completely correct. We are a "not-for-profit 501(c)3 educational organization" & as such, we have an obligation to provide educational materials which comes in the form of the club's magazines, seminars and the convention DVDs. As has been noted here numerous times, the majority of our membership chooses to NOT participate on-line. If we were to put the club magazine on-line versus a printed version, we would lose a majority of our members. If we reduced the number of magazines issued per year from four to three as has been discussed a number of times, we would also lose a large portion of our membership (in my opinion). We would get the same result if we raised our membership dues, even though they have not been raised in many years.

As David also noted, the important thing is to get people aware of and into the hobby. Those interested people may or may not join the club, but they would all be a part of this hobby. Many people don't like to join clubs because they don't want to be bound by rules & regulations and in our case, a code of ethics. As a new collector's interest grows, so will the desire to learn more & to be around "like" collectors and there is no place better than this club.

Steve Bedo
Membership Officer