I have spent the past few days talking with many people who support the idea of ending the MOGH.

What I have begun to realize is that many of those folks actually really just want a reorganization and redirection as most say “Keep the good things”

Actually MOST of what the MOGH does are good things so I had a hard time understanding why so many people were in favor of completely doing away with the MOGH rather than just redirecting it.

Some of this is based on personal dislikes and some of this is based on misunderstandings of what the MOGH really is.

I can completely understand the sentiment of many of have spoken to and although I may not agree completely with everyone, I can understand their opinions and can respect the opinions of all that feel differently than I do.

So instead of talking about that, I wanted to give everyone some history and explain some things about the MOGH that some of the newer members may not know.

1) The Origins of the MOGH -
The MOGH started out as an idea for a sort of clubhouse by Jim Kruse and supported by many of us.
The idea was a place to have meetings, store club items and get together with other club members.

This idea was modified about 15 years ago by some who thought why not make this into a museum and accomplish not only what was originally intended, but also have the potential for a huge exposure to the hobby and for the club. Now not everyone agreed with that idea but the board at that time felt it was worth a try.

The MOGH has had many chairmen over the years including some great folks like Mike Skelton, Mike Quinlivan, Neal Silverman, Steve Palumbo and it is not headed by Charles Kaplan.

Here are some common misconceptions about the MOGH that I have read.

2) The Club is wasting a lot of money on the MOGH.
Well most people don’t realize than for the past 15 years or more the MOGH has been operating on its own budget. This is not money from the club but comes from Fundraisers.
These include special sales of chips, MOGH memberships, promotional sales, and outright donations to the MOGH of cash and other items.

Money used for MOGH expenses does not come from club funds and is kept in a separate account.

Now before someone mentions it, there was an initial donation from the club to the MOgH accounts close to 20 years ago but since then all costs like purchasing display cases, setting up exhibits, paying for the chipguide hosting, storage of donated items and others come from the MOGH account.

If we were to completely do away with the MOGH, the CCA would then pick up all these expenses so it saves the club really nothing.

I have seen several people say just move the money into the club account. While that might sound easy, what about those people who made donations (even substantial ones) to be used only for the MOgH? Will all those funds and items be returned ?

What about all those that purchased MOGH memberships which is a major part of the MOGH operating income. Will those funds all be returned? I can imagine many Life members of the MOGH would definitely want their money back.

3) The MOGH spend money without any CCA board oversight.
I can attest that this is mostly untrue. All significant expenditures over $5000 MUST be approved by thr CCA BOD. Some chairs were given less leeway to spend and some more but the thought is we didn’t want to have to bother the club board every time we needed to purchase an additional lightbulb for a display or order a few more t shirts for promotional sales.

4). Doing away with the MOGH would save a lot of time and effort.
I believe this is another false narrative. The duties preformed by the MOGH are done by the MOGH board members as well as the MOGH advisory committee. Those are the ONLY people donating their time and effort to the MOGH.

Do away with the MOGH and who does these things? Does the CCA board take them on?
The only reason a MOGH board was created in the first place was to help lessen the job of the CCA in handling these things.

If the CCA board is not going to take on these things then you will need a new committee that does it instead. Will a new name for this committee make any difference in the time or money spent?

5) The MOgH wasted $15k on a museum consultant -
Well since I attended that workshop retreat I want to let everyone know exactly how it came about.

Several years ago Jerry Vergatos who was CCA president and MOGH membership officer at the time brought to the MOGH an opportunity for a museum in an unused space at a casino (I won’t mention specifics). This seemed like a great opportunity and something we needed to act on fairly soon.

We quickly realized that we were not really prepared at that moment to jump in feet first and it was discussed we really needed to talk with a consultant before making this huge step as to what it will take for us to get there.

At the time most of the current MOgH board members had not been around when we initially talked with Sandra Harris so it was decided to have a 3 day workshop to come up with a path forward before making any mistakes.

This expense was approved by both the MOGH board as well as the full CCA BOD at the time.

In my opinion the workshop was very productive and we left it with a clear path forward on exactly what we needed to do, how much money it would take us to get there and how we were going to amass those funds. It was honestly one of the most encouraging meetings I think the MOGH has had.

We all left that meeting with a clear vision, a list of goals and each person was tasked with responsibilities. We identified people to talk with, a direction for room naming rights, and some great fundraising ideas.

However within days after that meeting, COVID hit the world and everything changed.

6) The MOGH will never have a physical building -
While I never wanted to believe that I am actually starting to lose faith.

Most don’t know that we were SO close on numerous occasions. Even to the point of having renderings made and contracts signed. We had opportunities at the Stratosphere, at Binions and at Circus Circus.
We even had a big time donor who was about to fund an entire museum for us until she unfortunately passed. Each of those opportunities were much closer than people know, but it seems like something always unfortunately happened.

Casinos being sold to others, the economy falling out in the mid 2000s, Covid…..

Unfortunately none of those opportunities came to fruition but not from a lack of trying.

SO, I guess to sum this incredibly long post up, I really don’t see the harm in continuing the MOGH name.

I can understand why many would be disappointed in the lack of progress and believe me, as a MOGH supporter since it’s inception, no one is more disappointed than myself and other MOGH supporters.

I can also understand why people don’t support the MOGH. But there are many things I don’t support like the trade sessions, but I don’t want to see them go away as others DO support them.

I can even understand a call for a reorganization, without a MOGH BOD with a direction to just continue with the exhibits and other things without the idea of a brick and mortar home.

While I don’t completely agree with a lot of people on this, at least I can understand why they want a restructure. To me this at least makes some sense rather than completely doing away with an established name like the MOGH.

My apologies again for the long post as I don’t post often and had to get it all out.

Absolutely no offense meant to anyone mentioned in this post or to anyone that doesn’t feel the same way as I do on the topic. Just another point of view.