Good question. I am a recent participant in this Board, and I have been fairly active. I have not yet joined CCGTCC. I am the opposite of you, Mark. I do not automatically join organizations that share an interest with me. There are a few reasons - here are some.

(1) I am notoriously frugal and don't jump into paying membership fees until I know it's an organization I plan to stick with.

(2) I like to figure out what I'm getting into before I get into it. In other words, I have to wait a while and see where politics enter into organizations (and it almost always does - it isn't necessarily a bad thing, it's just human nature), whom to avoid, whom to gravitate towards (and hopefully those are the leaders of the organization).

(3) I tend to get very active once I have joined. I have been an officer in nearly every organization I have joined, but I also do actual work - not just hold offices. Those who have been reading the Chip Board lately will see that I have been very active indeed, with pointed questions, lots of opinions, and an occasional injection of humor. I have already contributed to many of the on-line chip guides (one of my pet projects is cataloging & organization, so these guides have been right up my alley). I have already been asked to contribute a chip-related article for a publication many of you read. Whether I will take the next step and formalize the relationship remains to be seen, but for now I am enjoying a level of involvement that does not necessary require joining a group.

(4) My tastes change quickly. I was involved with chips 7 years ago, and got out of it. Now I'm back in it, and doing far less with my Beatles record collection. I travel, I pay child support, I mow my lawn. Who knows what I'll be doing in January?

There are plenty of excellent organizations that have trouble getting people to write a check and join the group. I know how difficult recruiting can be. The key inquiry, of course, is how do you get people who aren't joiners to actually join. Maybe my comments will help those who recruit increase their numbers. Toward that end, I offer only these general comments:

(A) Make it easy to join & renew. Every month there is a post on this Board asking "how do I join" or "how do I renew" - anticipate that question and have a multitude of convenient ways to renew and pay. [By the way, this group is very good at sending applications to anyone who indicates any interest on the Board - using the recruiter approach keeps it competitive, and competition is good]

(B) Incentives help get some people over the hump to join.

(C) In addition to promoting what a club does, promote what it does for its members. "How does this affect me?" What do they get? Magazine? Exclusives? Free ads? Trading network? Input with casinos' chip-making decisions? Discounts?