Las Vegas temperatures are going to be in the mid-70s all week. Perfect weather to work in (it will all be in an inside storage unit).

Rob Lange has agreed to help for a second time (1st was last June right after the convention) and Gary Kuehl is checking his schedule to see what days he can assist. I'll be there for a full week and unless these 2 gentlemen want to help out all day every day (I wouldn't ask that of anyone), there are plenty of "shifts" to go around. And it doesn't hurt to have more than one helper at a time. I man the computer to do the data entry and classification, while helpers open boxes, get things sorted, and tell me what's in each box/bin/drawer. As my former helpers can attest, we've got the process down to a science so items get entered pretty darn quickly.

We're not just jotting down descriptions. We're creating unique ID numbers for each item or set, tracking quantities, category, serial numbers (ISBN numbers for publications), and the specific location so we can find anything we have quickly (storage unit#, rack, shelf, box/container#), and of course, a brief description. In addition, we have a space for notes that don't fit the other columns of information.

I'm not taking pictures of each item as it would take WAY too much time and it's more important in my view to just know what we have. If we need a picture of a specific item for some reason (like pulling something out to put in the auction), we can do that as needed. I have been taking pics of the storage units as I go along just to show the incremental organization that's taken place. When we closed down the 3rd storage unit, we built an extra tower of shelves in the primary MOGH unit which allowed more boxes to be on shelves instead of stacked on top of each other along bare walls.

Two tough jobs are still pending. There are 7-9 file cabinets with 5 or more drawers each, filled with who-knows-what. A lot of articles that will need to be scanned and stored, but now that we have our google workspace account, we have a place to store them all for later OCR-scanning and classification.

It is my greatest hope that I/we can complete this inventory during my next two trips in January and again in March so that I can report that this long overdue project is 100% complete. Also, assuming there are no reasons to keep the list private (eg, donors' wishes), we can consider doing things like bringing specific items to the convention for display and educational reasons, putting items up for auction, and of course, including them in a virtual or real museum, should those projects ever get traction and get done.

Stats thus far:

Total entries in inventory database (so far): 1,538. It would not surprise me to see this number double by the time we're done.
Items in CCA storage unit: 237 (these are non-MOGH specific items, mostly for convention, promotions, etc)
Items in MOGH storage unit: 1186 and counting.
Number of categories: 41
Number of shelf units/filing cabinets: 29
Number of shelves/drawers in the units/cabinets: 114
Number of unique container NAMES: 276 (some are just "box" which will be fixed as we go along and will add to the count)
Banker's boxes (and equivalent) of items set aside for sale/free/auction/donation at this year's convention: over 20 (so far). This includes a LOT of club magazines, catalogs, guides, collectibles books, and non-casino collectibles items (biographies, numismatic magazines, etc). These are intended to be fundraising items, so when you see them at the show, please consider making a generous donation for anything you take.

That's it for now. Come join me/us and help get this long overdue task accomplished.

Thanks -- Barry