Marv; Just returned this afternoon from another long weekend in Atlantic City and at the top of this bb was a message that there were 500 new messages since my last visit on Friday!

No, I don't intend to visit and read all 500 messages that were posted since I left Brick for A.C. last Friday... not to mention the unknown number of posts that are probably now in the archives..... but only read the posts which have a title that grabs my attention... or subjects that I have not already voiced my opinon on... Your title is near and dear to my heart and I appreciate the time you have taken to explain it,.... much better than I have to date. I would like to comment in this post on the limit of five chips/tokens vs. the six piece Emmett Kelley set you've described. A year or more ago, Flamingo Hilton was issuing 12 and 20 piece sets of chips. That was, in my personal judgement as Chairman at the time, an unreasonable amount of chips to be conisdered for "Chip Of The Year". No, I did not consult with the entire membership before introducing the "five" rule. <g> A similar series occured with the Main Street Station Ladies shortly thereafter. In my opinion, Chip of The Year and/or Token of the Year should be just that..... a single chip/token issue that is outstanding from the rest. While no entire sets of more than five chips and/or tokens could be nominated, an arbitrary number of five was selected so that five individual outstanding chips or tokens within a series could be nominated. Could the number have been six? Absolutely! It was simply a judgement call on my part and the "five" rule was announced well before the contest began. There are some chips/tokens for example that are basically the same design, but one is a $1 denomination... the other is a $5 denomination. Perhaps the $1 & $5 nominations received were split, causing one or the other not to gain a potential spot for top ten on the final ballot. There have been several rule changes over the years that have been suggested by the membership and adopted. In the beginning it was simply a popularity contest and the winner was selected by the chip/token that received the highest number of "nominations". I've read some posts from members who claim that their questions were not answered. I thought I had addressed just about every conceivable question that had been posed to me on this subject. If there are any questions I've missed, I would be happy to give that person a personal email answer to any question he/she has with respect to past COTY/TOTY contests. Thanks again for your gentlemanly response to this controversial subject. By the way, new club members who become members after the ballots for club officer elections are mailed do not get the opportunity to vote either. Ditto for COTY/TOTY. As for your reference to associate members..... associate members are entitled to the same privileges as regular members (including nominating and voting for COTY/TOTY). The only thing an associate member does not receive (that a regular member does), is a copy of the club magazine; because the magazine is sent to the regular member who resides at the same address as the associate. As for publishing the nominees in the club magazine....... I thought I had explained this prohibition once before, but I'll try it one more time. All candidates for COTY/TOTY consideration have until December 31st to be issued by the casinos before they can be nominated. The published mailing date for the 1st quarter issue of the club magazine is "Early January". Articles and ads for that issue must be received by the Editor by the "1st of the month prior to the mailing date". Which means the nominees would have to had been submitted by December 15th...... well before the last chips and tokens issues are released that year. I've received litterally hundreds of nominations of different chips and /or tokens for consideration of COTY/TOTY in any given year. Everybody has a different favorite. The next issue of the club magazine is scheduled to be mailed out would be "Early April"..... which means any COTY/TOTY nominees must be sent in before March 1st. I don't get the results back from the nomination process much before that date. As you can see, there are valid reasons why many suggestions that sound reasonable on the surface, simply can not be accomodated. There is much more to the logistics involved than a simple dismissal "if you don't do it my way, then go to hell" as some have erroneously suggested. I am simply unable to accomodate every suggestion that comes down the pike. I sincerely hope that everyone has a better "feel" or understanding of what is involved here. As for the money issue....yes, it is expensive to print in color. Whether it be a full color photocopy that accompanied the ballot, or color illustrations published in the club magazine. In fact, those of you who subscribe to "Gaming Times" have noticed that color printing in that fine publication has been discontinued because of the expense. There are no easy solutions,... but I HAVE LISTENED to all of the ones being proposed. I simply don't agree with some of them ..... but someone has to make the final call on the rules, and in my opinion, that decision should not be the cause all the heated dissention that has been generated because the published rules didn't correspond with the proposer's suggestion.