That statement would be funny if it weren't so sad.

We belong to a club made up of unpaid volunteers.

If anyone thinks that those volunteers are donating hundreds and sometimes thousands of hours of work a year in order to somehow enrich themselves, they must have something wrong with them.

Do we really think our volunteer Board Of Directors stays awake nights thinking of ways to screw our membership?

Maybe people don't realize that the BOD ads for their own airline tickets to an event they are required to attend? Don't think that enough? How about paying for their own admission to the convention.

Heck, I was a presenter for many years at the banquet and was still required to pay for my own ticket.

Please show me how in heavens name a dues increase helps the board of directors and shows "Greed"

Let's look at the accounts which have been mentioned several times in this thread.

People keep stating that the club had over $300,000 in available funds.

Anyone who has read the board for any time at all has seen this conversation posted numerous times so I am sorry to have to even repeat it.

Looking at the latest financials posted in the magazine (For ALL members to See), it shows an available cash balance in all the club accounts of $278,176 when you take out the asset inventory.

Included in those numbers are $102,334 in the MOGH accounts tht was donated for the purpose of use only in the MOGH.

Also included are $57,236 in Life Member funds that are held to pay for future magazine mailings and memberships of life members. They were prepaid for that purpose and cannot be used for anything else.

That leave us an actual cash usage of about $120,000.

Now keep in mind a chunk of those dollars were membership prepayments for those that paid multi year memberships. I have no idea what that actual number I see but let's say $40,000-$50,000 was for those costs.

That leave us an operating budget of $70,000-$80,000 for use in maintaining the club annually assuming the balances stay stagnant.

That's a far cry from the $300,000 people keep talking about.

Now let's explore some other statements that were mentioned in this thread.

I read the convention makes money. Does it really? I have questioned the accounting for the "Convention" for some time. Personally I don't believe either the auction or raffle proceeds should be included as convention profit. Over 1/2 the tickets I sell for the raffle are for those that don't even attend the convention. Same with the auction and many of the lots are purchased by mail bids and not by those in attendance.

Should and funds arising from these fundraisers really be considered convention income? Without adding these funds into the equations, we would be well under the break even point. The actual convention loses money and has for quite some time.

Some say sell more tables. While that sounds like a great idea, don't people think we have been trying to do that? Several years ago we dropped the requirement to only be a seller of casino collectibles and went after coin dealers, antique dealers, and other collectible dealers. Unfortunately this effort has been unsuccessfu, but believe me we have tried and continue to try.

Not one dealer I know that wanted a table was turned away for many years.

As was stated before it's been many years since a dues increase. In the meantime printing costs have increased, postage costs have increased, catering costs have increased, advertising costs have increased, security costs have increased. In fact just about every expense that we incur annually has increased. Yet our dues. Remained the same and people keep complaining that they want more.

More advertising, more benefits, more members, more, more, more.

While I did not vote on this increase (nor did any board during my time on the board), it was discussed as a possibility numerous times to keep us afloat. With that being the case I can see the necessity but would like to know we have exhausted all other opinions before it was done.

I have complete faith in the current board and if they believe it needs to be done, I can completely understand that. In fact I am surprised that the increase was so small as even that increase won't generate that much additional income.

It saddens me to see so many negative comments and accusations of people that have volunteered to make this club a better place for all of us. It's unfortunate but threads like this are becoming more and more common which is a real reason why it gets harder and harder every year to find volunteers.

While not particularly happy about a dues increase and I can see some of the downside, I really wish people would think before they accuse.

Thank you to all the board members both current and past that have helped run our club.