Pin Traders Club of Virginia
United States
LionRich
The concept of a separate Multiple District trading pin club was the idea of PCC Bill Smith, 24-A. He issued a memorandum on December 1981, to a group of pin traders in District 24-A (all members of Lions International Trading Pin Club (LITPC)). He asked them to meet with him to consider the possibility of forming a Virginia pin trading club. They met at the Holiday Inn in Manassas on January 18, 1982, worked out a constitution, and that evening Pin Traders Club of Virginia (PTCV) was born. Since then, over 40 similar clubs have been formed all over the world. All of these are based on the actions taken in Virginia.
There were 17 original founding members. Ten of the founding members have passed away and four others are no longer in the club. These individuals are to be commended in getting this great hobby out to others in Lionism.
Membership is not limited to the Lions of Virginia. We welcome Lions from other states to join us. We have two types of membership:
PTCV publishes a color pictorial catalog of every known pin to have been issued by every lionistic source in Multiple District 24 (Virginia). Updates to this catalog are issued about four times a year. PTCV has also published a special series catalogs (color) that are used by pin traders all over the world. To date, these specialized catalogs have involved a salute to the American Civil War , Native Indians, the World of Transportation, Birds, Military, and the Holiday Series.
PTCV has been recognized by the IRS as a Section 501(c)(7) social club and was incorporated in the Commonwealth of Virginia on April 29, 1987.
As a service to the Council of Governors, PTCV undertook the responsibility of providing design assistance for the Multiple District 24 trading pins. This service saves the Council many hours of decision making on this subject. Before PTCV became involved in this process, the State was experiencing very costly and burdensome backlogs of unwanted and unsold pins. For the most part, all of this has been eliminated thus saving the Lions of Virginia many hundreds of dollars in administrative money.
The first issue of the "Pin Traders News" was published by President PCC Bill Smith announcing that PTCV had 49 active members from five of the six districts (24-F was not representated). The first two official Pin Trader Pins were a pair of Confederate War Wagons. The pins were designed by Lion Harry Fulwiler and Lion Bob Curry.
Our first swap took place at the Holiday Inn Airport in Richmond, Virginia, in November 1982. It was hosted by the Varina Lions Club. Lion Dave Harris was the general swap chairman.
The second swap took place at the Pentagon City Quality Inn in February 1983, in conjunction with the 24-A Winter Social. Our third swap was again at the Holiday Inn Airport in Richmond in October 1983.
By September 1983, PTCV had 114 regular members and 42 Associate Members. By May of 1983, 250 pins had been cataloged and listed by Lion Don Moore with the hopes of having it published by the following year. The first Pictorial Catalog was done in black and white and was distributed in 1993.
We now have a Pictorial Color catalog, which was developed by PCC Bill Smith and in 2018 the catalog was made available on the PTCV Website and is still updated quarterly.
We started holding a mini swap in February 1993 in 24-C in Harrisonburg, Virginia, at the request of DG Jim Landers.
The club also issued a set of Miniture Presidents Pins as a fund raiser for the Virginia Lions Hearing Foundation and raised over $7,000.00.
We outgrew the facility in Richmond and we then moved to the Best Western in Tysons Corner, the swap chairmans were Lion Erv Poole and Lion Ev Gianiny. We remained at that facility until 1999 and then moved to the Lee-Jackson Best Western in Winchester, Virginia, the duties of the swap chair were taken over by Lion Jim Golladay. In 2006 duties of swap chair was taken over by Lion Susan Golladay (Registrations) and PDG Rich Evans (Tables, Badges, Packets, and various other duties).
In 2020 we moved locations, from the Best Western in Winchester, Virginia and to the Doubletree in Richmond, Virginia, thanks to the efforts of PCC Chet Kramer finding this new location. Swap Chair duties were taken over by PCC Chet Kramer.
The year, 2019, marked our 40th Anniversary of Quality Pin Swaps and 2022 will mark the clubs 40th Anniversary of the chartering the Pin Traders Club of Virginia.
In 2009, the club developed a Web Site, the site is maintaind by PDG Richard A. Evans. In 2018, the web site was changed and now contains all the PTCV Catalogs, like Personal Pins, District Pins, Club Pins, State Pins, and Pin Trader Pins.
PTCV issues an early bird pin and has been for the past several years, along with a registration pin, breakfast pin, and a swap pin.
Theme's used for the Registration, Breakfast, and Swap Pin vary from year to year. Over the years we have saluted College's in the State Of Virginia, such as Virginia Tech, University of Virginia, Virginia Military Institute, and James Madison University.
In 2022 the Pin Traders Club of Virginia hosted their only Alternate Site Meeting for Lions International Trading Pin Club (LITPC). It was held June 1 - 4, 2022, in Williamsburg, Virginia at the Doubletree by Hilton, on the Kings Mill Properties. We had Pin Traders from about 18 different States, including Canada. Hospitality Nights were hosted by different Pin Trading Clubs, Wednesday Night - North Carolina Hosted, Thursday Night - Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Kentucky Hosted, and on Friday - Virginia Hosted.
At the 2023 Annual Luncheon at the Lions of Virginia State Convention, in Bristol, Virginia, the Membership voted to eliminate the position of 2nd Vice-President, it was presented to the membership by PCC Chet Kramer.
Copyright 2009 Lion Pin Trading Club of Virginia. All rights reserved.
Pin Traders Club of Virginia
United States
LionRich