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 Replies: 15 / Views: 3,876 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
629 Posts |
My coin club has been around for over 50 years. I am a newly elected board member that wants to make some changes. We have 5 meetings during the year that we will continue to promote Members auction -2X year (for members) White Elephant Sale - 2X year(all proceeds benefit club) Christmas Party We have DVD presentations that we have watched in the past. We have done roll search, with prizes for best found. On occasion, we have had a guest speaker. One month I did a presentation on Buffalo nickels, just a round table talk about condition, grading, strike. etc. I would like to tap in on all of the experience that an older member audience has to offer. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Both for entertainment of the members and also ways to increase the clubs treasury. We do have 2 shows a year with a raffle that do give us some benefits. Thanks |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
4588 Posts |
One of the best presos I've seen lately was a local detective sharing with us his experience with counterfeiting. As he told it, the Secret Service and the AUSAs (Assistant US Attorney) are only interested in the big boys - industrial scale counterfeiting.
So the small stuff gets handled by the locals - from a bogus one sided color copy $5 to the elderly couple passing a few 20s (that one turned into a big boy case when the search warrant turned up nearly $100K of 20s neatly stacked around the fireplace). Call the locals and see if they'll do something similar - could be a blast!
-----Burton 50+ year / Life / Emeritus ANA member (joined 12/1/1973) Life member: Numismatics International, CONECA Member: TNA, FtWCC, NETCC, EveryCountry (online) coin club Owned by three cats and a wife of 40+ years (joined 1983) Author: 3rd Edition of the Sample Slabs book, https://www.sampleslabs.info/ |
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Valued Member
Canada
393 Posts |
I found that Bill Fivaz's excellent article titled 'Club Trouble?' which has been around for a number of years now and is posted on the ANA website has lots of great ideas that may help increase and maintain membership. All I can suggest is if you're not already involved, don't wait for the next guy to come along and raise his hand as it may be a long while before that happens. Don't just sit there! Offer your feedback when asked, help out in the kitchen, at a show or meeting, volunteer to speak or put together club displays and don't be afraid to try your hand at an executive position. You usually get more out, the more you put in and it really is a lot of fun! Every little bit helps and that includes inviting out new collectors and faithfully renewing your dues. |
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Valued Member
Canada
496 Posts |
What is a white elephant sale? Colhand and any other club,if you join
the Ontario Numismatic Association I think you can request powerpoint
presentations put together by the London Numismatic Society,they are
a great learning tool not only about Canadian subjects.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4588 Posts |
A "White Elephant Sale" is a sale of, well, those things you end up wishing you had never bought.
Comes (supposedly) from Ancient India where a White Elephant was rare and sacred and so the worst thing you could do to the Maharaja next province over (who you really hated) was gift him with this sacred duty - he could go broke taking appropriate care of it. He couldn't not take care of it - it was sacred. And he couldn't get rid of it - it was a diplomatic gift.
We used to participate in a white elephant gift exchange, but had to ban the macramé plant holder after the 3rd year. $10 limit, re-gifting is OK, you could steal from somebody else when it was your turn, etc. So the good chocolates went fast and were stolen several times and the plant holder was the booby prize.
-----Burton 50+ year / Life / Emeritus ANA member (joined 12/1/1973) Life member: Numismatics International, CONECA Member: TNA, FtWCC, NETCC, EveryCountry (online) coin club Owned by three cats and a wife of 40+ years (joined 1983) Author: 3rd Edition of the Sample Slabs book, https://www.sampleslabs.info/ |
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Valued Member
United States
331 Posts |
We just had our White Elephant sale last month and it took 2 hours to auction all the stuff the members brought in. The club made over $150 from the donations and it was a lot of fun.
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Valued Member
United States
331 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
629 Posts |
I appreciate all of your suggestions! I want to spread the news, it's surprising how many of the members do not know about this web site. For January I was thinking about a presentation on ebay - how easy it is to get started and that it can be profitable. I want to do a presentation on grading of Canadian Coins - is their somewhere that I can go to get good pictures of grades VG to Extra Fine? I hope to have a computer projector so that I can show them on the wall. I know a lot of collectors tend to focus on the UNC/BU coins but there is good money to be made on coins in the circulated grades. We have had pizza parties in the past but honestly I find that a poor way to reward members, it's strictly a money drain and the club doesn't benefit from it. Surprising how many people leave after they have had their fill. |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
617 Posts |
Personally I think it might be fun to connect with other clubs in other parts of the country , or maybe even in other parts of the world. Using the internet and snail mail you swap coins, buy and sell to each other , you could even have a white elephant sale with each other. Other clubs might also have some good ideas on how to raise funds .
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Valued Member
Canada
393 Posts |
One of the often overlooked club benefits in my opinion is the monthly bulletin or newsletter.
This has always been one of the most expensive, time consuming and essential programs aside from meeting planning and preparation.
Increasing mailing and printing costs have forced most clubs to go digital or drop it altogether in order to keep membership dues from skyrocketing. Those without an efficient line of communication with their members may soon find that some will lose interest or stop attending meetings altogether.
The added benefit of emailing the bulletin is the ease to which it can be distributed electronically to other editors, supporters and National/Provincial numismatic organizations. For an active club, this becomes a great advertising tool and source of information as noted by North of 49.
A typical four page mailed out bulletin in Canada without discounts runs about $13.00 and will soon jump to nearly $16.00 for 10 months. If has been fortunate to have 80% or more of members with email and access to a computer, it's easy to overlook the relatively small cost.
It will be interesting to see how clubs will tackle this issue while serving both 'old school' and digitally proficient members now that they are faced with the largest postage stamp price increase in 40 years.
Now more than ever switching to receiving a digital newsletter is one of the easiest ways to give back and support your local area club!
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Valued Member
United States
331 Posts |
I second what Proof Nut said. I write the newsletter and the club members are split about 50/50 between e-mail and print. We actually lose money on dues versus mailing costs for non computer users. I try to encourage club members to go digital by running a club website that has additional coin and currency info on it. That way everybody gets the same newsletter but you can get more from the website if you want. Also I only do event photos for the digital edition since the print cost is so high.
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Valued Member
Canada
393 Posts |
Our members get the same newsletter whether it's digital or printed in black and white. There are numerous advantages to the digital version including instantaneous delivery, colour pictures, graphics, information links and being able to increase the zoom to make it easier to read.
Those with internet access can browse the website and view upcoming auction lists and receive timely emails and announcements, so there are much more benefits than going the old route. While we would ideally like to get the number of members on snail mail from 15% to below 10%, we know that will be nearly impossible for the short term.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
629 Posts |
My coin club does have a newsletter that we publish monthly. It lets members know of the upcoming month's topic of discussion, raffle prizes, an overview of financial, new news, old news, review of last month's show and tell and then the secretary puts in an interesting story about a USA or World coin/medal that might interest the others. Our next meeting in Feb is going to be about counterfeits. I have announced at the last meeting this will be our topic and have encouraged all members to bring in their show and tell that relates to the topic. I am now an officer of the club and look to include all of these points that you offer to me to make my club better. Our club is comprised of mainly comprised of older people (over 50)with a lot of retired individuals. My challenge will be to encourage the youth to join. At least to make an impression so they can start a collection. Get them to come to a couple of meetings. Anyone have ideas for this?
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
4227 Posts |
Quote:
Colhand and any other club,if you join
the Ontario Numismatic Association I think you can request powerpoint
presentations put together by the London Numismatic Society,they are
a great learning tool not only about Canadian subjects. Our club makes excellent use of the ONA presentatons!  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3486 Posts |
" My challenge will be to encourage the youth to join. "
If a Coin Club were to approach Bobby131313, our Forum Dad, he might be willing to
send you some of the packets that are passed out at the national shows. He sent me
about 170 of these packets, and I passed them out in Manchester NH the first week of October.
Those clubs with active young numismatist programs were my target.
Also, I had the chance to address the kids at the traditional kids space meeting.
The older members can be given them and asked to pass them out to kids they know.
The bonus would be to bring those kids to your next meeting.
I am REALLY behind us members to encourage new collectors.
And it is our task to bridge the traditional clubs with Internet clubs.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
629 Posts |
Thank you both for the information. I will look into joining the Ontario Numismatic Assn. Also, I will contact Bobby131313 for info on packets for youth numismatics. Our VP does do an auction for children during our shows but I am not sure how successful they are. I am always working my table rather than seeing what's going on. I have heard that it's too easy for the parents to push their children into bidding for specific items.
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Replies: 15 / Views: 3,876 |
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Posted 11/12/2013 1:58 pm
