Let me remind everyone (and inform anyone who consider themselves “wet behind the ears”) that the Official website for The Casino Chip and Gaming Token Collectors Club, Inc. is at www.ccgtcc.com, it is NOT here on thechipboard. The Club’s business is conducted at our own site and if anyone wants an “Official” response from an elected Club Officer, I would recommend that you post your questions there.

Information concerning the Building Fund can be found there, as it has it’s own page set up for the purpose of disseminating the information to the membership. Andy Hughes is in the process of updating this information through the Convention. There is information published in each quarterly magazine about the Building Fund and all donations to the fund are reflected in the Financial Statements. These statements are accessible through the Club website and published in each issue of The Chip and Token News, the official magazine of the CCGTCC. You will not find them here.

Does any question asked by a member deserve an answer? Yes and this current Board has stated publicly on numerous occasions that any question asked on the Club website will receive an answer. You may not like the answer, you may not agree with it or it may not be fast enough in your opinion, but you will receive an answer. Every person in this organization volunteers their time for the benefit of the Club and its members. As one dealer so eloquently put it last week when talking about our volunteers, “You guys work your ass off, so I can have fun. Thanks!” So if it takes a bit of time to get a response, no one is ignoring you, we may just be busy at that moment. All we ask is that you identify yourself if you post the question publicly on the Club BB. If you do not wish to do this, you are welcome to email one of the Club Officers privately for an answer. I have personally made the offer to members to call me at my office or at home to discuss issues when they have come up. Some have called and some have not.

Members attending the Convention were free to ask anything they wanted during the course of the Club’s Business meeting last week and I don’t recall refusing to answer any question. The entire Board was available during the whole week and collectively answered hundreds of questions from members in informal settings. Members of the Board of Directors were invited and/or scheduled meetings with different groups last week for the sole purpose of answering their questions on a variety of topics. Again, I don’t recall not answering anyone’s question. I don’t think I’ve ever ignored an email from a Club member during the last year. I am not sure if all of this makes us “obtuse” or not.

My point being that any Club member who would like to ask a question of the Club’s Board of Directors in the proper forum (the Club's website), will receive an answer. Asking the questions here on the chipboard is not the proper forum for such a response. Greg Susong has set this BB up for collectors to interact with other collectors and anyone who stumbles by for that matter. The conversations can take on any tone that Greg allows, just check some of the posts. You are allowed to post just about anything you want here, because Greg has set it up that way. But, remember if you post something here, it will draw a response from those who frequent this BB. If you read the “first time users message” you will see what this BB is about. What it is NOT, is the Official site for the Club. Granted many of the folks who frequent this BB may be able to answer some or all of your questions regarding Club matters and some of the answers might even be correct! No one is saying that Club matters should not or cannot be discussed among members or anyone else here (the freedom of speech thing), discuss anything you want to. But if you're looking for information on the Club and/or answers to questions about the Club from the people who are currently setting policy, go to www.ccgtcc.com.

Only on a rare occasion will I answer Club questions posted on this BB for the reasons I’ve outlined above. This is one of those occasions. To Joe Pavlik, who started this whole thing with his post: "Does the Club need a building?" The answer is yes! To further our purpose as a 501(c)(3) educational organization, we do. It will benefit the members, as well as the public in the long term. We have many members who have offered to donate all or part of their collections to the Club. Where are we to house and display a permanent collection? Information gathered over the years on casinos, their chips and the people that brought them to life? What about the archives, the records, the photos and research done by our members that may not exist elsewhere? Our 2800 members collectively possess the greatest collections of casino memorabilia and gaming history in the world! Over time, it would be a wonderful thing to bring at least part of this to a central location and share it with everyone. We can hardly do it in someone's garage! It also adds credibility to the organization as a whole.

Now to the part of Joe's post that caused such an uproar. He stated "a couple of dealers mention to me at the national, that it’s the biggest scam going today." Someone mentioned in part of this thread that the word "scam" has different meanings in different parts of the country. The Webster's definition is "to cheat or to swindle". As one might have surmised by the reaction here, that's the widely accepted usage of the word and I take the accusation very seriously, regardless of who said it or if they were repeating what someone told them. To the "dealer(s)" (why is it always a “dealer”?) that made this comment to Joe and/or others, I would invite you to post your reasons for making such a statement on the Club website and I will be more than happy to furnish the rebuttal, point by point. If anyone disagrees with the concept of the Building Fund or the Building, that's fine. You are perfectly within your right to do so. If you do not wish to make a donation to the effort, that's fine too. If you do not want to give some of your time to help in this cause, that's OK. Even if you want to actively campaign against the project, those in support of the Building can handle that. But, for anyone to say “that it’s the biggest scam going” is acting recklessly, expressing comments from an uninformed position and making statements that are blatantly untrue!

This Board of Directors fully supports the Building Fund project and will continue to do so as long as we are in office. I personally will support the Building Fund and the new Committee, whether I hold an office within the Club or not. I would like to express my thanks to all the members and companies who have helped the Building Fund Committee reach this point.

The original Building Fund Committee charge was for the committee to raise $50,000 and once that goal was accomplished, a second committee would begin work on a feasibility study. The original goal was reached this year and the Feasibility and Vision Committee had its organizational meeting last week during the Convention. The progress of this Committee will be posted on the Club website. There is information in the BB section of the Club website that pertains to this committee, just do a "search" to find it. At some point, with the updates, this information should be included in the "Building Fund" page on the Club website. It will appear in the Club's quarterly magazine as well. This is a long-term project (years) and there are many more questions than answers at this point. The committee will identify and answer those questions. This will all be put on paper for the first time to be used as a road map to the Building. The Building Fund Committee will continue to raise funds for this project. I hope this has answered Joe's original question.

If you have a question for the Club Officers about this or any other Club activity, post a note on the Club website or email any member of the Board of Directors. Our email addresses can be found at the CC & GTCC website, click on "Organization", then click on “Officers”.

Thank you for your time.