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Legally Powerless trade Organizations

I thought that some list members might be interested in these two sites 
which are totally unrelated to meteorites. The first one is the site of the 
american philatelic society and the second one is american numismatic 
society. These represent two societies that are among the worlds largest 
resource organizations for stamp collectors and coin collectors.  
Particularly look at membership and code of ethics in the philatelic society 
and its reference to authtenticity and their comment that "membership is a 
privelidge and not a right". Members have to be approved and voted on before 
they get membership. True their biggest job is marketing the hobby but many 
efforts are made (More so in stamps than coins because stamps are easier to 
fake than coins and there are many more fake ones around - there is even a 
large segment of collectors that collect fake stamps) to ensure that the 
hobby is not filled with criminals. They work closely with the fbi (Which by 
the way has a special fraud stamp devision) and help out and report, as will 
as be a resourse for information. I know of one individual that had a court 
order specifically prohibiting him from dealing in stamps for a 10 year 
peroid. Your membership in the APS is a valuable commodity (Just look at an 
eBay type online auction site www.stampauctions.com and see how many people 
puts their aps membership number as reference). Complaints are always 
available for viewing.
Do they have any real power? (Other than to kick somebody out of the 
society)  Not one bit. Nothing prevents a criminal from setting up shop and 
selling stamps outside of the scope of the APS (And many do). However, When 
the American Philatelic Society complains the FBI listens.
I wont even get into powerless societies dealing with ancient artifacts and 
the efforts they go through and the clout that they have. Interpol has a 
division on that that has a budget bigger than some third world governments 
and they certaintly use powerless societies as a resource. Stolen artifacts 
may be more of interest but if somebody sold a very expensive item to a 
museum that was a fake Interpol and the FBI would be interested.
There are societies around for almost anything. You could surely find a 
needleworking society or a volkswagon bug club in many major cities. The 
biggest job of any society is a resource group as well as marketing group. 
However the FBI or local police will probably listen if a blatently 
fraudulent or criminal act is reported by an official organization than by 
one individual.
Meteorites need a organization such as this. (Remember that Marketing also 
means information - one of which makes new colectors knowledgable, which is 
in short supply in the meteorite community) There is no money to start it so 
work will have to be done by volunteers but almost any organization 
origionally got its start like that.
Dont knock an organization just because it has no real legal power.
Look at this website:http://www.west.net/~stamps1/aps.html
One of the links from it here is 
interesting:http://www.stamps.org/aps/aboutaps/ethics.htm
Then look at this site:
http://www.amnumsoc.org/
Of course no matter what you do, there will always be criminals. No matter 
what resources, the APS, FBI, Interpol, and The US government puts into it 
the stamp hobby will always have con-artists.
Unlike meteorites though, the stamp hobby has a resource group that people 
can go to for unbiased information and help - not to mention a group that 
the FBI can (And do) use for help. Lets not forget the marketing and 
information importance either. More collectors means a better hobby for all.
Sincerely
DEAN BESSEY

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