looks as though I will have to do this myself.
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DAVID SPRAGG – 2011 Club Secretary Candidate

For those who don’t know me, allow me to introduce myself. I am David Spragg, LM6180-166 and I am now in my 8th year of membership. From my experience in the hobby, which is also a full time business for me, and my extensive work as a volunteer for the club in many facets, I believe I am the most suitable candidate for the position of Club Secretary and ask for your support by way of your vote.

A very brief background – prior to leaving from the financial sector industry to raise a family and become a full time chip dealer, I trained and qualified as a CA, working in the UK Treasury and then as a management consultant for KPMG for a combined 20 years.

I am currently in my 5th year as the club webmaster, and the 4th year as club auction chairman. I have also been heavily involved in much other club volunteer work, both at and away from the annual conventions, and in fundraising for the club & MOGH.

Aside from now being a full-time chip dealer, I am also a joint editor & publisher of “The Chip Rack” catalog and a joint owner of “The Gaming Table” reference work. I also operate the chipboard, strikepoint & slotcard bulletin boards created by the late Greg Susong.

The club’s main issue without doubt at the present time is to stop any further decline in the hobby. Naturally there have been events outside our control (the economy) but I also believe many chip values have been over-inflated for years. This is something cyclical that occurs in all hobbies as a result of people believing they can treat their hobby as a pure investment and not a hobby and then dropping out when the market peaks and they realise they can’t recoup their investment. Chip collecting is a hobby! The annual convention is as much a social get-together for many friends as it is a business for the table holders.

Most talk seems to revolve around increasing non-member convention attendees in the hope of attracting additional members. While I don’t disagree, I think there needs to be more thought applied ‘outside of the box’. I believe we primarily need to grow the hobby in order to grow the membership in order to grow convention attendees. I don’t profess to have instant solutions or I would have made sure they were already implemented. I do however have a number of workable ideas, which through my numerous contacts in the industry, would have more likelihood of success if I was acting as BoD member rather than just a member/collector.

In terms of growing, I believe the greatest free marketing opportunities we have are through the casinos who continue to regularly produce commemorative chips. I want to look at how those casinos could publicise those chips, our hobby and the CC>CC in their promotional mailshots which they send by paper and electronically on a regular basis. Some years ago Harrah’s did in fact do this. We also have several prominent hobby related storefronts in Las Vegas which we should probably do more to cultivate relationships with. Similarly we should be working with chip manufacturers to give the hobby and the club publicity. I understand the fact that casinos are not going to willingly publicise the convention at the risk of losing business to the host casino, but it should be possible to have them help publicise the hobby and the club without direct mention of the convention. These are all areas where I have extensive contacts. We also need to see if we can cultivate collectors from any other hobbies.

Other issues – I’m not going to dwell too much on these as I believe the club is either currently progressing well in these areas or they are not currently items of contention.

Protection of the club’s 501(c)(3) status is our greatest asset and remains our key to obtaining any major funding for the Museum of Gaming History. I am a continuing supporter of the MOGH project not least because a physical presence is another major opportunity to grow the hobby.

I am against slabbing in our hobby (maybe it has its place with coins but not with chips), and I am also against chip alteration or repair where it can possibly mislead anyone either now or in the future.

Due to the diligence of the current BoD, the club’s financial position is a lot healthier than it was 18 months ago and with a long term convention contract in place, I think we will remain in a healthy position as long as we look to address the main issue above.

Finally, I believe the BoD should be as transparent as possible in terms of communication with the membership. If you ask a question, you deserve an answer. It might not always be the answer you wanted to hear, but you should receive it nonetheless. While the BoD is elected to operate the club on your behalf, elected members must always remember that they were elected to do their best to fulfil the membership’s wishes.

Once again, I call for your support and hope to see many of you in Vegas in June once again.

David Spragg
LM6180-166, Club Webmaster & Auction Chairman.