The 2010 & 2011 convention both had free admission on Saturdays for people to come in, browse & buy. This was great because it put more people on the floor -- but did that equate to more sales? I don't think so...and while the hobby & the aren't all about sales, sales are usually a good way to gauge interest. No new members signed up on Saturday, where on the "paid" days, there were a couple of new members that joined.

Also -- in years past, club members have contributed towards offering discounted (up to 50% off) memberships to those interested. Recently, members such as Andy Hughes & Archie Black have offered chips to those new members, in lieu of discounted memberships. Archie's been doing this for a few years now & what is apparent to me as the Membership Officer is that those members that paid full price & got some cool collectibles stick around longer than those that paid a lot less for their initial membership. Based upon what I've seen, free admission and/or free / discounted memberships don't necessarily translate into a larger, more involved membership.

Steve Bedo
Membership Officer