Bob,
So, I made a small error. No harm, I hope.
In my post above I said, in effect, the rules were always (1) chapter-member-must-join-national, then (2) since last year, the chapter member need not be a national member. So I was wrong, in my haste. Sorry. No big deal. This, I guess, is the correct time line: (1) the original constitution and bylaws of the club didn't mention chapters, maybe because there were no chapters at the start; then (2) for most of the Club's history the bylaws was chapter-member-must-join-national; and then (3) it was changed last year to chapter-member-need-not-be-national-member. (I think the Colorado chapter may have joined during the period when they did not have to have its members join the national, so the rug was maybe pulled out from under them when the rules were changed.)

I always knew this. It was in my web page that I have always had a link to. I said in part: "(3) THE DOCUMENTS AND HISTORY -- The Club constitution ( click here to view the constitution )
does not mention anything about chapters and individual chapter members. It is a short document
(good), and in Article 6 it authorizes the Board of Directors to create regulations and Bylaws to
carry out the purposes and affairs of the Club........... The Bylaws ( click here to see the Bylaws) are very
detailed respecting the chapters. The first Bylaws did not mention chapters. Then they required
that individual chapter members also be national members. Then, after a controversy over that, the
Bylaws were changed to their present stance -- that it is optional for individual chapter members to
be dues-paying national members. "

Here is the link to my statement, the same link that appears in the post where I made this slight error:
http://www.antiquegamblingchips.com/amend.htm

Bob, hope it is right this time.

best to all
Robert: