMCRSC’s journal. It will be published three times per year – winter, spring, and autumn.

Will there be regular columns in the Flier?
Yes. Each issue will include an editorial column and letters to the editor (when they are relevant).

From the Editor
Editorial from the President / Editor to introduce the current issue.

To the Editor
Letters to the editor relevant to the Society.
There will also be a number of columns aimed primarily at keeping research on track. They include the following:

Progress Report
A brief report on progress being made on current short and long-term projects. If a project is being abandoned for lack of data it will be reported in this column. This column will also address the overall progress of the Society.

Updates
Updates will be reported whenever new information is discovered regarding offices that have previously been profiled. The intention of the Updates column is to keep current the information distributed to members.

Most Wanted
The Most Wanted column will address the postmarks or other information most sought after by the IMCRSC to complete research. This column will be used to remind members to continue the hunt for information on offices that may have been abandoned for lack of data. In addition to those above there will be regularly featured columns to help keep members active in collecting Internationals. Like these:

Upcoming Shows
The Upcoming Shows column will list the stamp, postal history, or old paper shows that are likely to be most relevant or interesting to members.

Buy, Sell, and Trade
Want ads for members and others to list material being sought, up for sale, or available for trade. There will be fun stuff as well:

Show Case
We all love to show off prize pieces of postal history. Show Case gives members an opportunity to share their favourite International postmarks on cards or covers with the rest of the group. Show Case articles will include a reproduction of the cover and brief write-up highlighting a rare cancel, unusual usage, an early or late use, or a cover that simply looks great.

Before and After
Before and After will feature postmarks being used in research before and after being "cleaned up". IMCRSC business will also be featured regularly:

Member List
A running list of the members, with addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, their collecting interests and so on will be printed regularly but only once a year. The list will be comprised of members who consent to having personal information made available in the Flier.

Membership News
Membership News will focus on a variety of member activities. The column will also introduce new members to the rest of the Society.

Are there articles that are featured on a regular basis?
Yes. Each Flier will focus on one or more office profiles. The profiles, as detailed above, will present current data on featured offices including early and late dates as well as individual dater identification.

Will there be articles appearing on a regular basis but not in every issue?
Yes. There are several articles that will periodically appear in the Flier. They include the following:

The Technical Page
How-to articles to assist members interested in digitizing everything from a single postmark to entire collections, scanning and cleaning up postmarks, printing on transparency sheets, emailing image files etc.

This Day in History
This Day in History will zoom in on events taking place in the world matching dates from covers with International Machine Cancels. The intent will be to help establish an historical context, giving more clearly defined meaning to the dates on International machine covers.

Post Offices with Internationals
The Post Offices with Internationals articles will profile the offices where the Internationals were installed.

Member Profiles
Members who wish to be introduced to the rest of the membership may do so through Member Profiles. The profiles will be brief biographical introductions focusing on, among other things, the philatelic interests of individual members.

Multiple Machine Office Reports
The easiest way to approach the problem of tracking dater use in these offices is to identify individual postmarks one year at a time. It will therefore be necessary to make repeated visits to these offices over the course of many issues of the Flier. See "How will multiple machine offices be studied?" for more information.

Patents
Patents articles will look closely at the postal machines and other devices patented by the International Postal Supply Company of New York and those associated with the company.

Machines
Machines articles will examine the mechanics of the International machines – how they worked, what they looked like, how they were built, maintained and so on.

About the Postal Supply Company of New York
Articles about the history of the Postal Supply Company of New York will periodically be printed in the Flier. When was the company started? Who started it? Where was the company headquarters? How successful was the company? How well did the company compete with other companies? Who worked for the Company? What countries used the Internationals? What became of the company? These questions and many more well be answered in the Flier.

Open Articles
In these articles members write about anything they like…as long as it relates to the Internationals.

Flag Waving
Articles looking at flag cancels from various offices.

For information about this study group please contact David Collver at sault_postal_history@hotmail.com.

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