I think I have a pretty good take on last years vote, since I am the one that counted the ballots.
The slab issue and the election heated up about the same time. At Rene's show in Jan 00, I told the 3 presidential canidates that I was considering resigning as elections chairman so I could feel free to campaign for Slabfree candidates. They all urged me to not resign and go ahead and campaign. I started talking to nominees.
We had 10 candidates running for 5 offices.
In my mind, I eliminated Hollenbeck and Hartwell as having any chance of winning. This proved true. That left 8 people running for 5 offices.
6 of them fully commited to me, they would support banning slabbing in our convention.
That meant 4 of the 5 offices would be filled with officers that committed to the ban.
IMO, only the presidents position was in doubt of losing to a proslab candidate.
I choose to honor my elections chairman committment. I also choose to not endorse candidates. It just did not feel right to do both.
No one pushed hard to turn out the Slabfree vote. IMO and in my mind no one had to. 4 out of 5 offices were locked up for Slabfree supporters.
Yes, Mel and others did some great backroom maneuvering to get Nate elected. I was aware of it. I still have copies of Mels emails to his pals. One statement in the emails stands out in my mind. "We are in danger of losing control of the Club." IMO, as it turned out, he kept control of the club by electing one person.
As it turned out, I was correct in all my assumptions.
About 700 members voted if I remember right. You can not tell me that 400 votes would not have changed the outcome if the 400 members were pushed to get out the vote in the same manner that Mel did.
IMO, the one office we lost, The Presidency, was able to turn two other winners to his proslabbing point of view.
The 3 passed a vote to allow slabs in all convention venues. The outcry was huge. IMO it tore the club apart. IMO, Nate decided to have another vote as he had no idea of the outcry the 1st one would cause. He insisted Neal & Marty accept slabbing companies be allowed to buy tables at the convention in return for his 3 votes to ban slabs from the auctions & exhibits. This was mainly due to his auctions chairman and auctioneer threating to resign over the previous vote.
Yes Paul, 400 plus votes will matter.
We need to start early to endorse candidates. We need to come out strong against proslabbing candidates. Yes, I will get heat over this word in my statement (proslabbing) fire away!!!!
IMO, no tenure of a future President of our club will ever compare to the harm this President has caused to our hobby. His handling of the Slab and Brasscore issues was and still is, horrendous.