Following a fair amount of thought and debate, a bit of self-reflection and examination, I have decided to run for the position of Club Secretary in the upcoming, 2007 Club Elections. I’ve already advised my worthy opponent about this decision and look forward to a spirited and competitive campaign that will take place on the highest plane of fairness and integrity.

With that in mind, I make no comments (good, bad or otherwise) about my competition and will only make comments about my intentions, my beliefs and my desires about participating in the Club as an elected officer. I also recognize that although the Club operates under the management, direction and leadership of the elected Officers (as the Board of Directors), it is the Club President that is the ultimate lead in the course of direction that the Club journeys. I fully intend to support the President and the other Officers, as well as all Club members at-large to the best of my abilities should I be successful in my campaign or not. At all times, I only want what is best for the Club.

Towards that end, I will be supporting the traditional and historical assignments and responsibilities of the Club’s Secretary, and will also look to introduce and promote my own beliefs, concepts and ideas that I feel will move the Club forward, while maintaining the fine accomplishments and achievements of those who went before me.

So, with that being said, allow me to express my thoughts about what I think I am about, in terms of what I can offer the Club and seek your support to allow me to work on these issues as a Club Officer.

First and foremost, I believe that recruitment of new members is an absolute necessity for the long-term future of the Club. Recruitment should be and needs to be a Club priority. I believe that the Club’s Officers need to establish a Member Recruitment Director position (an appointed position) that will be charged with developing an on-going new member recruitment program. This appointed position would be separate and apart from the Membership Officer duties, except that this individual will be responsible for managing the Club’s annual, Membership Recruiter of the Year Award, the Robert “Bob” Mera Award.

Next, I believe that just as our purpose of Incorporation states, we are about educating others about our interests. I believe that we should be making extraordinary efforts in the direction of education. Granted, we do several things in this area, and I’ll not diminish those efforts, like our Award winning publication, our 2005 Buyer’s Guide, the Convention Exhibits, Keynote Speakers, seminars and related activities, but our efforts need to be multi-faceted throughout the year and not just galvanized primarily at Convention time.

I also believe that although we want and deserve a permanent facility (Jim Kruse’s dream home). I support this worthy effort (have from the beginning) however, I believe that our pathway to that dream will be from the generosity and charitable offering(s) of a major benefactor or group of benefactors and that we as a Club need to be worthy of such a philanthropic event. We must be in a position to deserve such an offer and I do not think we can even hope for such a kindness, if we ours selves, as a Club, are not very giving on a continual and structured basis. I have previously been before the Board, formally submitting a suggestion that the Club create an annual, $1,000 charitable donation to a committee selected (or Board of Directors selected) licensed charitable organization as a demonstration of our Club’s generosity and belief in the philanthropic process. While it is easy to recognize that many members of the Club have the giving spirit (witness the thousands of dollars ($6,560) raised by Club members (and some others) for the Miracle Family Fund, as lead by Club member Dennis Shoop) it remains that the Club itself is lacking in this basic humanitarian concept. We need to change this perception and I also believe that it is important that such a generosity should go to an activity beyond our specific Club interests as a demonstrative demonstration of our giving spirit to a non- self-serving interest. After all, is this not what we ourselves are looking for, a benevolent benefactor(s) to help us out?

I believe that the undisclosed repair and deceitful fabrication or modification of chips can only have the undesirable effect of killing our hobby. We as a Club, perhaps through our Standards Committee need to look for methods and processes to assist the community at-large to economically and reliably detect and recognize evidence of such illicit activity. I also believe that the production of certain fantasy chips is a blight upon our hobby, and although there can be no real way to prohibit their design and manufacture, I believe that our members in good standing need to offer language and descriptions that make it perfectly clear to a potential buyer (Club member or not) the exact genesis of the item(s). I believe that our hobby should benefit from the inherent protections of the Hobby Protection Act and that we should establish a Committee to formulate a plan or approach to bring us into the Act. Just as the Building Fund project is a long-term effort, this too may well be a long-term effort, but we need to be vehemently pro-active on both of these topics.

I believe in, and support efforts to keep slabbing out of the hobby. I am a Charter member of the Slab-Free Club and have spent volunteer time staffing the Slab-Free informational table at several chipping events.

In the just over six years that I have been a Club member, I have continually been an active participant in Club activities and events. I have attended each Convention since joining the Club at the 1998 Convention at the The Orleans Hotel & Casino. I was a Dealer at my second Convention, after which I decided to get much more active in Club activities. I was lucky enough to hook-up with Club Founder and 1st President (and now Hall of Fame Member) Mr. Archie Black, as his Assistant OTY Awards Chairman. After my apprenticeship Archie recommended me as his replacement and I have ever since been the OTY Awards Chairman.

Later on, when the Club created an appointed position for On-Line Communications Director, I offered my services and have held and somewhat developed, refined and maintained that service unto the Club to this date, always serving at the discretion of the Board of Directors. This position alone speaks volumes for my accessibility to Club members, which is almost daily.

I am also familiar with the Club’s appointed positions of Promotions Director and Property Manager, as I assisted a past Director (my wife) for more than a year (including one Convention) as her assistant and the Property Dude.

In short, I am not a stranger to Club volunteering and I am seeking a higher level of involvement and support to the Club by running for the position of Club Secretary and I would very much like for each and every Club member to consider me for that position and give me your vote of confidence.

Thank you,

Jim Follis
Life Member 3872-53
CC&GTCC, Inc.

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