OK Archie, you tell me why you think this would be the downfall of our club and we get everyone signing up as an associate?

(if passed by membership vote on changing the club's Constitution) ... one could simply sign up everybody and anybody for an associate membership instead of a regular membership! I strongly disagree with Steve's proposal.

I will play the role of "Devil's Advocate" base on being a collector, someone who spends every moment on the dealer floor from when the doors open until they close (I don't leave the floor to eat or drink 99% of the time since I go every other year and I don't want to miss a minute of floor time).

Why do we raise membership fees, for the most part it was for the cost of magazine (and postage) that is produced, which associate members don't get the magazine or they can just read articles online like other non-members can.

What's our current base.....around 1500 members.....I think if we get under 1000 members it would be near impossible to run the yearly convention based on the number of dealers and volunteers that are needed. If you get more people, associates or members, you would have a bigger base for volunteers.

I know my local club membership as pretty much fallen off to zero, we are not as fortunate as some of the bigger clubs (like Atlantic City who gets 45 members at a meeting and that's a low attendance). More associate members, maybe bring back some regional clubs back to life (or the creation of new ones).

The club gets more revenue be it $5.00 (or even make it $10) and it you get someone hooked, maybe they would become a full time member. Maybe put a limit on the number of years you can be an associate before you become a full time member (think of it as a trial membership). Also, I don't think we are going to see one full time member and 1499 associate members if that's the case, limit the number of associate members to 50 per full time member (or make it 50 per Lifetime member and 20 for full time members).

More people at the convention and trade session.....I wonder what would be wrong with that. I remember back in 2002 - 2004, the trade sessions were huge, now it's a much smaller group that trades. I bet the dealer would hate to have more people buying stuff from them.

The age base is not getting any younger at the rate we are going the average age of our members will be 60+. Here's a fact, no new blood and no one will want the stuff we have. I don't know about you but it would be nice for my family to be able to sell off my stuff or give it to a museum where someone else go enjoy it....but with nobody wanting the stuff, it will just end up as landfill.

OK, so I'm still trying to figure out the negative side of Steve's Proposal.....I think it's a fresh idea and maybe we could get a few more people active in the club.

Thanks Steve for the out of the box thought!