My point is that the terms have different connotations.

Of course we could define them however we want, we could call the a "Chapter" a "Pecan" but nobody else would know what we meant. In fact they would think we were nuts.

I am all for inclusiveness also. I just don't think that requiring you to join the club in order to be included (we do have pretty lax membership criteria -- you even let me join) is unreasonable.

But as I said before, I don't believe that the club or Chapter is prohibited from allowing non-members to participate in meetings and events. So if someone doesn't want to join The CCGTCC they can still attend Chapter meetings as long as the Chapter permits it. They just shouldn't be able to hold themselves out as a member, hold office or vote.

In essence you suggest that the Club should use the Member Club model as opposed to the Chapter model.

I always understood the Club's recognition of Chapters to be providing a service to members. As I understand it, all but one of the Chapters was formed by the club (Co. existed before club recognition of Chapters). That is originally the Chapters were geographic based and this allowed members a forum to get together with each other outside of the annual convention. Later we saw the Silver Strike Chapter which was a basis for people with a shared interest in a particular type of token to meet and share information.

So the primary benefit of the Chapter system is to provide a benefit to Club members. The secondary benefit is that by having local meetings and you provide more opportunities for collectors who haven't joined the club.

In a member club system, the Club is providing a service not to members, but to the member club (which includes non-members). What benefit does the Club get from using a member club system that they don't get from a Chapter system. Clearly there is a disadvantage in that we use the Club name and resources to help build potential rival clubs.

Remember the ANA is in a much different position than is the CCGTCC. They are larger and deal with a much larger hobby. DO you think that the ANA recognizes us a member club because that provides a benefit to its members? I suspect not.

At this point we should be building our club, not a series of affiliates. Maybe one day in the future we will be a much larger and stronger club and then we can do the affiliate thing.