Greetings,

Jim Follis here, and I am running for the Vice President’s position of our Club and I am respectfully asking for your vote. This coming August, I will be a 20-year member of the Club and after all this time, I do believe that many of you know me, or at least know of me.

From very early on, I have always been passionate about our Club and our hobby. I have served as a volunteer on many Club committees over these near-20 years. From initially being the Assistant to Club Founder, Archie Black, in his capacity as the OTY Awards Chairman, to my present honor of being a Board member of the Club’s Museum of Gaming History (MoGH).

I have written articles for the Club’s Award-winning magazine, spent countless hours running the Club’s annual OTY Awards Program, including creating and maintaining the Club’s Permanent Collection of All Past OTY Award winners. In short, I have always enjoyed being a part of our Club and I would now like to participate further by working with the Board to help lead us into the future.

While that future of the Club (and the hobby) may look rocky to some, I see growth! And that growth lies in the Internet and also the efforts of the MoGH. Bolstering both will drive us to greater membership numbers, and lead us to being a world-class presence in the education and preservation of Gaming History.

Our ChipGuide, as managed by MoGH President and Webmaster, Charles Kaplan, is by far, the largest and most used resource the Club has on the Internet. ChipGuide is a legacy passed on to us by our departed friend and Club Hall of Fame member and past Club Webmaster, Greg Susong. ChipGuide now has over 180,000 images relating to gaming items and a myriad of other chips (as its name implies) and is poised to cross the 200,000 images threshold, thanks to all the submitters, Admins and management team, Albert Scalzo and Charles Kaplan.

While it is officially referred to as the “Greg Susong Digital Media Center”, we tend to just call it ChipGuide, and the images and information there are used and seen all over the Internet. From the Club’s Message Board, to Facebook, to the TheChipBoard.com, to eBay, this resource is used by hundreds, if not thousands of collectors, sellers, and researchers, around the World.

I support and will continue to support, the objectives of ChipGuide, as has been evidenced by my being a ChipGuide Admin, since it was first converted from Greg’s efforts, to what it is today. The hobby needs ChipGuide and the Club should continue to support and enhance this resource.

If elected, I will continue to promote the virtues of ChipGuide!

Thank you for taking the time to read this campaign message. I plan to make more, as well as finish addressing the questions posed by Scott Goodrich in an earlier post on TheChipoard.

Jim Follis
Candidate for Club Vice President