LONG POST WARNING! But I hope you read!

I have been giving the chat my thoughts daily now for about a week or so little by little. I told it to simply organize them all and not to author any of it etc. If you're interested please read on, if not that's ok too.
Just to give some credit to Mr. Charles Kaplan, let me say that his recent emails advising me on what a vile human I am somewhat inspired me. And Mr. Jim Follis who takes every opportunity to voice somewhat the same to anyone who will listen, yes Jim people still talk to me!

Here you go.

# One Man's Opinion, For Whatever It's Worth

With all the comments, phone calls, text messages, encouragement and yes, even discouragement I've received over the last year, I'd like to offer one man's opinion. For what it's worth, even if you feel that's nothing.

When I ran for Vice President of the CCA, I ran on a number of issues that I felt were important to the future of the club. I made most of them known at the time, and I still believe in most of them today. Some things have changed, some haven't, and some seem to be stuck in the same place they were years ago.

One of the things I wanted to accomplish was to help repair the fractured relationship between the CCA and the set collecting community. That divide has existed for far too long and frankly, I never understood why it had to exist in the first place. We all collect casino chips. Some collect singles, some collect sets, some collect everything they can get their hands on. Who cares? It's all part of the same hobby.

Interestingly, the CCA has now made some of the ChipGuide search functions available without requiring membership through PCF (I assume) and has developed a relationship with PCF. Whatever the motivation, even if it was done out of spite for myself, I hope it helps bridge that divide. I have my own opinions about the PCF owner's historical lack of support for the club, but if the result is more cooperation among collectors, that's a good thing.

**Technology was another big issue for me.**

I wanted to bring the CCA into the modern age. Young people today expect things to be modern, easy to use and accessible. They don't want to navigate what looks and functions like a website from the 1990s, or a ChipGuide that reminds me of something from the 1980s. The MoGH website itself is a mess in my opinion.

If we want younger people interested in this hobby, why are we making it so difficult for them to explore it?

I proposed a unified CCA website. One modern place where members could discuss the hobby on a club-owned discussion board rather than relying on an outside-owned forum. A place where members could buy, sell and trade without ridiculous fees artificially raising prices. A central news source for the hobby and most importantly, a completely revamped ChipGuide that was easy to search, easy to navigate and didn't require hours of webinars just to figure out how to use it.

I was told that Charles Kaplan would never go along with changing the ChipGuide, even if those changes made it better and especially if I were involved.

Well, I didn't agree that it couldn't be done. So I went and did it.

More on that later.

**I also wanted the CCA to become THE authority in our hobby.**

Why couldn't the club establish an independent group of knowledgeable collectors and historians to develop a meaningful value and population guide? Not simply dealers or people whose primary interest is selling chips, but people with the knowledge and independence to provide useful information without financial conflicts of interest.

Actual sales information, population estimates, historical records and values that reflect the real market. Not just Nevada, but chips from around the world.

Why should a handful of individuals have so much influence over information that affects the value of things they may personally own or sell?

The CCA could have become the place collectors turned to for reliable, independent information about the history, rarity and value of casino chips. A resource built for the hobby, not for the benefit of any particular person.

**Then there's the convention.**

I've said it before and I'll say it again. The crown jewel of the CCA isn't the ChipGuide. It's the convention.

The convention has historically been the club's greatest source of funding and one of the greatest opportunities to introduce people to our hobby. Yet we seemed content to advertise it primarily to existing members and dealers.

There was a time when the convention was a tremendous social event. A gathering of friends, collectors and people who shared a common interest. For some of the old school collectors, it still is. But what about the newcomers?

Where's the welcome reception? Where's the effort to make a first-time attendee feel like part of something? Where's the organized social gathering that encourages someone new to come back next year?

We celebrate new members, but what are we doing to keep them?

I remember spending hours on telephone calls just trying to get board approval to promote the convention on a local Fox television program. FOR FREE!

Think about that. Free television exposure for the club's biggest event and it took hours of discussion to get approval.

I had originally agreed to appear with Barry Sherwood because I'd been on that program before. Unfortunately, a flight delay prevented me from getting there. Thankfully, Barry made time in his schedule and appeared on the program. He later spoke about the new members the club gained because they saw the television appearance.

Imagine that. Advertise the convention to people outside the club and some of them actually become members!

Who would have thought?

**And speaking of the convention, let's talk about the MoGH displays.**

I was absolutely embarrassed by the condition of the displays at two Las Vegas hotels. They were disgustingly dirty and neglected. There were even hooker advertising cards inside them.

These displays were supposed to represent our hobby and the organization. This was shortly before the convention, when collectors from around the country would be visiting Las Vegas and possibly stopping to see them.

I reached out to Jim Follis, who was running against me for Vice President at the time, and offered to go clean them myself. I wasn't asking for money or recognition. I was offering to fix an embarrassing problem.

Instead, I got excuses about who was authorized to open the displays, who had the keys and why I couldn't simply go take care of them.

Apparently maintaining control over access to the displays was more important than accepting some free help to clean them.

I considered that a serious failure to maintain the image of the organization. I still do.

**Education. Remember that word?**

It's supposed to be one of the primary purposes of the CCA.

I was ASKED to help organize an educational seminar about set collecting for the convention. I agreed. I thought it was a great opportunity to introduce people to a part of the hobby they might not understand.

As the project progressed, I was told outright that Charles Kaplan refused to schedule anything involving me as a speaker.

This was the same Charles Kaplan who had been so outspoken against set collecting. In my opinion, his personal dislike for me and further set collectors had become more important than the educational opportunity.

Fine. We came up with an even better idea.

Instead of me speaking, why not have a panel of experienced set collectors who could talk about their collections, explain the hobby and answer questions?

Eventually the program was scheduled.

An hour and a half AFTER the show closed for the day.

And then, almost nobody knew about it.

There was no meaningful advertising to the membership, no promotion around the convention and none of the posters that were supposed to be displayed alongside the other seminars. Jim Follis had even requested photographs of the speakers for those posters.

Somehow, the posters never materialized.

Meanwhile, other seminars were promoted around the show, including those featuring Kaplan with his mug all over them.

I spoke with numerous people during and after the convention who said they would have attended the set collecting seminar if they'd known about it.

Great job, Charles and Jim.

Here's a group of collectors willing to volunteer their time to educate people about the hobby, exactly what the club claims to promote, and this is how the opportunity was handled.

You can draw your own conclusions.

**Now, let's talk about PokerChipper and the PCCG.**

Love it or hate it, PokerChipper's Chip Guide is a vast improvement over the ChipGuide in my opinion. It's modern, easy to use and continues to grow. On some days it receives more than 1,000 views.

We have casino histories, articles, videos, chip production and destruction records, values and a growing amount of information about properties and chips from around the world.

It's what I believed the CCA could have had and I was willing to do for free.

Of course, a few people have accused us of stealing pictures from the ChipGuide. Many others have reached out and said that if their pictures were used, we had their permission to use them.

There's also a great deal of misunderstanding about copyright and reproductions of physical objects. Simply scanning something doesn't automatically mean you own the underlying artwork or the history associated with it. There are legal distinctions involving originality, photographs and the rights of the original creators, including the casinos themselves.

But the bigger issue to me is this idea that a few people somehow think own the history of casino chips.

They don't.

History doesn't belong to Charles Kaplan, the MoGH, the CCA, PokerChipper or me.

The more people who can explore our hobby, learn about it and become interested in collecting, the better off EVERYONE is.

That includes the CCA.

**Nurturing the hobby, not attempting to control it, should be the mission.**

I find it almost comical that a few people seem to think PokerChipper is somehow in competition with the CCA.

Competition for WHAT?

PokerChipper is a completely free hobby website. It isn't a for-profit business. We don't sell anything, we don't charge membership fees, we don't have fundraising drives and we don't take a percentage of sales.

We have a free Marketplace where members can buy, sell, trade and post wanted ads.

We have more than 1,000 registered members, some who contribute regularly and many others who visit to read, research and enjoy the information available. The site is supported by members contributing posts, photographs, news and knowledge. Not money.

We're also working toward a twice-yearly chip and collectible show that I hope will become another great resource and gathering opportunity for collectors.

That's it. That's the grand business plan.

Enjoy the hobby and help other people enjoy it too.

How exactly does that hurt the CCA?

If PokerChipper introduces another hundred people to casino chip collecting, wouldn't some of those people potentially become CCA members? Attend the convention? Buy from dealers? Make friends in the hobby?

I would think so.

**Now, here's another subject that deserves some attention. What does the CCA actually own?**

And by that I mean the club itself, not the individual board members.

I remember an election cycle some time ago when the question of a complete inventory of club assets became an issue. There were promises of transparency, some movement toward an inventory and eventually a rather general list of assets.

And then what?

What happened to the detailed accounting?

Over the years, people have donated chips, collections and other items to the club. Where are they? Who has custody of them? Is there a complete inventory available to members? Is there a record of what comes in, what goes out and what happens to donated items? Some have even said that the club doesn't owe the membership these things!!!

What safeguards are in place to ensure those items are properly cared for?

Can individuals gain access to club-owned items to purchase and resell them? Who approves those transactions? How would members know if something went missing?

I'm asking questions, not making accusations.

And then there's the legendary million-dollar box.

Remember that one?

The old story about a box of chips supposedly worth a million dollars, with some stipulation that it remain unopened and its contents undisclosed for years.

Was that story accurate? What exactly were the conditions? How was it documented? What was actually in the box and how was its value established?

For an organization operating as a nonprofit, these are reasonable questions about the handling and accounting of assets.

And here's another question. If the CCA someday couldn't sustain itself, what happens to everything it owns? Where do the assets go? What happens to donated collections and historical material?

The club's assets INCLUDING THE MOGH, belong to the organization, not personally to the board or any individual. The leadership has a responsibility to manage those assets for the benefit of the organization and its mission.

The MEMBERS should be demanding transparency.

Not because they suspect wrongdoing, but because accountability is part of running a responsible organization.

This is YOUR club. You should know what it owns, how those assets are managed and who is responsible for them.

**And that brings me to membership.**

We've seen all kinds of characters come and go over the years, myself included. Some great people, some controversial people, some with big egos, some with loud voices who talked big and accomplished very little and some who, in my opinion, did more harm than good.

That's part of any organization.

But I remember a time when the CCA had thousands of members, somewhere around 3,000 if my memory serves me correctly.

What happened?

Today we seem to celebrate a gain of five members. Or a year where we only lost two. Or a year where membership remained flat.

Really?

I'd rather be celebrating gains of HUNDREDS of members, not celebrating the fact that we managed to avoid losing more.

At what point did standing still become success?

I understand that collecting interests change, people get older and organizations face challenges. But that's exactly why you have to evolve.

You have to attract younger people. You have to make it easy for them to participate. You have to give them a reason to join, a reason to attend the convention and a reason to stay.

And you have to be willing to change things that aren't working.

**So why did I leave the CCA?**

It wasn't because I lost an election.

I know some people would like to believe that, but it simply isn't true.

I ran because I believed I had ideas that could help the club. I lost. That's how elections work.

What bothered me was the experience of trying to accomplish some of those things and the treatment I received from certain individuals along the way.

The set collecting seminar was certainly part of it. So were other experiences that convinced me that the mission of the club wasn't always coming first.

I came away feeling that elections had become more of a popularity contest than a discussion about what was best for the organization.

Now, let me be clear. I believe there are elected board members who genuinely care about the CCA, work hard and serve its membership well. I appreciate those people.

I also believe there are others who have become far too attached to their perceived power, authority or importance.

It's a collectors' club, folks. Not a kingdom.

The officers are there to serve the membership, not the other way around.

I lost faith that the mission was being served the way it should be, and I decided I didn't want to be part of the organization anymore.

That doesn't mean I lost my friends.

In fact, I don't miss any of the friends I made through the CCA one bit.

Why?

Because I still have them!

Friendships don't disappear because someone decides not to renew a membership.

And my love for casino chip collecting certainly hasn't changed.

**So what's the point of all this?**

I'm not running for office in the CCA. Heck, I'm not even a member anymore.

I'm not trying to convince anyone to leave the club, join PokerChipper or take sides in some imaginary competition.

I don't wish ill on the CCA. Never have. I sincerely hope it succeeds and becomes everything it has the potential to be.

But I do believe the members need to get involved.

Ask questions. Demand answers. Find out what your organization owns, how it's being managed and what its leadership is doing to grow the membership and promote the hobby.

Don't simply accept that things are fine because somebody tells you they are.

If you love the club, care enough to question it.

There will always be people who hate change or simply like the way things are.

But sometimes **the way things are is exactly why we are WHERE we are.**

I don't criticize things simply to be negative. Sometimes pointing out what's wrong is the first step toward making something better.

And sometimes people offering to help aren't looking for recognition, a title or control. Maybe they just want to help.

I still believe the CCA can be a truly great organization when its members are involved, its leadership is accountable and everyone puts the good of the organization ahead of personal interests.

The hobby is bigger than the CCA. It's bigger than the MoGH. It's bigger than PokerChipper and it's certainly bigger than me.

The more people we introduce to it, the better.

So if you've read this far, thanks.

You don't have to like me. You don't have to agree with my opinions or any of my ideas. That's not what I'm asking.

In fact, **I'm asking NOTHING.**

Just offering one man's opinion, for whatever it's worth.

An outsider's view from someone who's been on the inside, who still loves the hobby and who will continue to celebrate it as an individual.

**BE GREAT. BE INVOLVED.**

**This is YOUR CLUB. Not the board's. Not the MoGH's. Not any one person's.**

Make it what you want it to be.