President: Laurie Ryan
My name is Laurie, and I love my hedgehogs. I’ve been collecting stamps since I was about 8 years old. My father bought me my first “World Album” and together we filled the pages. My maternal grandfather also was a stamp collector and I inherited his collection as well. After attending StampShow in Cincinnati, I got back into the hobby. I joined the local Cincinnati club, even chairing the club’s annual show for a few years. I joined APS in 1994, and then ATA in 1997. While attending an NTSS I joined the Biology Unit, and shortly thereafter I became Treasurer. I also collect endangered animals, small wild cats, puffins, newts, fish and iris. I have been a Board member of ATA for a better part of 10 years.
Vice-President: Glenn Mertz
Glenn started collecting U.S. stamps in 1964 and collected them until 2005, when it became too difficult to acquire the multitude of issues due to the policy of having to purchase whole sheets or whole rolls of stamps to get just the particular items desired.
Glenn has been collecting bird stamps since about 1970 and has accumulated a very large collection, which he houses in three-ring, two inch binders, by family. He started using the 2nd Edition of Clements Checklist of Birds of the World as a guide and graduated to each new edition that came out. The 6th Edition is his current bird checklist. Since Cornell University took over the publication upon the death of James F. Clements, they, in conjunction with the American Birding Association and the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, have published updates for the past five years, in collaboration with the various birding associations of the world. In addition, he created his own spreadsheet, using the 6th Edition of Clements, so that he can also keep track of all the changes and denote which of the ten thousand plus species have had a stamp produced for the bird in the Clements listing.
Glenn says he very much enjoys his hobby of collecting stamps with birds and mounting them in his albums by each family. It enables him to see all of the bird stamps within one family and see the various renditions, poses, and colors of each of the birds. He now has 13 albums of just stamps depicting birds.
Secretary/Treasurer: Chris Dahle
When I was about 6 years old, my mother started me on the road to stamp collecting. I have been active in the local Cedar Rapids Stamp club since 1981, serving as president of the club for three 2-year terms. I currently serve as secretary.
I have been the associate editor for Botany since 1994, and the Secretary since 1998.
My collecting interests are Scandinavia, British Commonwealth, US, Canada and several European countries in addition to Botany. I am currently a member of the American Philatelic Society, the American Association of Philatelic Exibitors, the Scandinavian Collectors Club, the United Nations Philatelists, the Rhodesia Study Circle and the Greater Southern Africa Philatelic Association.
