So, here’s my take on “getting the word out”. There are tons of shows like FUN for all manner of collectibles. Finding people that want to cross over from whatever they mainly collect into casino collectibles is going to be a slow grind. That said, the more we show up, the more people get “repeat” exposure, and as anyone in advertising and marketing can tell you, it takes repeated blows to the head for an idea to sink in and take hold.

So, the question is, and has always been, how important is it to the MEMBERS of this hobby to draw new people into the hobby. If you’re a dealer/seller, it should be super important to you and you should invest your time and money into endeavors that will increase your buying audience.

If you are a buyer/collector, you want to bring people into the club who have items that may be hidden away in attics and junk drawers. Things you want but can’t find. Again, you have reasons to get directly involved in growing the hobby to increase inventory, so to speak.

What happens, I think, is that when you go from a small number of loosely governed group of hobbyists (usually a group of friends) to a more formally operated organization with board members, rules, tax reports, committees and the like, it’s easy for members to sit back and expect “management” to handle things. There’s an expectation that they do for the members without the members doing anything in return. I mean, we paid our $40, right? Get to work!

This club has a large number of core unpaid volunteers who do everything from running the club itself to putting out a beautiful publication to maintaining the single most comprehensive database of collectibles on the planet to making sure we have a wonderful experience at the annual convention, and more. We all appreciate the volunteers, but we can’t and shouldn’t expect them to take on every additional effort that comes our way, especially if it involves significant out-of-pocket costs. Keep in mind, none of them are getting paid to do what they do (some definitely should).

Back to”getting the word out”… Using FUN as an example, if even one local person did what I did, it would have cost, at most, some gas, parking fees and time. Whereas having someone like me fly in, get a hotel, rent a car (I ended up not getting one and instead walked the 1.5mi to/from my hotel, so got some good exercise), etc for 3-4 days is going to cost well over $1,000 per show. Our club isn’t set up to finance trips like these, so local participation is absolutely critical if these efforts are going to be sustainable.

Let’s talk about what the club got from my efforts this weekend. One new member (which is awesome) and a lot of hope and potential. Hope that people who weren’t aware of casino collectibles take an interest in them, and potential interest turning into future members. It will be difficult to measure the success or failure of the latter. All we can do is HOPE our numbers grow over time and attribute some of that to showing up and spreading the word.

I don’t think it’s fair for those who are unable or unwilling to volunteer (or pony up more money to fund efforts like these) to complain about the actions or inactions of others in the group. It’s certainly inappropriate to expect those who already volunteer in other capacities to add the burden of traveling to show after show at their own expense.

In conclusion, I think efforts like mine at FUN are a great idea and we should do more of them. But until the mindset of the membership changes and we see more members volunteer to taking on regional responsibility to represent the CCA at events like this one, it’s all just talk and we might as well resign ourselves to the fact that the membership (collectively) doesn’t truly care whether the CCA thrives or withers. If withering becomes the path, whether by apathy or choice, then we can all just continue to monitor eBay, join a Facebook page or three, and call it a day.

For the record, I am on the side of making the club thrive. New ideas need to be welcomed and thoughtfully considered. We should be taking cues from, and modeling ourselves after, other successful organizations. Every member needs to find a way to help in this endeavor.

Change needs to take place and I aim to help facilitate changes that cause a measurable increase in membership, participation, and success.

Whether I’m elected President of this organization or not, I will be asking the membership to join me by investing their time and/or money in new ways. I will be asking the board to make changes that will streamline operations and provide statistics we can use to measure our successes and failures over time. I will suggest that board meetings be more frequent and open to attendance by all members via Zoom (closed session items notwithstanding). By doing these things, I hope it encourages greater participation by members by providing them with a vested interest in the outcomes of these efforts.

I didn’t mean for this post to run this long or turn in to a campaign speech of sorts. My apologies for that and any typos as I wrote this using voice to text and did what editing I could by tipping tapping on my phone.

Time to golf in a few hours. I posted this after waking up in the middle of the night, so I’m going back to bed for a few more hours, LOL.

Bye now!