So I went to my first coin club meeting in this town... O.O

Greetings. For whatever reason I have not gone to the coin club meeting in this town. First of all, I didn't even know the city I live in had a coin club until about a year ago. I had been invited about a year ago...well Life got in the way. I finally decided to make time and went. O.O My oh my how times have changed and unfortunately not for the best. First of all the meeting was held in a senior-citizen's home (Not that this was a real issue to me with the exception that you could actually smell death lingering around the corner). Second, let's just say that more than half the members were probably over the age of 80...but once again this is just fine with me as they are the treasure troves of knowledge and expertise for me. Let me tell you what I didn't like the most about it.

The meeting lasted 45 minutes and at the end of the meeting I heard the secretary say that this was a first in a long time as the meetings last only 30 minutes. We did NOT discuss anything about NUMISMATICS at all. We only have a meeting once a month. So basically that means we have a total of 6 or 7 hours of total time to talk or discuss Numismatics in a YEAR!!! The President was trying to give away his title to anyone that wanted it and it included the Vice President who politely declined the position. The lady secretary was horrible to the older generation there as she did not raise her voice so that the older members could hear her and when they asked she was very bothered.

She had a lot of attitude and her position was like more of a hassle to her than a joy. We discussed 5 min of old and new business and then proceeded to give away very CHEAP door prizes where most of the winners were not even present. And that my friends was it!!! Oh yeah they did welcome me and immediately wanted to collect membership fees (LOL). It was a total disappointment. To say that some new blood was needed was the understatement of the millennium. I decided that after a few more meetings I would try to go for the Presidency and try to revive this old and in effect useless coin club meeting where when new people came to the meetings they don't run for the doors after just one meeting.

It is sad what I witnessed, but instead of quitting I have decided to try to do something about it. Wish me luck guys...from what I can tell I am going to need TONS of it!!!

 

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Jason, I wish you the best of luck! It might be worth mentioning the city you're in as some of us that dont attend a coin club might be interested in joining.

 

Coin clubs are what you make of them. Usually they are on the backs of a few who care. Why not trying to care? Put together a presentation for the club. Write up an article with pictures to hand out, go over an interesting area of numismatics, etc. I find the more I try to fix the problem the less time I have to complain about the problem.

Run for president, make it a precedent that new members are greeted warmly and allowed to attend for 3 months before asked to join, institute an auction or method to trade items, etc. If we do not actively get involved in coin clubs they go away.

Btw, coin clubs have always been populated by old men. I was 20 when I went to my first one, and mainly old men. I belong to one now, mainly old men. I am sure when I am an old man, it will mainly be old men. Old men are simply the demographic most likely to attend coin clubs. I am sure this was true 100 years ago as well. Many old men, though, are fantastic to learn from. I learned a ton over the years just chatting with them.

 

What size city do you live in?
Is there a city within reasonable driving distance that might have a more active club?
If this isn't an option, are you able to go to coin shows in your area for a little discussion?

Edit: Okay, sorry, I just read your last few sentences. Good luck with trying to revive this club!

But I've noticed that some areas simply don't have any steam while the club in the next town over might hold more promise for getting involved in.

 

We hold ours at at the local Hooter's...it's much more fun!

 

Jason..... good for you. You sound like a doer, not just a talker. I hope you put a sense of reviving pride in that club. It would be nice to live in a community where they do actually have several collectors and have formed an organization. Sounds like they just need some administration skills and I bet you will fill that need. Good Luck.

 

Jason, it is a wonderful thing you are doing. Expect disappointments, but keep on keeping on. Clubs are what make the ANA tick, far more than most people will ever realize. There are two absolute MUSTS for any town that will EVER be considered for an ANA show, winter or summer:

1) A vibrant active coin club scene, with members willing to "give back to the hobby" by taking on SOME, not all that much, of the grunt work of staging a major show.

2) A state that does not impose a sales tax on coins.

Other than those two, only having a decent hall, enough hotel space, and decent airline service is required. Miracles can happen. The club will become what you and your contemporaries make it.

 

Can you send me an application to join?

 

Hat's off to you for choosing to help the club instead of just turning away. When I first joined the Glendale Coin Club in CA. it was really struggling as well. One of the forum members here (illini420) took on first the role of Vice President and then a year later President and really put in the effort to turn it around. It took him spending a lot of time and a couple of us members stepping up to join the board and become officers that cared about having a good meeting to do it. Now the club is doing well with great prizes and a huge bump in membership.

I am a member of several clubs both local and national and they all seem to have the same problem with a lack of active members who are willing to make the meetings work. There are some people who just want to show up, shoot the breeze and eat cake and that's fine as long as there are a small handful of dedicated members to make sure it happens.
The club that I am now a member of in NV. doesn't really have a whole lot of numismatic discussion either and it is frustrating, but right now I don't have the time to be more than a cake eater there.
I wish you luck.

 

Wow, that's cool. Glendale is a widely known club from their medals.

 

Jason, are you in Indiana? Sounds like the Adams County Coin Club.

 

I wish we had a local coin club here to go to.

 

Hopefully there is another choice - try them all & good luck. I live in the DFW metroplex and have choice of five (I belong to 2? 3?), all greying but fairly lively. Last night was show & tell and now I've been roped into doing a preso on something in October.

 

See? The DFW has the club infrastructure to allow the ANA to trust it to host two March ANA shows in 3 years - Dallas 2016, and Irving 2018. Good on ya', Burton.

 

Our club president holds a meeting on Saturdays for the youth and adults who want to learn and understand how to collect coins. The youth are given free coins and other collecting material. When we have our club auction's a lot of the members will donate some of the material that they had just bid for, to the youth in our club.

 

Yes, and we old men are also the demographic most likely to heckle Muppets from the box at stage left.

 

You are a strange man, Kurt. Not that there is anything wrong with that.

 

Why thank you. That's the nicest compliment I've received this week.

 

I was in a club with similar characteristics as mentioned in the beginning of the post and it was frustrating. To get things going, I wrote a PowerPoint presentation and was ready to go. Unfortunately, the President and the Board forgot that I was scheduled to present and I was not allowed. Then they got back to their gala discussion of state quarters. Fortunately, I am now in a club with diverse interests and I love to participate.

I was sharing a story at a club meeting and I got a bizarre response. My wife and I were at the Southwest Show in Houston at the convention center, which was fantastic - great dealers, great location, excellent places to eat all about. At 4 PM, we saw a friend working the show at the entrance, and some pissed off dude enters in a tirade. He complained about the traffic (4PM in downtown Houston, what do you expect?), $5 parking (we are in a big city, what do you expect? You pay for parking in a parking garage!) and the $3 entry fee (it is a nice convention center with 200+ tables, not at the Super 8). He crumbles the coin show flyer in a ball and throws it on the floor. Then our friend very calmly asks what he collects and he responded "Double Gold Eagles." OK, now let understand this - you collect double gold eagles which cost thousands of dollars each, and then you go nuts spending $8 for parking and an entry fee?

To my surprise, the response from the club members was how bad the show was for charging parking and a fee, and the double gold eagle collector should have been upset. Perhaps they should have had the show at a Buc-ees off I-45.

 

That's a neat but sad story. We tend to be prisoners of our expectations built on our previous experiences. I have a similar bad reaction to large auctions and their overhead costs because I live where wonderful fresh numismatic material is offered nearly weekly by Mom and Pop small auction companies, some of which not only have a zero buyer's premium (although that's fairly rapidly disappearing), but they even serve cheap and nourishing food. Sure, the auctioneer wears a cowboy hat and might smell a little funny because he was "up close and personal" auctioning livestock a few hours earlier, but hey, it works to the benefit of my wallet. Some of these auctions are so "backwoods", I'd never be able to find them without a mapping app. But I have to print it out before I leave, because there's NO Internet or cell signal there.

Before anyone gets their knickers in a twist, the regular daily rate at the ANA is gonna be 8 bucks, with 2 bucks off if you have the coupon. That's $2 higher than last year, but matches the March Dallas rate. Join the ANA, you cheap buggers, and get in free.

EVERYONE gets in free on Saturday, but some of the bigger dealers probably will have departed.