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The Scranton Stamp Club was founded around 1948 on a Spring evening at the Chamber of Commerce building in Scranton, Pennsylvania. It is officially known as the Northeast Pennsylvania Philatelic Society (NEPPS) and is governed by four officers that oversee the club's business & functions, as well as providing the proper atmosphere for collectors to enjoy and prosper in the hobby.

The stamp club actually started long before that March 9th meeting in 1949. There was in existence a group of collectors who were known as the Scranton Stamp Society and held irregular meetings. It lacked formal recognition in the prevailing stamp community and failed with time due to a lack of leadership.

However, on the second meeting of the newly formed Northeast Pennsylvania Philatelic Society, March 22, 1949, Mr. Maurice Goldstein was elected as its first president. Mrs. Mary Rhinelander was elected to the position of Vice-president in accordance with the popular feeling among the members, that both men and women should comprise the officer body and that the younger members of the society be represented.

By June of that year the club had grown to over forty members with dues set at $1.00 per year, being collected at a previous meeting "on the spot" to get the club off on a "cash basis". That was mainly to cover the cost of postage for their newsletter which was also newly inaugurated.

The newsletter "NEWS-PEPS" was sent to each member's home once a month. Shortly thereafter, the name of the letter was changed to NEPPS-PEPS, more to illustrate the society. Somewhere in the club's history the letter again change to Stamping Around. This was around 1983. The newsletter was discontinued for a number of years, to make a return in August, 2006 under the name of NEPPS Philatelic Inquirer. This is still a monthly newsletter being sent to all paying members.

One of the main programs the new club of 1948 set out to do was the promotion of a stamp depicting the first electric car, which supposedly was first run in Scranton. By October, excellent progress was being reported in getting the U.S. Post Office to issue such a stamp. These efforts were joined and supported by several local and regional stamp clubs and societies.

About a year later the Scranton Stamp Club had a junior program in effect. The members met on alternate Saturdays with dues set at ten cents at each meeting, they being a "live organization" in their own right and electing their own officers.

Now here we are, some fifty years later and still going. Somethings have change, but the goal is the same. Junior collectors are still encouraged and nurtured in their collecting efforts, our newsletter. Seasoned collectors hunt, buy, trade and sell as interests dictate. "Stuck On Stamps" the current name of our newsletter still makes it to the mailbox, and the members enjoy the hobby and comradeship of fellow collectors.

In the ensuing years the Scranton Stamp Club and Wyoming Valley Stamp Club have joined forces. We meet several times a month, share stamp stories; have monthly auctions, coffee and doughnuts; stamp swap nights, and lots of fellowship.

Our club is charted with a constitution and by-laws and is a non-profit organization that was established for the benefit of the members, and the education of the general public in the field of stamp collecting (Philately).

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