Should we have a paid exec dir now,the answer is NO, and I suspect that will be the overwhelming answer, as it has every time the issue has been addressed since I entered the club. We are not large enough to justify paying even part time folks to help run the club.

This leads to your other questions regarding growth. I am going to discuss that a little. I am one of the folks who believes the club is going to go thru a rough spot from the perspective of growth. I don't say that to be negative, but from seeing some outside issues. The economy is bad, recently I have seen notices that even Vegas is feeling the bite. Two feeder issues for our hobby have leveled off-Poker and expansion of gambling. The number of new gaming locations is lower (and many of them are slots oriented-no chips). I love poker, I played before the Moneymaker upswing, and will play into the future. But it is not growing at the phenomenal rate it was.

There are folks who collect chips, and will continue to do so, regardless if there is a big massive club, or they are the only one. It is far more fun with others, but I will do it, even if I am the last one standing (OK, I'll probably be sitting, but you get the idea). There are others who see it as an investment. Folks who invest have seen two significant events lately-the finding of all the playboy chips and the sale of the Showboat chip.

I like Glenn's attitude. He paid a lot for a chip he wanted (evidently there is at least one other who wanted it also). He made it clear if a shoebox were found tomorrow, he wouldn't care, he was happy with the chip he got (and a beauty it is). Personally, I would not bid that much on a chip, even if I had the resources to do it. I like to be able to look at my chips, have them where Icanenjoy them. I am aware that many collectors have safes and safe deposit boxes. I guess those aren't the chips I am hunting for.

There are also dealers. They, like investers, generally favor constant growth in the hobby. The more new collectors the more new customers. If values increase in value, then there stock increases in value. I Have my AC $1 Playboy chip. The big find had no effect on my collection. If I hadn't had one, I'd be thrilled, because it would make it easier for me to obtain one.

But the question is a two parter, do we want growth, and if so how much, how fast?

I think we do want growth, not only for the dealers and investers (truth is I am not particularly concerned for the investers), but for the regular collectors. The more folks who are in the hobby, the more options that will be available. Dealers also benefit the average collector in that it makes it easier for us to get chips we might not get a chance at otherwise.

But I think it is unlikely that we will become a hobby of a million collectors. Please note, I said a hobby of, not a club of. I think our club will never be an all inclusive organization. I have made two broadstatements, let me defend each separately.

Regardless of how big the hobby becomes, we will have to deal with the reality that there is a percentage of folks who are in the hobby who won't be in the club. My Uncle got me involved in the hobby in the late 1970s. I have tried to get him hooked since I joined the CCGTCC. He is not interested. He collects chips from places he goes (with the exception of chips his buddies at work give him, I give him, or other family members give him). He has no desire to do trading, the social, networking or informational aspects of the club mean nothing to him. He loves the hobby, but the club has nothing to offer him. There will always be folks in this group, and all we can say is happy chippin and move on.

There are also folks who are unwlling to commit to an ethical set of guidelines. Personally I see the Code of Ethics as our strongest pillar, and I am proud of that. If a person does not want to join because they don't want to conduct their affairs to that standard, good riddance. Their are folks who are not joiners, others who are not into the hobby, but are looking to make a profit. There will be others who don't like the club for assorted reasons. To all of these, all I can say is Ok, and move on.

The club needs to dedicate its recruitment efforts to areas where we have a good chance of success. Recently, Archie posted an encouragement for folks to compete at the ANA. I think this is a good area for us to recruit. They are joiners, the hobby's share many of the same issues. While I don't think of myself as a coin collector, many in the hobby do, and many have come to the hobby via coin collecting. Members of the ANA have a long history and have seen the evils that can occur, and so would appreciate the benefits of high ethical standards.

Other areas may be casino employees, poker players, lawyers? These issues will be discussed by recruitment committee I am sure.

But how big a potential market is it. Since we have no way of knowing how many potential collectors currently exist, knowing how big it could get is blatant guesswork. But I find it unlikely that the club will ever top 20,000 active members. By active, I mean ongoing dues payers. That would be something like 7 times the current size. I say this because there are limited numbers of chips, and other collectibles, and a limited number of folks who will be involved enough in the hobby to be interested in the club.

I think if the potential market got large enough for us to be that size, I think we would find outside sources to battle that aren't even on our radar now. Money does that. It would not surprise me if a competing club was started. All of this is purely hypothetical, obviously.

But let us say we reach some hypothetical point where the club is too large for volunteer only management is possible. OK. I would still advocate member control of the organization. We are a social body as much as an educational organization. If we grew to 10x our current size, we would lose much of the ability to maintain the social aspects of the club. The financial issues, the obligations to promote the educational aspects of the hobby (including the museum) would become the primary focus. Secondary organizations like the AC, southern nevada, florida, houston, chicagoland, and caribean collectors groups would become the focus of the social aspects of the hobby.

If the club is that large, then there would be a need full time administrative assistance. Now that may or may not include, the museum, club magazine, financial, convention, membership recruitment and retention. If the club reaches a point where it must have full time staffers, then it would cease to be the club we have today. It would become one of those organizations where its 'membership' are supporters of the museum which would become the focus (such as the Smithsonian-OK a bit of a stretch, but same theory).

So why I advocate growth, I hope we keep the growth controlled, and the soul of the club intact.