2009

Dear Friends:

2009 has been the year of philately and finance (with a ton of travel thrown in for good measure!).  We started the year off with a family trip to Cancun over New Years.  While the whole trip was great fun, the most amazing memory is that of Duncan (who is now 16) bringing a crowded discotheque to a complete standstill and silence as everyone watched him dance.  You had to have been there but I can only say that this kid is an incredible dancer and has more charisma than should be allowed.  He really needs to up the acting thing!!  (I keep telling him this anyway as this is the only way that I am going to meet David Beckham, who will then run away with me forever (sorry David!))

Throughout the year I did a mass of business trips, including three weeks in the UK in January (largest snowfall in London in 20 years), and week long trips to Southern VA,  New York, Florida, Indiana and Ohio, Missouri, California (2 weeks), and a few other places.  The most fun trip, however, was one with three of my staff which started in Munich, Germany and ended up in Milan, Italy in May. 

We managed to fit in some sightseeing and lots of wonderful food and the drive over the Alps through Switzerland was truly spectacular.  David flew over a t the end of this trip and we went and stayed at my cousin Sarah’s house in the Ligurian mountains (about two hours east of Nice and two hours west of Milan), which was utterly beautiful and very relaxing.

As a result of these trips and an ongoing redesign of the way we do operate, business boomed in 2009.  After pretty rotten 2008 and 2007 results, this was sorely needed.  The great success but big problem with all of this, however, was that we landed a couple of very large contracts that required prepayments and, in spite of immaculate credit etc, the banks refused to increase our lines of credit.  This caused no end of drama for a few months and caused me to spend a lot of time going from bank to bank armed with financial statements, trying to raise capital (in spite of the fact that both my and the business assets were far, far in excess of the amounts we needed!). What totally annoyed me was that the banks kept requesting liquid assets to secure the loans (which to my mind completely defeats the purpose of getting the loan in the first place!)  Eventually I gave up in disgust and liquidated all of my assets (right at the bottom of the market and including my retirement accounts), to cover these costs.  In spite of the fact that everything was repaid and golden 60 days later, this has given me a newfound loathing of and lack of loyalty to any bank in general in future.  Like insurance companies, they seem desperate to throw credit at you when you don’t need it but clam up when you do.  Needless to say, our latest strategic and long range plan removes the need for relying on any banks ever again!

One thing that will not be part of our marketing model, however, occurred in the spring.  We were in the process of looking for an agent to represent us to the Turkish government and started talking with one gentleman who insisted that he was definitely the man for the job!  Just to prove this, we received a phone call, in fractured English, from his mother, who told us how totally smart and terrific this guy was!  (We ended up not retaining him but I still think that I should get Valerie to call the chairman of the Board of Boeing to tell him that they really need to work with ADI! <grin>)

The company has expanded to 18 people and we are in the process of putting in another building and renovating the main office to cope with the increase in work.  I am so lucky to have a terrific and dedicated staff who enjoy what they do and it really has been a fun year (and 2010 is already looking even better!)

With business secure and doing well, I was able to spend a lot of the year focusing on my main passion, which, after David of course, is stamps.  In the spring I was honored and thrilled to be appointed to the Council of Philatelists, which is an advisory board to the Smithsonian National Postal Museum.  I have been quite involved with a number of initiatives with them during the year and in June there was a lovely reception at the museum for the opening of the FDR exhibit to which Val and Cliff came and got to meet some of the amazing people that volunteer and work there. 

It is a truly terrific museum and they are in the process of a large expansion to showcase the National Collection and just announced an $8 million donation from a single donor to start this. (You probably saw this in the papers as it received a huge amount of press).  They have some remarkable items such as the inverted Jenny (upside down airplane stamp), the Stamp from the Stamp Act of 1756 (which is pretty amazing as this is kind of the reason that the US exists!), covers from the Hindenburg and Titanic and all sorts of other wonderful things.  It has been so much fun and I am really enjoying life right now!

I attended a couple of stamp shows around the country during the year and managed to spend a lot of time working with and acquiring some fabulous new items for my collection.  I am still in the process of putting my exhibit together (there never seems to be enough time in the day) and have asked a friend to advise me, so one of these days I will be showing some of these goodies again.  The high point, however, has been in the last couple of weeks as Julia and I took Duncan to Paris for his 16th birthday present (Ian’s tour of the Louvre and the entire history of art compressed into 3 hours being part of this) and, after they flew home, I headed down to Monte-Carlo for a stamp exhibition and show that is put on by the Club de Monte-Carlo and which only occurs every few years. 

This was extraordinary!  I got to spend time with many old friends and many new ones who all eat, drink and breathe philately.  The club put on an amazing show and every night there was another dinner in one of the glorious Belle Epoque dining rooms where we got to hang out with collectors from all over the world.  Monaco is definitely another world.  The place is beautiful beyond belief (and expensive beyond belief too) and we were made to feel so welcome.

In the middle of July, instead of a summer vacation, I booked myself to stay for two weeks at the Canyon Ranch Spa in Tucson, Arizona, to finally quit smoking.  After two packs a day for 30 years of so, I have been wanting (and trying) to quit for years but finally realized that there was no way I could do this on my own.  I started researching “smoking rehab” but found that while there are hundreds of places to check yourself in if you have a drug or alcohol problem there is nowhere for nicotine (which is, after all, the most addictive drug there is). Having failed to find rehab, I realized that the only way to do this was to check into a spa where I could work out until exhaustion and where, most importantly, the staff were not bribeable.  (Within 3 hours of quitting I am usually ready to pay $100 for a damn cigarette and after 6 hours am ready to kill someone for the nicotine under their fingernails!) I did lots of research and settled on the Canyon Ranch, which is the Gucci of spas, and had visions of being distracted by glorious food and wine, massage and facials and possibly some exercise/hypnosis/acupuncture/whatever works to help me quit.

I arrived on a broiling hot Friday and the place was beautiful!  They picked me up at the airport (no rental car for me so I could not leave the compound and hit a 7-11), checked in and set a schedule of exercise, classes and all sorts of fun things.  There are about 6 staff per guest and I managed to get through the first 24 hours without killing anyone.  While it was not easy, it was not as horrifyingly bad as I though it would be and I kept myself busy with working out, personal trainers, exercise and aerobic classes and the occasional massage.  The worst part, actually, was the first evening, after I arrived, when I requested the wine list and was informed that there was no booze at the spa!  That part was not in the least bit amusing!  In addition, the menu showed a distinct lack of beef, pork, bacon or any fatty foods whatsoever and, while it was delicious, visions of rare steaks were dancing in my head by the end of the second day.

The guests were from all over the world and, on the third day, I met a couple of best friends from L.A., Philip and Susan, who had come for a week to decompress.  We immediately hit it off and I spent most of the rest of the time there going from class to class with them doing aerobics, Zumba, pilates, yoga and so forth.  Those of you who are aware of my total lack of co-ordination can appreciate how actually funny this was as while everyone would leap around the room in beautifully synchronized patterns, I was stumbling and falling over my feet in the back while wheezing desperately for air.  (As Philip had a car, the big test came at the end of the first week when we escaped from the spa and headed into Tucson to devour huge steaks, dripping with Bearnaise and downed quite a few bottles of red wine – in spite of which I managed to remain smoke free!)  One of the fun past-times, of course, was people watching and I particularly admired the large group of ladies from Texas who managed to work out (and swim) while wearing full makeup, lots of jewelry and perfect hair without breaking a sweat!

It has now been five months and, while I have slipped up a couple of times, I am doing my best to remain an ex-smoker (although to be honest, I have not noticed the slightest difference in my sense of taste or smell!)

David is very well.  His health continues to go up and down and while it causes some stress at times, he remains his usual stoic self  (or as he puts it; “curmudgeonly and misanthropic”).  He started bicycling in the summer to get fit and is waiting for the weather to get better so that he can start up again.  As I said earlier, we had a lovely time in Italy and managed to fit in lots of theater and DC trips.  He is spending more time in the DC condo and we are considering renting a place in Palm Springs for the month of February to avoid the cold DC/WV weather.   We still have the WV house on the market but I doubt if anything will happen for at least another year.  It doesn’t matter as we really have not decided where we want to go even if it does sell.  (Right now, getting one of the old Federal style townhouses in downtown Frederick, MD is looking appealing but this all changes from week to week!).
 
The rest of the family are all in great shape.  Julia continues to enjoy her job, Collin is loving his second year of university at WVU, Duncan is starting to think about colleges (I think that Georgetown and NYU are his top choices), Val finished her real estate license and never stops going and Cliff is still golfing and working with me at ADI.  (He has been busy doing research for the last few months and Val says that he leaps out of bed at 5am and races into his study every morning!)

The IanThom Foundation is doing well.  With travel and work having taken over we had to cancel our annual holiday party and fundraiser but may end up doing something in the spring instead.  We continue to support many local and national groups and will be examining the 2010 grants in the next few weeks.  As always, if you know of any small groups whose mission fits in with our giving guidelines, let us know!

All in all, 2009 has been a wonderful year and I hope that 2010 is as good to you and yours!

With all our love and best wishes,

Ian and David