I would like to help my local coin club and keep it from disappearing. There have been no new members for now for quite some time and fewer of the members are showing up. As it is, we meet once a month and have an auction that is supported by members bringing in coins. A few people bring some coins and set them out for sale but hardly ever does anyone buy them. Most, I think just wait for end and hope for a door prize, which, until recently included a 1/10 oz gold coin. Odds were pretty good with only a dozen or so people showing up. Now, gold is a little higer, fewer items are being offered for auciton, the door prizes are not as nice. It's sad. The fella that does the auciton usually starts at a fair price and then has to go down until somebody bids. Then maybe one or two others may bid. Because of this, fewer people, including me, are willing to bring much at all for fear it will sell way to low. The lower attendance leads to fewer people selling raffle tickets for our local annual coin show, and less money for the door prizes. A vicious cycle. What I am looking for is ideas to help get people interested. With the state quarters makeing coin collecting so popular, there has to be more collectors that would be interested in a coin club. Today, I have printed up some fliers that announce the "Coin Auction" and I will post them in the library where we hold the meetings. I am concerned about announcing to a would-be burglar that people with coins will be gathering there. I was also considering a quiz contest (inspired here) with one of my coins as the prize. Ideas will be greatly appreciated. Dave in WV
A community day is always a favorite. Try partnering with local businesses to cross pollenate the club. Banks and small stores usually love this. One other area is placing an ad in the community section of the local newspaper. Try getting the local newspaper to write an article about the club. Most small newspapers are always on the prowl for community programs. You can also try to hold a small coin show. (Be sure to check local and state laws).
Cater to local scout troops...give the scout masters some coins to give to the kids. You can have some of the club members attend a scout meeting and talk about coins and the different ways to collect them. Local schools may welcome a presentation on coins and collecting. The ANA library has tapes and slideshows that you can use. ANA library material is good for meeting nights too. Get kids involved and you'll likely get their parents involved too. Talk with your local dealers and ask them to help promote collecting in your area by sharing club meeting time/place with their customers. Ask if they'd be interested in sponsoring a newsletter to all the membership in return for a small ad about their shop. If there's shows near your area, consider asking some of the out of state dealers to come and give a talk...let them know they're there not to sell coins but to tell their story and to "talk up" coins. Some dealers are very good at this sort of thing...cough cough *NATIONAL DEALER** cough cough. If you have largish shows in your area, see if ANACS or any of the other services attend and ask one of them to pay a visit to your club. Randy Campbell is a great guest speaker. Have a "bourse night" at one club meeting. Set up a "show and tell" case at meetings and let members display a certain item that they're proud of or that they've had since childhood, etc. It doesn't have to be valuable...just interesting. Our local Orlando club once or twice a year has a Numismatic rummage sale, with proceeds going to the club. Members donate any old supplies, inexpensive duplicate coins, etc and they're auctioned off. This is one of our biggest fundraisers. Raffles also are a good idea, if done properly. Do SOMETHING to make the meetings exciting. Put all the members names in a hat and draw one. If that member is there, give them $20 off a Numismatic book or club dues, etc. Have a "bring a guest" or "bring a kid" night. Offer some of your door prize material to anyone who recruits more than 3 (or 5 or whatever) new members...a silver dollar or such. Be creative, especially with new membership. New members are like a breath of fresh air...their excitement is contagious. And I bet your older members have a lot of knowledge to share! Good luck, I hope the club can flourish. The hobby needs local clubs. Nick
Our club show in March will have about 20 dealers. Only three or four are full time shop owners. The rest are smaller dealers that are part time. Would that be big enough to attract ANACS? There was a SEGS rep. at the Morgantown, WV show earlier in the month. I am looking at all of these suggestions and will do everything I can to make a one person difference. The first thing I need to do is join the ANA. I've collected coins for over 18 years. I'm embarrased I haven't joined that group yet.
Thanks GD for sharing that view. I was starting to wonder if they still exisited. I guess I'll pick up my door prize the day Jody picks me up with his rig with ND sitting shotgun, (and Trader Nick holding one), as we all head out to your place for dinner. Then again, maybe not to eat if you remember another posting
I just recently joined my local coin club - and it was not easy to find... Believe it or not, even the library didn't know they existed, and that's where they hold their monthly meetings! Once I found it, I was glad I did. Between this forum and my local club, I am learning more about my hobby than I ever thought I would. Our club appears to be in a very similar situation as the one you described, almost exactly. I think the other members of the club appreciate a smaller group, which is great, because they are ALL great people... I think I may very well have been the only new member in 2004. Since then, I have wondered if the local clubs are declining over time, as a whole. Perhaps people just don't want to... gather like they used to - for lack of a better word that comes to mind. If that's true, then forums (like this one) become ever more important to the hobby. Ever since I saw NDs post about promotional ideas, I have thought it over and over. The only answer I can come up with: if it's out there, I think you are already doing it.
In France - the rooster is thought of much like the eagle is thought of here in the US. But it has been around for much longer. The Gallic Rooster The Latin word Gallus means both "rooster" and "inhabitant of Gaul". Certain ancient coins bore a rooster, but the animal was not yet used as the emblem of the tribes of Gaul. Gradually the figure of the rooster became the most widely shared representation of the French people. The French rooster In the Middle Ages, the Gallic Rooster was widely used as a religious symbol, the sign of hope and faith. It was during the Renaissance that the rooster began to be associated with the emerging French nation. Under the Valois and the Bourbon kings, the royal effigy was often accompanied by this animal, meant to stand for France, in engravings and on coins. Although still a minor emblem, the rooster could be found at both the Louvre and Versailles. The rooster and the Revolution The Revolution established the rooster as the representation of the Nation's identity. It featured on the écu coin, sporting the Phrygian bonnet, on the seal of the Premier Consul, and the allegorical figure Fraternity often carried a staff surmounted by a rooster. Napoleon replaced the Republic with the Empire and the rooster with the eagle, for as the Emperor said: "The rooster has no power, he cannot be the image of an empire the likes of France." The rooster and the Republic After a period of absence, the Trois Glorieuses of 1830 rehabilitated the image of the rooster, and the Duke of Orleans signed an order providing that the rooster should appear on the flags and uniform buttons of the National Guard. The seal of the Second Republic shows Liberty holding a tiller adorned with a rooster, but this figure still ppeared alongside the symbol of the eagle, preferred by Napoleon II, as sign of an enduring Empire. Under the Third Republic, the wrought-iron gates of the Elysée acquired a rooster, the "Rooster gate", which can still be visited. The twenty-franc gold piece struck in 1899 also bears a rooster. During the First World War, rising patriotic feeling made the Gallic rooster the symbol of France's resistance and bravery in the face of the Prussian eagle. Use of this Manichean representation, in particular by political cartoonists, gained ground, and the rooster became the symbol of a France sprung from peasant origins, proud, opinionated, courageous and prolific. Abroad as well the rooster symbolized France, even if it was not an animal everyone attributed with purely positive features. While the rooster is not an official symbol of the Republic, it still stands for a certain idea of France. In the collective imagination, particularly in the area of sports, it remains the best illustration of the Nation.
Hey Highlander since we seem to view this forum as our coin club do you think we should come up with a secret handshake?
