I keep reading different posts on how horrible our club is. How we are stagnant, how we are loosing membership, how the convention attendance is dramatically falling, and how the logo is so bad, the elected officials are a clique...yada, yada, yada.

Well come on. Am I the only one that sees there have been forward advancements and good things happening? I am I the only one that sees the new programs that are approved by the BOD? Am I the only one?

Has the rhetoric become so overwhelming that people take for fact that if there's smoke there's a fire? Maybe....just maybe the smoke is from a smoke bomb.

To those screaming that there has been nothing done, let me just ask about a few things:

How about the development and implementation of the Club's Mentoring Program ??

How about the time and energy spent working on the various new educational pages of the Club's website?

How about the consistently fantastic Club magazine that has in the past couple of years gotten to the point of winning awards?

How about all of the new additions to the Club Library?

How about the development of the Building Fund?

How about improvements in the convention educational programs and lectures as well as adding new educational programs aimed at new collectors.

How about the guest speakers at the convention banquet?

How about the new Club incentive programs for members who bring in new members?

How about the convention on video and dvd that has been done for two years now?

How about all of these things? I'm sure there are plenty of things that I overlooked, but I'm sure you get the idea.

Are the things that can be improved? Sure there are. Are there plenty of new ideas that can benefit the Club? Yes, of course there are.

It upsets me to see all the doom and gloom and complaining how bad things are without any recognition to the many positive things that have been done. There are many positive changes that have already happened and many that are still being developed.

Personally....I feel good good about our club. I feel that we have many people that give freely of their time and energy for the betterment of the club. I feel that we have been, and continue to move forward in a positive way.