The objective of the Omaha Philatelic Society is the advancement of philatelic interest and knowledge among the membership and its community, the formation of philatelic friendships, mutual benefit through the exchange of philatelic material, and the promotion of our collecting hobby.
The club meets on the second and fourth Friday of each month. Meetings start at 7:30 PM. Doors open at 7:00. The only exceptions to our meeting dates are perhaps in April, depending on whether one of the meetings falls on Good Friday, in November, when the second meeting may be moved to the third Friday, and in December, when there is no fourth-Friday meeting.
Our current membership is 69 members strong. Each of our meetings is typically attended by about 20 to 35 members.
The second Friday of each month is a short business meeting followed by a presentation related to philately given by a member or guest speaker. If no presentation is scheduled, the club will usually hold a member bourse, where members are encouraged to bring stamps, covers, or any other philatelic item from their collection for selling, trading, or for show-and-tell.
The fourth-Friday meetings include a brief discussion on current club affairs followed by an exchange (auction) of philatelic items donated to the club or submitted by members for sale.
Guests are always welcome to attend our club meetings. However, membership is required to participate in our auctions or borrow books from our library.
The Omaha Philatelic Society was established in 1926, and has been thriving ever since.
During the winter and early spring of 1926, a group of stamp collectors made it a habit to stop in at the offices of Swartz & McKelvie Printing Company to talk about and exhibit their stamps to each other (The Swartz Printing Co. building still stands, and is shown at right with the old company name at the top). The group decided to form a stamp club, and their efforts resulted in the formation of the Omaha Philatelic Society on April 23, 1926. Meetings were held twice monthly at the homes of various members.
By February 1928, the Omaha Philatelic Society had an official publication, The O.P.S. Annual. In August of that year, a follow-on publication, “The Philatelian,” was published on a semiannual basis.
The first stamp show sponsored by the Omaha Philatelic Society was held on May 22nd to June 4th, 1929, at the Aquila Court Art Gallery. Seventy-five frames of stamps were exhibited.
The Omaha Philatelic Society continues its proud tradition of hosting the Omaha Stamp Show each September.
The year 1994 marked another proud milestone in this club’s history when it hosted two nationally accredited stamp shows within two and a half month period—the American Topical Association’s annual TOPEX show and its own APS show.
The Omaha Philatelic Society hosted an American Philatelic Society World Series of Philately Stamp Show at the Westside Community Conference Center in Omaha in September 2021.