New Hot Topic On The ANA

Hands on training is obviously the best, but the future is clearly the internet and she's spot on the ANA has done a terrible job with that for a long time. If they want in person courses only they need to have the courses come to the various areas of the country, the days of people flying to them are largely over and one of the big reasons colleges started online programs.

 

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In the last two years, Brian has been traveling all over the U.S. as the ANA brings the courses to the people.

 

But where has he gone? I live in a rural area far away from any major cities. Online courses benefit everyone, not just those in major metropolitan areas.

 

Yea he has, but really online is what would really get the numbers up for people. One of the major flaws with this is the timing and commitment people have to make for the in person classes. For example I see he will be at the VA show in Fredericksburg next month. That sounds great a traveling ANA class, then you see that the class is a full day on a Wednesday and a Thursday so you have to take vacation time off of work to go to it, not happening for 99 percent of people. That doesn't even include travel or anything else or just the fact that the multi day experience starts feeling like work as opposed to learning at some point ect.

If they are serious about providing for the masses the focus needs to be online and distance style learning opportunities that can be done at a collectors leisure from the comfort of their home.

 

+1

 

They also said it was contingent upon getting enough people to enroll.

 

That's interesting. So really more of a money making endeavor than educational it sounds like

 

There is a trend for industries to conduct virtual conferences, meetings and seminars. Part of it, actually a lot of it in my opinion, is to save cost. Another reason is because teams are much more global - there will be team members from several US cities, some in Europe and some in India, China, Mexico - you get the idea. There is no question that face to face discussions are more effective than virtual. However, we live with virtual technology and there are advantages. Look at coin talk for example!

Online courses are required in the ANA wants to enable numismatic interest. Period.

That being said, Laura needs to apply some Dale Carnagie practices. Laura has great points, but to act abrasively for a hobby that has some long time collectors will not result well.

Also, I still do not understand why the ANA convention in Denver was a downer.

 

A voice message left regarding help navigating the ANA website (clumsy at best when compared to most) was never returned. This was during my first membership period, and I thought to myself "what kind of organization is this?"

 

My membership has lapsed..........too bad. I had such faith.

 

That is a good remedy to my situation. I can't justify the expense of flying, lodging, meals, and tuition all for myself, then spending on a vacation with my loved ones.

 

Well just consider that her clients are often the biggest of the biggest money, she clearly isn't condenser about offending the old guard.

In the case you are referring too I actually think shaking that up is a good thing. The goal is supposedly new people, my question would be why would the old guard against change be the major concern in that case?

 

When I refer to long time collectors, I refer to collectors who are wise and have quality experience. Sometimes a little Dale Carnegie training can help. also, if you have great ideas but then you do not have time to carry it out, people can really turned off. That was indicated in her letter.

 

Truth, but I have a strong suspicion the ideas weren't carried out because of decisions about how much they care/incompetence/being blind ect instead of her time.

 

Thankfully, the vast majority of posts on Coin Talk, the ones that I've seen, at least, are far superior to the writing of the blog piece posted. There isn't really a huge grammar or usage problem on Coin Talk, so everything seems fine. If the writing consistently stank, I don't think many of us would return. Plus, this is a forum where more laid-back writing is fine. But when you write something on a blog or in a magazine for public consumption, you should proof read and revise at least once.

I hadn't read the blog post when I first posted, but I have now. Yes, the content is comprehensible, whether one agrees with it or not, but the writing overall was very substandard and sloppy, which makes reading it laborious. I don't actually know enough about the ANA to completely agree or disagree with the content, but it came across to me as a screed which became more painful the more I read. Like others have already said, I found it hard to take seriously.

Add to that, I've served on a number of Boards and every one that I've served on has included someone very vocal who thinks the organization is going to the dogs and then claims to have all the answers and if only the organization would take their recommendations seriously everything would work out fine, but no one ever listens, etc. Such people also seem prone to rants and the post reads like such a rant. I don't know if the author is actually such a person, I don't know anything about the author apart from the post, but the extended tirade and poor slapdash writing makes the author come across as such a person. That's too bad, because I believe the author has something to say underneath everything, and could have expressed the message more concisely and convincingly with a much shorter second draft.

 

I would totally agree.

 

AMEN. Laura is the real deal. She has some great people around her that could edit her writing but that's not her style. Her knowledge is off the chart.

 

Laura knows numismatics, that's for sure. I appreciate that she speaks out abut the hobby and shows courage. It is how she communicates or portrays herself which elevate the criticism. To a different extent I see this from Bowers - a true numismatic expert but can be overly pompous.