I do not have the exact figures handy but the only reason the club makes a profit on the convention is that the auction brings in around $6,000 and the raffle brings in over $3,000. Without that money the convention would surely lose money. The problem is that many of the people who donate to the auction, or offer their chips for sale, have been doing it for years. What happens if and when they decide they no longer have items to sell or donate? The same could be true of the raffle. The only reason the club has maintained its approximate breakeven results for the last 4 or 5 years is that we managed to renegotiate the magazine and convention program printing costs saving about $12,000 per year. Plus the room costs $10,000 less (even though they are charging more for many other services). The point is we have cut expenses as much as we can and there is just about no where else to cut. As prices go up we will start to lose money again if there is no dues increase.