Incoming President’s Message

First, I would like to thank Doug Boyce for

his leadership over the last several years.

OMSA owes Doug a big

debit of gratitude.

Many of you are prob- ably asking yourselves the question, who is this guy, Dean Veremakis who is taking over the helm of OMSA? I am a retired Navy Captain with over 30 years of com- bined active and reserve service. I retired in 1998 as the Commanding Officer of the Naval Air Reserve Unit that augmented the Naval Air Station, Patuxent River, MD.

Current, I am a Product Manager for the Com-

merc’ial Professional Services Performance Technology Department at Liberty Mutual In- surance Group. We provide behavior-based consulting services to Fortune 500 companies; quantifying the value of behavioral safety pro- cesses in decreasing the cost of risk for client organizations; and providing training on behav- ioral safety and other Performance Technology products to various interested parties both internally and externally.

I have been an OMSA member since 1983 and had great fun in hosting the 2000 Convention

in Atlanta, GA. I have been a Board member for the past 2 ~/ears and before that was the

Assistant Publications Manager. I have been

collecting military & aviation memorabilia for

about 40 years, getting into U.S. and British

medals during the last 20 years.

I have thought long about where I see OMSA

heading in the future and have put my thoughts

into the following;

I. Increase the awareness and prestige of the organization through;

a. Presentations to the public regarding medal collecting,

b. OMSA sponsored public displays of medals, c. Use of the new Honorary Membership to

gain recognition, d. Continue the donation program of OMSA

publications.

2. Continued upgrading of the JOMSA by;

a. Stabilizing the Editorship (whether inter-

Volume 52 Number 5

nally or outsourcing), b. Increased use of the IOMSA Committee

to help edit and qualify articles, c. Continuous improvement of IOMSA con-

tent and color enhancements.

3. Affiliate with appropriate organizations to build bridges for further recognition and to in- crease the availability of OMSA members" use of additional research materials.

4. Put a plan in place to distribute the new

OMSA Membership Brochure to gain more pub- licity as well as increase membership.

5. Place more emphasis and increase aware- ness regarding fakes and replicas within the collecting field through more published infor- mation in the ./OMSA, and by convention seminars.

6. Activate the research funding proposal.

That’s all I have for now, but please feel free to contact me with your concerns, issues and needs. I will answer as best as I can.

Outgoing President’s Message

This is my last message as OMSA president. Dean took over on September 15~h and we have been working to ensure a smooth transition.

There is a report in this issue on the annual convention held at the Drawbridge Inn and Con- vention Center. The facilities were very good and we had an excellent bourse. My thanks to Alden Wright, Katie Wright, Bob English and Bob Reynolds for their efforts in making this convention such a success. There are two other people that attend every convention and spend the entire time taking care of OMSA members. They are Ribbon Bank Manager John Royston and Associate Publications Manager Steve Watts. We appreciate the time and effort they put into these activities and also thank the OMSA members who support these functions.

The OMSA Board of Directors has approved an increase in the annual dues and a revised pro- gram for life memberships. This action was not taken lightly and is the result of two ma- jor postage increases in 2001 as well as other

increased costs. (Continued on page 34)

The Journal of the Orders and Medals Society of America

The Forty-Second Annual OMSA Convention

John Sylvester Jr. OMSA No. 1888

T he Forty-Second Annual

Conveution of OMSA was held 15 - 19 August 2001 at the Drawbridge Inn at Fort Mitchell, Kentucky. Despite its pseudo-English peculiarities, the site met with the general approval of the attending mem- bers. The spacious bourse room allowed the setup of 208 tables for sales and an addi- tional 32 tables for exhibits. This year’s exhibits dealt with a wide’variety of subjects and all were both interesting to ex- amine aud informative. Over 250 OMSA members regis- tered for the convention, close to the same uumber as regis- tered for last year’s convention in Atlanta, Georgia. In addi- tion, there were 32 guests registered, and on Saturday 72 non-members shopped the bourse.

The view of the front of the bourse hall. Many members took time to enjoy the grounds.

The bourse offered an excellent array of material for

sale. Items for sale ranged from a fine Peninsula group,

to superb European grand cordons, to high quality French

Indochina pieces, to both scarce and currently manu-

factured American medals. An informal census

suggested that there were

fewer British orders, decora-

tions, and medals for sale than

in past years. However, there

was also a wider variety of

worldwide medals. Most of the

major U.S. and foreign deal-

ers were well represented at

the bourse.

Outgoing OMSA President Doug Boyce finishing up some business at the bourse.

As always, the convention ~vas a opportunity for members to discuss a variety of interesting topics. Discussion among members ou the bourse floor included the usual topic of deal- ing with the increasing amount of fakes and reproductious, as well as the more recent impac~ of lnternet auctions, such as eBay, on military shows and

George Wilhelmsen manning his table, which contained many fine U.S. medal groups.

Volume 52 Number 5

cause of increases in mailing expenses, of raising the dues for domestic members by $10 and foreign members by $15. Constitutional changes were also approved, the most notable being the renaming of the former "Honorary Member" to "Distinguished Member." The term "Honorary Member" is now bestowed upon persons who have rendered notewor- thy service to OMSA, but who would not ordinarily become members.

mail-order auctions.

On the whole, the members in attendance were the older members of the Society--most with prior military experience. This is perhaps because an interest in medals and history generally blossoms with age. However, an encouraging number of younger members, as well as a few new members, also attended.

An integral part of each OMSA convention are the semi- nars. This year was no excep- tion, and at the first, very well attended seminar, John Tamplin and Norm Gooding presented information on Brit- ish and Commonwealth med- als. The second seminar, on United States medals, included presentations by Barry Weaver on the "Badges of the United Spanish War Veterans," Kurt Stauffer and Frank Smith on "World War II Official U.S. Army Purple Heart Engraving Styles," and Ron Fischer on "POW Awards and Parapher- nalia.’"

During the lunch, Bob Reynolds presented a brief Treasurer’s report and Dick Flory noted that OMSA now

has ten monographs and eight Medals Notes for sale, with a new monograph by Gary Hartman due out soon.

The highlight of every convention is the banquet. At this year’s banquet, Doug Boyce introduced the incom- ing president, Dean Veremakis. Doug Boyce was also awarded the OMSA Distinguished Service Medal for his outstanding contributions to the Society during his two terms as OMSA’s president. OMSA member Jack Boddington also presented the Royal Canadian Legion

At the business lunch, Presi- dent Doug Boyce noted the unhappy necessity, largely be- Lowell Jackson (behind table) discussing business with two fellow OMSA members.

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