Lions Pin Trading Club of Virginia

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 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.

Five 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, Regular Members which is open to any Lion, Leo, or Lioness of Virginia and their spouses and an Associate Membership, open to all Lions, Leos, or Lioness outside Virginia.  Associate members cannot hold any position on the PTCV board of directors.

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 three 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, and the World of Transportation.

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.

Once we outgrew the facility in Richmond  we moved to the Best Western in Tysons Corner.  We remained at that facility until 1999 and then moved to the Lee-Jackson Best Western in Winchester, Virginia.  

The year, 2009, marked our 30th Anniversary of Quality Pin Swaps.

PTCV issues an early bird pin and have been for the past several years, along with a registration pin, breakfast pin, and a swap pin.