Bob; You state in your post, "This is the only club procedure open for vote by the entire membership that requires a prerequisite action in order to receive a ballot. Every other full membership vote related issue is automatic in the club members receiving a ballot."

Your facts are incorrect Bob, and you still don't get it. The fact is, this committee IS open for vote by the entire membership because that is how the rules have evolved over the several years I have chaired this program. This is a COMMITTEE (of judges) where no one is being excluded from serving on the committee. I could have simply appointed a dozen or so club members to choose the winners from the top ten chips and top ten tokens that were nominated.... no different than the annual contest the club runs for the convention chip and medal design contest held each year. The club does not send those convention medal/chip designs received out to the entire club membership to vote on. A committee decides the winners. I've opened the COTY/TOTY process to any and every club member who would like to participate in being on the committee... excluding NO ONE.

As for your suggestion that you have submitted to the BOD and COTY/TOTY Chairman, that you charge "fell on deaf ears"... Bob; Are you saying that anytime someone submits a suggestion, that the club is obligated to adopt it? I assure you that your suggestion did not fall on deaf ears. Perhaps it was a matter of simply being rejected because of the time frame involved. Your idea to publish the color photos in the January issue of the club magazine for everybody to vote on is impossible to accomplish. First of all, the deadline for the January, February, March 2000 issue of the club magazine is December 1, 1999 ....well before the end of the year and all the holiday chips and tokens that will have been issued during the month of December have NOT yet been released by that date. Second of all, after the call for nominations is published in the January issue of the club magazine, the membership has until the end of February to send in their favorite nominations for chip/token OF THE YEAR.... not the illegal, obsolete, classic chip/token that was ever issued. There will be literally hundreds of chips and tokens that were issued during the year 1999 that will be nominated ... no different than in year's past. Of these hundreds nominated, only the top ten chips and the top ten tokens nominated will be placed on the official ballot. I don't have all these nominated chips and tokens in my personal collection. I have no idea what some of them look like. I have to scrounge, beg , borrow and "steal" from other collectors (and dealers) to provide me with color copies of them so I can have them reproduced in full color on the illustration sheet that will accompany the official ballot. If I don't see the actual chip, I have no way of knowing if there is a different design or not on the back of the illustration I have received from another chipper. Hell, even the fine new book on commemorative chips that Rene has published only shows pictures of one side. What I'm getting at Bob, is that there is more to putting this contest together than meets the eye. If you feel that somehow I'm deliberately trying to exclude some club members from participating, you'll have to explain it better than you have in your bitter posts.

As for the unauthorized title of "KING" which you have graciously bestowed upon me.... that's a pretty good upgrade from simply being the Immediate Past President who has been re-appointed by the current President who obviously must feel that I did a fairly good job overseeing the COTY/TOTY committee over the past several years. While I no longer hold an elected office in this organization, I choose to remain active and help out in any manner I can. I serve voluntarily at the whim and discretion of the President. He appoints, he can remove. While I realize that I can't please every club member.... I'll try my damndest to try to satisfy the overwhelming majority of them.