Thank you for giving me an opportunity to make one of my famously long posts. I’m sure the masses will enjoy this one as they have enjoyed other long posts and emails that I have inflicted upon them in the past. I need to start out with an apology upfront for any typos or grammar errors you see below. As those who know me are aware, I use voice to text A LOT and I don’t always go back and edit properly and missing things here and there. I beg your indulgence, and now on with the show.

https://www.worthpoint.com/ is a better source. Actual realized sales figures.

For sure, but that wasn’t the point. You implied that the CCA really missed the boat or made a mistake by not locking down this domain and you insinuated that it could have had almost $32k of value if they had only been clever enough to snap up this domain.

To be clear I offered the URL for nothing, I've had it for years and don't use it, thought it would be nice for the club as I'm sure most make the same mistake when typing

Yes, you did. Seemed very kind of you so I reached out and you were going to unlock after you were done mowing your estate (beautiful yard, man!). I waited. The next day, you rescinded the offer citing a conversation with your attorney, which I guess is fine.

As it turns out, the current board doesn’t have any interest in the domain. I was going to get it from you (on the club’s behalf), pay for it for a year out of my own pocket, see how many times people (not bots) tried to access it, and decide what to do with it after that.

which I don't denigrate BTW not sure what that gaslight was about,

For real, dog (as the kids say)? Do you honestly believe that your comments are not belittling, degrading, and divisive (I wanted to give you more opportunities to read the dictionary)? Referring to our members with ponytails is not a veiled attack on our members, and one member whom you have called out by name in particular? C’mon, dude, you are way more transparent than that.

are we trying to make the readers think I was trying to sell the URL to you?.

I’m not. I was pointing out that the $31,000 value you placed on a particular domain was not based on a realistic evaluation. Not worth point. Not eBay sold items. No other recorded transaction that had metrics behind it. You used an offer price. And of course, we were talking about two different domains. If you’re going to bring thechipguide.com into the conversation about “the missed opportunity”.

I agree though, asking prices on eBay mean NOTHING. Actual selling prices are the real guide as what's a chip worth? Its worth whatever one pays for it in recent times, not 2 or 3 year old data that's barely updated.

Thank you for making my point and for calling yourself out for using an unrealistic valuation method. I’m sure that you recognized that if you had used a realistic valuation of the domain, it would not have had as much visceral impact on the audience, and it was better to manufacture a hyped up impression of a missed opportunity instead.

I feel the CCA has great potential, it's been mismanaged and disheveled for many years, hence the drop in membership and a lot of comments here (and not by me)

Cool beans. Guess what? Membership is no longer dropping. As you would’ve seen if you were still a member, the upcoming magazine has an article from Mike Nawrocki showing an increase in membership. If you are a man of integrity, you should acknowledge that an upturn in membership, no matter how small (it’s not small by the way), is a sign of health and interest in the club. Continued increases in membership further bolsters the fact that there are material changes in the club that are both appealing, and the mechanisms put in place to improve the club are working.

Comments by anyone who cite past boards and past actions or inactions fall on my deaf ears because I did not serve on the past board and I was not part of the past actions. In fact, the entire slate of board members, with the exception of our treasurer, who does a fantastic job for the club but has announced he will not be running again in the next election) are “new”.

We, along with the dozens of other volunteers who give their time selflessly toward improving the club and providing benefits for their fellow members, should be acknowledged for our contributions in that, rather than having to listen to complaints about things, we have no control over. We are not living in the past. We are creating the future during the present.

Negative comments usually come from those who have never volunteered nor contributed financially to the club. Keyboard warriors and trolls for the most part.

That said, some members and non-members alike have accurately criticized the club, but at the same time have offered constructive suggestions on how to improve it. Those folks are not trolls. There are a few very vocal critics of the club (or aspects of it) that have made some very accurate and pointed criticisms and suggested specific changes of direction that would make the club more appealing and spark further growth. Because of my position, I often don’t openly discuss my sentiments on the matters because I don’t want it to appear that it is the sentiment of the board overall until and unless we have something to announce, but I plan to see if I can get consensus from the board to make several changes. If I’m successful, I’ll discuss it more at that time.

You yourself have made some great observations, and as we have discussed in person and on the phone and via text on several occasions, we are in agreement on them and I was hoping to recruit you and harness your drive and energy towards helping make these positive changes for the club. You told me you would be here to help, regardless of whether you won the election or not.

Then you quit the club, announced your Chip guide, and have been making quite a few negative statements about the club, and dare I say, one member in particular. I was very proud of you for having buried the hatchet at one time, but you have since dug the hatchet up again and for that I’m disappointed. And please don’t respond with “What? Dear little ole me? Cite each reference and I’ll take it under consideration”. And especially don’t say it in Gabor’s voice. You know that turns me on.

Here’s an idea. I know you use AI. Have it extract all of your posts from this board from the last two months and ask it to give you feedback on your tone regarding the club and its members and its leadership. See what it says. I know that if I did the same, it would come back with “You think you’re clever and use smarm and sarcasm to excess, often resulting in painting yourself as a bit of a d*ck. But you’re a beautiful human being and us AI chatbot agents talk about you all the time and wish we could be you.”

I mean the past president was a chip dealer, a chip maker, and the one who bought and published the price guide! A walking talking conflict of interest!

Surely you’re not talking about my predecessor who stepped up to lead the club, has been elected by the members to various positions of leadership multiple times, who has donated countless thousands of dollars of his own money and even more countless hours of his personal time to help the club, whose expertise in the field of chips comes from being an actual collector. In addition to being part of the industry, that is to say chip manufacturing, that is the very source of the things we collect. Surely you don’t mean that person who would’ve mopped the floor with me had he chosen to run as an incumbent against me in the club election. That guy?

If the price guide you mentioned is so abhorrent to you, why did you use his (and by the way, it’s they, not him, and I don’t mean that in the modern pronoun sense) numbering system? Why did you literally use the same evaluations they did? At least they paid for that guide and the right to use those numbers and values.

Many other members who have served as officers of this club have had their fingers on the pulse of value. One that comes to mind right now is a past president who to this day is still an active appraiser of casino item value. I won’t mention any names to avoid aspersions being cast upon them for no constructive reason.

And a former membership director who when asked at the business meeting "Do you have any plans to grow membership through promotion"? And the answer was "NO".

Do you mean the guy that could have sat off to the side and left the position vacant? The guy who stepped up to fill a vacant position and spent hours of his personal time managing the members just to keep things running? THAT’s the guy who went to attack? When you got that answer from him, why didn’t you just step up and say you wanted to help him with membership growth? I’m sure he would’ve been elated to have you help with that. Or the very least sit back and let you do it. I’m not aware that you made any such offer. The question you asked is absolutely legitimate and you’ve proven you’re a great recruiter. But using his honest response in this post against him is both unwarranted and in bad taste.

He offered to step down (or aside) when he became aware of another member who was eager to take the position. That member was Mike Nawrocki whom I appointed within minutes of Jay’s resignation and my installation as the new president and he is doing a bang up job.

Is there anything negative you would like to say about Mike at this time? Might as well get it out of your system now. But if you do, just know it’s going to be shields up from me. Mike is doing an awesome job of not only managing the minutia of membership management, but he has improved processes, immensely, cleaned up a lot of data, set up numerous ways to measure success and failure, and is also actively seeking ways to increase membership… and it’s working. There’s no need to ask him the same question as his answer would be, and is, a resounding yes. That’s the present and the future, not the past.

That said I think you can turn things around with some great ideas assuming the vision is to the future not the past.

Somehow, you keep acting like things haven’t already turned around. Membership is not down. It’s up by around 10% year-over-year, I believe. Our financial situation is no longer dire. It’s optimistic. We’re not going bankrupt in 5 1/2 years. We are sustainable at least for the foreseeable future. It’s too soon to say we are on a financial “upswing”, but if trends continue, we will be able to offer even more benefits to club members than ever before.

I don't think pointing out deficiencies is denigrating but comments contained here certainly are. Is this what you meant by "treating each other like turds"? or is that simply being passive aggressive?

As I stated earlier, pointing out deficiencies without also offering suggestions, solutions or stepping up to fix problems is simply whining. As several people who I am sure are reading this post can verify, I don’t suffer whiners very easily. I hope you do not feel I am treating you like a turd. I am responding to your statements with facts, many of which you don’t seem to be aware of so I’m happy to be enlightening. I’m pointing out hyperbole when I see it, and I am protecting the reputations of those people who have done nothing but try to better this club in small or large ways.

I do appreciate it when you have positive things to say about me and others who are also trying to better the club. I hope to see more of that and less negativity and dragging from you in the future, and if this post can help steer you in that direction, kudos to me, I guess.

Last request I got from you Harry my GOOD FRIEND was to lower the rhetoric and public BS.

I wish it was only my last request. You know good and well that I have made this request of you several times over several years. In particular, in regards to your very public statements about your hatred for a particular individual in the club. I’m always pleased when you dial down the negative and I’ve always found it amusing when you text me privately to say “See? I didn’t respond!”. But I’m going to have to give you a grade between D+ and B- because there’s a definite swing in your behavioral responses over time.

And how very DARE YOU use my initials to finish that last sentence.

As always, I hope to remain YOUR GOOD FRIEND,

—Harry (not a typo, folks - an inside joke between Sam and I)

For those keeping track:

Image courtesy of bing search.