Hi Larry,

I suppose that we can agree to disagree, but as this contest goes it leaves very few members out of the nominating group. As every current member receives a ballot when they receive the club magazine and therefore a right to vote. Only the members who joined just prior to the issue or after it are left out. It is unfortunate that these new members are out of the loop. But sufficent to say there are still 2000+ members with apathy about even sending in a nomination ballot. WHY? I don't know. It's kind of fun to see your nomination make the final ballot. I only believe that most of those members do know about the way this contest has been done over the past many years.

Here's another problem I see, in putting the photos of the nominations in the club magazine. This past year I would like to have seen and nominated both the chips and silver tokens set of Emmit Kelly Clowns from the Circus Circus Reno. There were 6 chip and 6 tokens in this set alone. However, the current rules limit the number of tokens in a set to 5. Well lets say that there were only 5 in this set and they were among the nominations. Now lets also say there was another sets of chips and tokens that were nominated and made the ballot. There could be as many as 50 chips and 50 tokens maximum to be pictured(up to 200 or less images if obverse/reverse's are different) in the club magazine.(I know this most likely not a reality, but reality could have it be many more than 20 nominations on the ballot.) Say just 10 sets of 2 chips and tokens now we have 40(80 or less obverse/reverse images) to be pictured.

As for putting the nominations in the club mazagine then allowing everyone to vote, it's probably more of a time constraint on the chairperson getting the votes tabulated and the awards made up prior to the convention. We both know how slow the club magazine is with bulk mail.

We could still do this via the club magazine, and take the Casino's out of the loop by not officially awarding them at the convention, and just send the award to them in the mail after the voting by all the members who perfer to vote has been done(probalby another time deadline here for the members to send in their vote and as you say somebody "... makes a formal request to be allowed to vote and cannot, it's like the club saying f*** you."). Where are the rules? Do we throw them out the window?

There is probably a lot more aspects we are not looking at in the whole picture of this contest. So it's really hard to find any other choices that make it easier for all of us in this contest, both members and officers and chairpersons. But I DON'T feel that in ANY manner of wording the club is saying f*** you. Rules have been made, and followed for many years, changes may be comming but the whole contest for COTY/TOTY will have to be taken into consideration for any changes that are to be made, as one change may affect the club in another area.

As for COTY/TOTY would it matter to me if the club decided to end it. NOPE. If they made changes or left it alone would it matter to me. NOPE. I'd still follow the rules be allowed to nominate and vote. I just hope that the club would keep it member involved(allow any member to nominate and not set up a committee who selects the chips and tokens and then only allows us to vote on its choices), that would make it no longer FUN.