Guidelines on Judging Open Philately

1. Competitive Exhibitions

These Guidelines have been drafted with regards to Open Philately, to help the jury to judge the individual exhibits and to help exhibitors to develop their exhibits.

2. Rules

Open Philately seeks to broaden the range of exhibiting and to allow philatelists to include objects from other collecting fields in support of, and in order to develop, an understanding of the philatelic material shown.

It provides an opportunity to present the range of research undertaken by showing the philatelic material in its cultural, social, industrial, commercial, or other context and to show wider and deeper knowledge of the topic.

By allowing an extended range of material Open Philately has the further objective of bringing new collectors to the skill and enjoyment of exhibiting and demonstrating its attractiveness as a hobby.

2.1 The philatelic material must be at least 50% of the exhibit.

2.2 It is not a requirement that the non-philatelic material comprises half of the exhibit, but the variety of the non- philatelic material will influence the judging of ‘Treatment’ as well as ‘Material’.

3. Principles of Exhibit Composition

Open Philately exhibits shows the dual aspects of philatelic and non-philatelic material, and the exhibit must develop the chosen subject in an imaginative and creative manner.

Open Philately exhibits may include:

3.1 All types of philatelic material included in all other exhibiting categories (see SREVs).

3.2 Non-philatelic material may include all types of items, excluding dangerous or prohibited material. Non- philatelic items must be relevant to the chosen subject and serve to illustrate it.

3.3 An Open Philately exhibit must show the development of the chosen subject in an imaginative and creative manner.

3.4 The philatelic items must be described in the proper philatelic terms, as they would have been in a similar Traditional, Postal History, Thematic or any other exhibit.

3.5 The non-philatelic items must be described and be relevant and assist the development of the exhibit.

3.6 Exhibits may be planned chronologically, geographically or any other way that the exhibitor may feel appropriate to employ.

4. Criteria for Evaluating and Judging Exhibits

4.1 The importance of understanding an Open Philately exhibit can mean that the necessary text will be included to provide background information for the chosen subject. However, all text must be concise and clear, and the non- philatelic material must improve the understanding of the open philately subject and the attractiveness of the exhibit.

4.2 Open Philately exhibits will be judged by approved specialists in their respective fields.

Treatment 30

• Title and Plan · 10
• Treatment · 20

Knowledge and Research 35

• Philatelic Knowledge and Research · 20
• Non-philatelic Knowledge and Research · 15

Material 30

• Condition · 10
• Rarity · 20

Presentation 5

Total 100

5. Treatment

5.1 A total of 10 points should be related to Title and Plan, the relationship between the title of the exhibit, the scope of the story, and the structure of the exhibit.

All Open Philately exhibits must contain an Introductory or Title Page to show:

• The aim of the exhibit
• Relevant general information on the subject being developed in the exhibit
• A plan explaining the development of the exhibit. The plan should not include an extensive text, but a logical division of the topic in sections to provide idea of the contents of the exhibit for the jury and the public
• An indication of personal research
• A bibliography. A well thought out introductory page will assist both the exhibitor, the judges, fellow exhibitors and the public.

5.2 The points for Treatment are 20 points.

6. Knowledge and Research

6.1 Research should be interpreted in a wider sense and generally show the exhibitor’s thorough knowledge of the topic. This knowledge is documented through the choice of material and the use of brief but sufficient text.

6.2 A total of 35 points can be given for Knowledge and Research.

6.3 These 35 points are divided into 20 points for Philatelic Knowledge and Research and 15 points for Non- philatelic Knowledge and Research.

7. Condition and Rarity

7.1 A total of 30 points can be given for Condition and Rarity.

7.1.1 These 30 points are divided with 10 points for Condition of both the philatelic and the non-philatelic material and 20 points for the Rarity of the philatelic and non-philatelic material.

7.1.2 Reproductions should be at least 25% different in size from the original.

7.2 Philatelic material:

7.2.1 All philatelic material must be original.

7.3 Non-Philatelic material:

7.3.1 All non-philatelic material, including photographs, should be original where at all possible.

7.3.2 It is expected that exhibitors exploit the possibilities available with the use of non-philatelic material in the development of the topic, and that they use a variety of non-philatelic material and not just postcards and other pictorial matter.

8. Presentation

8.1 Good presentation, worth up to five points, is important. The exhibit should appeal to the eye and each sheet in every frame, as well as the overall impression of the exhibit, should be well-balanced.

8.2 Due to the often large or unorthodox sizes of non-philatelic materials, mounting on A3 size sheets can often be advantageous to achieve a more attractive presentation.

8.3 The non-philatelic material must be no more than 5 mm in thickness, so that it can be mounted in standard exhibition frames.

9. Awards

9.1 All exhibits will be evaluated by allocating points for each of the above respective criteria.

9.2 Awards are represented by points (60 to 100) and a trophy medal or an award certificate. FIP medals will not be awarded, but the results will be registered in the FIP record. Certificate of participation will be given to exhibits attaining less than 60 points.

9.3 A five frame exhibit in Open Philately awarded 85 points or more at a FIP exhibition within the last ten years is eligible to show eight frames starting from the 72nd FIP Congress on 24 June 2012 in Jakarta.

9.4 In the event of any discrepancies in the text arising from translation, the English text shall prevail.

One of the most important aims with Open Philately is to encourage collecting

These Guidelines on judging Open Philately were approved at the 116 th meeting of the FIP Board in Sofia, on April 16, 2018.