Good legitimate question you've posed,Bob ... but you've posed it to the wrong person. It should have been addressed to the Club President and Board members.

But since you've addressed your question to me ... here is my personal response.

Not to second-guess Jim's position he took (or Gene's)... and I really don't want to get into "could have, would have, should have"; but upon reflection I think an alternative option may have been for Jim to advise the Board that IF a slabbed chip were to be consigned to the auction that he would personally refuse to put it up for bid. If the Board could not accept Jim's stipulation, then it would have been up to the Board to replace Jim as Auction Chairman, or Jim simply could follow through on his promise not to offer a slabbed chip consigned to auction. Ditto with respect to Gene.

Now let me ask YOU a question: How many key volunteer people have to step aside in order for the club officers to rescind what they have done? Go over the Committee Chairman list from the last Convention Program. Who else should take the position that Gene and Jim did? Does Howdy now tell the Board to get someone else to produce the Auction Catalog? Does Bruce Landau relinquish his job as Auction Chairman? One can take all the membership polls one wants. Has anyone publicly come forward who has offered to take either Jim or Gene's place? Who looses in the end? The club looses.

I too face a similar scenario. While the new Convention Chairman has not officially invited me to return as Exhibits Chairman for the 2002 Convention, I would be hard pressed to accept an exhibit that contained slabbed chips. Does that mean I too should step aside if the 2002 Exhibit Chairman's job were to be offered to me? BTW; I have given serious consideration about doing just that. However, where does all the bleeding stop? For all I know, George may have someone else in mind for the Exhibit Chairman's job as I see that anyone interested in obtaining an Exhibit Application in 2002 is to contact the Convention Chairman ... according to the Contact Page on the club's website.

What's next? Must more people have to resign their convention chairs in order to make a point? The point has been vividly made. We don't need more polls or more resignations. The club officers need to accomodate the club's friends and hard workers.... not reward the slabbers or club members who do not attend the annual conventions who believe that their "freedom of choice" is being sacrificed ... when they are not even present to excersize that choice.

Wake up club officers and rectify the error in judgement you've made.