MICHIGAN STATE NUMISMATIC SOCIETY
Meeting of the Board January 30, 2005 3:00 p.m.
Kellogg Center, MSU Campus, East Lansing
The meeting was called to order at 3:05pm by President Finger.
The roll call was taken, and the following members were present:
Al Bobrofsky Ann Bobrofsky President Finger Steven Friedman (arrived 3:17pm)
Joe LeBlanc Mike Marotta Dr. Andrew Parks Dany Rothfeld
Mike Strub Bill Summerell Tracy Tabor
Guests present included:
Mike Denany Mary Denany T. Klunzinger Brian Malnar Steve Marzilli
Joe LeBlanc led us in the invocation
President Finger asked if the members had read the minutes of November 27, and called for any corrections
- J. LeBlanc agreed to change the following item in those minutes:
K. Finger – Item 8.d., Property Report
– change amount to $3425, from Mr. Whitford for the sale of the 1956 Coin Collection
- D. Rothfeld moved, and Dr. Parks seconded a motion to approve the minutes; this passed unanimously.
- Then, Al Bobrofsky requested that the minutes for November 27 have the Vice President’s report, items 2. a, b,
and c, moved to follow item 2. of the President’s report.
- During old business, the board also accepted that the previous board minutes may be missing a fact, corrected with
these minutes, that we WILL be paying the convention coordinator $750 for each convention.
The following additions were made to the planned agenda:
K. Finger: Noted that in VIII President’s Report, item a.i.2. - Al Patterson declined an appointment
T. Klunzinger: Added to IX. Committee Reports a new item, f. 50th anniversary committee
D. Rothfeld: Added to X. Old Business a new item, i. Exhibits
M. Strub: Added to X. Old Business a new item, j. 2-Tier dealer price proposal for conventions
K. Finger: Added to XI. New Business two new items, g. Showcase and Lamp price charges for shows, and
h. Marotta MichMatist items
M. Marotta moved, and D. Rothfeld seconded a motion to approve these additions to the agenda; this passed unanimously.
Officer Reports
A. President – Kelly Finger
1. Appointments to fill open positions
a. Steve Marzilli – to be board member – Eaton County
b. Al Patterson – declined appointment to the board
c. Mike Dennany – to be board member – Barry County
d. Robert Lusch – to be board member – Monroe County
President Finger indicated his intention to contact Juliana Wolstien of Marysville, who has shown interest, but not been asked yet.
Ann Bobrofsky moved, and D. Rothfeld seconded, a motion to accept the above appointments of S. Marzilli, Mike Dennany, and R. Lusch to the board; this passed unanimously.
B. Vice President – Ann Bobrofsky
NO REPORT
C. Secretary-Treasurer – Joe LeBlanc
1. Fall 04 Financial: reference the "FALL 2004 CONVENTION AT HYATT REGENCY IN DEARBORN" form
- Joe announced that instead of a $23,125 income that had been proposed, we have come in at $34,600.
- In response to a question from B. Summerell regarding the Case Transport/Chairman expense item being exceeded, Joe noted that the $300 that was budgeted did not account for all of the costs, in part due to his ongoing effort to define useful categories of budget and expense. The $691 spent included the case chairman’s fee, gasoline, and truck rental.
- It should be noted that if a host club provides insufficient labor, and labor must be hired to replace it, a charge for additional labor shall come out of the host club’s normal $2500 remittance, and it shows up on the co-host line item.
- B. Summerell asked why the lamps that we bought don’t show on this budget. Joe replied that this is because it is an asset we now own.
- M. Denanny asked if the spreadsheet is final. Joe replied that it is 99.9% complete, although we owe one dealer a $100 refund, which will reduce the bourse fees received accordingly; basically yes unless we have a major change.
- Dr. Parks moved, and B. Summerell seconded a motion to accept this budget document; this passed unanimously.
2. Review Current Financials – reference the "BUDGET 2005" form
– we have 3 current accounts: A regular operating fund (~$57,000), and a Life membership fund (~$35,000) divided into a general savings account (~$10,000), and a CD (~$25,000) which earns 1.75% and matures in late March 05.
- New CD – Joe requested permission to open a new CD, of $25,000 from regular funds, into a new 7-month CD earning 2.5% or better. This will leave us with over $30,000 of liquid funds. K. Finger commented that we will have central states funds coming in long before that CD would become available. T. Klunzinger questioned the need to vote, as this should be at the discretion of the Treasurer. K. Finger replied that it is, but that he and Joe wish to make sure the board approves. Hearing no objections, President Finger ordered J. LeBlanc to carry out this investment as he has requested.
- All new life membership funds go into a life membership fund – interest will go to general funds. We’ve now decided to build it up as soon as possible to $100,000 according to the Mishler report recommendation.
- T. Klunzinger suggested that the board may wish instead to reconstruct the required principal balance based on what has been paid in over the years. Ann Bobrofsky replied that the lack of retained records makes that task impossible. Al Bobrofsky described the results of a review he had made of the life membership fees, from studying back issues of the Mich-Matist: In November, 1982, life memberships rose from $25 to $50. In 1987 they rose to $100. In 1995 it was still $100. As of 1993 the balance was supposed to be $74,000. T. Klunzinger added that there was a boost in the number of life memberships in 1996 due to an announcement of the next increase in life membership cost at that point. President Finger requested that Al Bobrofsky join a finance committee to help resolve the issue, and he agreed to do so.
3. Membership Report
- As of a couple of days ago, there were 555 regular members, 22 honorary life members, 466 life members, 43 juniors, and 28 clubs, total of 1114. We are still receiving dues; the deadline is 3/31/05 to pay in order to avoid being dropped from the rolls.
- We have gained a club in Traverse City. We have lost contact with the Israeli club. Dr. Parks stated that an individual at the Fall convention had said to him that their Israeli club president has been sick, and that he has all of their records; however, this member of that club wants tem to stay active. President Finger told J. LeBlanc to get with Dr. Parks to resolve this issue. D. Rothfeld recalled that he had heard that they will disband and have only 5 members.
4. Budget Spring 05 – reference the "SPRING 05 CONVENTION AT HYATT REGENCY IN DEARBORN" form
- The budget expects 110 tables to be sold; we already have applications for about 90, so the budget may be a worst case scenario. The transport cost budget is raised to $800 from the $300 we had before. Estimates are based on the outcome of our Fall 2004 convention. Joe asked if this may be a working document for us? We expect to be in the black. M. Marotta asked whether the educational forum includes the cost of the room? Joe replied that it does not; sometimes these rooms are "thrown in" to the deal with the hotel. B. Summerell expects everyone to return to this convention that was at the previous one. T. Klunzinger replied that the Spring dealer group is different than for the Fall. President Finger commented that normally we don’t allow people in the big room to have more than one table, but for this Spring we will allow up to 2 tables per dealer; therefore with 90 dealer applications, we may sell 130-140 tables.
- S. Friedman suggested that a Thursday-Friday-Saturday show would be better – we need to support dealers on this, who almost unanimously by his poll preferred it that way. T. Klunzinger stated that this discussion in the late 1990’s resulted in a rule to leave it up to the host clubs, which is where it stands. S. Marzilli agrees. Steve Marzilli and Steve Friedman will be on a committee to work on this issue.
- J. LeBlanc noted that bourse fees were set to be $350 for both the main room and the annex. But the website and its application say $300 is the cost for a table in the annex. President Finger noted that the Mich-Matist says this as well; however, the board had previously voted that the fee would be $350. So the board decided that we have to honor applications that may come in paying the erroneous fee, even if the dealer’s table is repositioned into the main room. We’ll have to be more careful in the future. It will affect our budgeted bourse revenue.
- D. Rothfeld noted that we don’t have an exhibit application in the Michmatist.
- M. Denany moved, and D. Rothfeld seconded, a motion to accept this report as read; this passed
unanimously.
5. Budget CSNS – reference the "CSNS convention in Hyatt Regency in Dearborn" form
- The budget is based on an expected 150 tables. We expect to be $20,000+ in the black. We’ve voted to charge $375 for tables at this convention, which includes a CSNS $25/table royalty. T. Klunzinger advised that we should show this as a gross figure, then a show a payment to Central States. This was agreed by the board.
- Ann Bobrofsky asked why there is not a raffle license fee, while there are raffle prizes? Joe will remove the raffle prizes budget item to make it consistent. The reason that there will be no raffle is that Don Charters has told President Finger that many clubs are disbanded during the summer; hence, they cannot sell tickets.
- D. Rothfeld asked whether we are having awards or not for this convention; the budget is for $3500. T. Klunzinger advised that 4-5 years ago it was decided that we (MSNS) can do whatever we want, even though it is not a CSNS show. By the way, the exhibits usually wind up being only from the host club’s area, virtually none from out of state. Al Bobrofsky complained that this award budget is awfully high; we only spent about $2000 for our MSNS show. CSNS brags that they have always given gold prizes, but if we don’t, do we get in trouble? President Finger – this is up to the exhibits committee. Dr. Parks suggested that we keep the budget amount of $3500, and let the committee decide what to do.
- M. Marotta moved, and Dr. Parks seconded, a motion to accept this report; this passed unanimously.
- Al Bobrofsky added that CSNS has voted not to have any more fall shows – ours will be their last.
6. Budget MSNS 05 – reference the "BUDGET 2005" form
- These numbers are based on those for 2004. Dr. Parks brought up that the donations to other clubs are shown as $4000. Discussion was deferred on this item.
- Dr. Parks asked if the MichMatist advertising will stay the same at $4000, or whether the increase in ad rates will change this. J. LeBlanc replied that he will have to discuss this with M. Marotta – they are not sure yet. Dr. Parks replied that this makes us $6000 short of our goal of making the MichMatist pay for itself. President Finger confirmed with J. LeBlanc that the $10,000 includes the editor’s compensation. The membership cost used to be designed to pay for the MichMatist; therefore, we’re almost there. T. Klunzinger said that the printing and postage is $2.50/issue, but that we should consider the editor as a staff position. S. Friedman suggested we should give a discount to email-only takers of MichMatist. President Finger stated that the intent of our organization is to move as much as we can to electronic instead of print media. A board member replied that we need to not allow non-members to get the issues for free (on the web) without being members, so the issue is kind of complicated. S. Marzilli said that we could start moving to more issues/year in electronic form gradually over time. M. Strub disagreed, asserting that the printed form of the MichMatist provides an impetus to members to read the publication, and can be read regardless of location or the availability of a web connection, a computer, or power; a website is best used for reference information, and a publication there will be too easily ignored and forgotten.
- There was a discussion about whether $10,000 is sufficient for the publication. M. Marotta said that he is not responsible for this number. There was discussion about where to put the line items in the budget. S. Friedman wants to drop the number of issues to 2/year. President Finger said we need all 4 issues for other reasons. M. Marotta noted that many of the line items are contracted out. Many members said that a higher budget number is okay. S. Marzilli wanted to allocate $12,000 so we can come in under budget. S. Marzilli moved, and Ann Bobrofsky seconded, a motion to increase the budget to $12,000 for the MichMatist – with all correlative changes to the budget; this was passed with 2 oppositions.
- M. Denany asked if we have enough insurance. President Finger explained that we are covered, and our security people are covered, in terms of bonding, counter-suing, and other risks; he feels it is enough.
7. Property Report
- J. LeBlanc reported that while we don’t have an exact figure on our cost, the 1956 collection is sold - it was our main item. - - B. Summerell noted that our missing display case was found – Frenchie accidentally took it home after the last convention. Bill will get it back for us.
8. ANA Building Fund Donation
- Several years ago the ANA approached us for a donation to their building fund. We pledged $5000, but then fell on hard times. Subsequent board motions were to pay it $500 at a time, and we’ve since spent a total of $1000. J. LeBlanc recommended that we pay the remainder off now, as we have the funds. We have had numerous discussions about this pledge. S. Friedman moved, and B. Summerell seconded, a motion to pay it off NOW. Discussion continued with D. Rothfeld suggesting that it would be nice to be recognized with a plaque from ANA. T. Klunzinger will tell ANA as a regional representative that he’d like to see this for us. President Finger asked T. Klunzinger to tell the ANA that we’d like to have an ANA show back in Michigan. T. Klunzinger was then directed by President Finger to explain our ideas and concerns to the ANA. Board agreed with one objection to payoff the remaining $4000 on pledge.
Huggins Taxes
– Jack Huggins, CPA, is preparing our 2004 IRS corporate tax return, including our 1099 forms. His fee is expected to be comparable to the year-ago amount – about $200 or so. President Finger wants to refer this to a financial review committee whose function is to review tax returns before they are sent off. We need to have people in our own organization who know that we are doing it right – not just J. LeBlanc and President Finger. We have until May, due to the different handling of nonprofit organizations’ tax returns. Joe would welcome 1-2 people to come into his office and review the records to make sure all is being done correctly. President Finger proposed that we approve Jack Huggins to prepare our taxes. Hearing no objections, it will be done.
Committee Reports
D. Exhibit – Frank Passic (not present)
- As Frank Passic is not here, J. LeBlanc has a comment: D. Rothfeld received the recent $500 check from the Slate family. Due to a miscommunication, $50 more will be spent over the next 10 years than the Slate receipt covers, but it will just be expensed without further discussion. T. Klunzinger explained that Judy Slate (upon the passing of her husband) gave us $1000 in the 1990’s with the expectation of a perpetual award. A plaque should be given instead to award recipients instead of a coin. Marotta asked who is on the committee. The Answer was: Frank Passic (D. Rothfeld explained his absence by noting that we failed to invite him to this meeting) is the chairman; Dan Freeland, Dr. Parks, and D. Rothfeld are members. Dr. Parks is the point man for anyone with issues on the exhibits. D. Rothfeld explained that Judy was renewing the funding for the award.
- T. Klunzinger added that we’ve had another perpetuity award – a plaque to be given to the best gold exhibit – funded by $300 in the 1980’s – that isn’t given any more. Ann Bobrofsky complained that the problem behind this omission is that there is no record of any of this stuff. President Finger – the exhibits committee has reviewed all of these. If they missed anything, they need to review it again.
E. Auctions – Joe LeBlanc
- The auctions committee had been Kathy Freeland and Bill Summerell. J. LeBlanc said that his office would like to send
out requests for bids to other auction houses. Al Bobrofsky replied that we tried this with 22 auction houses, and were unable to get anyone. The board needs to decide whether we want to have an auction or not. Big auction houses don’t want to get involved in an auction on Thanksgiving weekend, that’s the main reason. S. Friedman offered an opinion, that it costs the big auction houses $40,000-$50,000 to run an auction. Why would they want to pay any more money to us? A bullet auction by Heritage at CSNS has been offered, just as a favor to S. Friedman at his request. It is just an internet auction, but auction viewing would be located here. President Finger explained that we’ve tried for many years to get an auction house to compete with Craig Whitford, but couldn’t because we haven’t had a date to give to them. Now we have spring and fall contracts signed for 3 years. This may be enough to get an auction house this time. Craig Whitford told President Finger that he makes as much money holding his mail-order auctions, and with fewer problems. President Finger – for last TWO shows we didn’t get enough advertising out. Don Charters - says the ads were placed with Krause and Coin World and they STILL didn’t get them in, even though they were placed 3 months in advance of the shows. We need people not only to place the ads, but to do daily follow-up to make sure it actually happens. President Finger said that we need to re-appoint a committee to do this – to put more life into hunting for auctions as well as following up on advertising.
F. Past Presidents – Al Bobrofsky
- Al Bobrofsky told the board that a committee was created to make recommendations to the board – to give a George Hatie award to Cliff Mishler. Cliff will be at the CSNS and Fall shows – Al recommends we give this award to Cliff at the fall show. A motion was made by Steve Marzilli, and seconded by Ann, to give a George Hatie award to Cliff Mishler at the Fall MSNS show; this was passed unanimously
G. The MichMatist – Mike Marotta
- (Statement made earlier but placed here due to earlier departure by T. Tabor): T. Tabor stated that she was doing the website when T. Klunzinger was our business manager. M. Marotta has said that it is okay for another to take over the web part of the work. T. Tabor would like to take over this work but first to work with M. Marotta.
- We need names and contact info for all board members and all committees.
- The state library has been carrying the MichMatist – because ours is a publication of record – but they seem to have been
dropped from the list.
- We are missing information from exhibits and winners, including commentary, for publication in the MichMatist. Same for the Educational Seminar. We need clarification on duties of editor and duties of publisher. Who handles the business of the MichMatist? The publisher or the business manager? Presently M. Marotta doesn’t handle this business.
- M. Marotta apologized for the table fee misstatement in the MichMatist issue.
- M. Marotta wants submissions in WORD, not WORKS. He uses Microsoft Publisher for the publication. For the web site he uses Microsoft Front Page.
- T. Klunzinger said that club ads are supposed to be free.
- Website: M. Marotta has would like to have a members-only area featuring a chat room and a most-recent articles archive (older articles would be available to the public).
- S. Friedman – how updated are our addresses on the list? Give address changes to LeBlanc.
- S. Marzilli had a question on ad rates. President Finger deferred it to new business.
- J. LeBlanc requested that all address changes must come to Joe – he gives these to M. Marotta. Starting with the most recent MichMatist, "Address Service Requested" is on every envelope – it costs 75 cents per correction. T. Klunzinger says – use "Change Service Requested" it is cheaper. President Finger told J. LeBlanc to look into this. J. LeBlanc says he and M. Marotta have made major strides toward reducing duplicate mailings to the same households.
- J. LeBlanc pointed out that by board action, all funds should be funneled through his office. Billing for ads should be
coordinated through Joe.
- T. Klunzinger recalled that the board said years ago that one issue is sent to each address, except that juniors get their own
issue, regardless.
- D. Rothfeld commented that he really likes the work. He suggested that the middle page be the one that has forms, so removed forms don’t destroy the remainder of the magazine.
- M. Strub commented that the dates and numbers on the issues are an administrative fiction, and seem to be based on a need to keep the issue numbers in synchronization with the 4-issue-per-year schedule, despite the issuance of only 3 MichMatists last year; further, that the dates do not jive with the mailing schedule, e.g. "Late Fall 2004" was mailed in mid-Winter 2005. M. Marotta countered that the dates are based on when the material is received, not when the issue is received by members. – M. Strub asked that M. Marotta put the second half of his article, "Coining in Paris, Again" in the next issue, as it was forgotten in the current issue.
H. Storage Yard – Joe LeBlanc
- We are pleased with the current arrangement
- B. Summerell explained that the current storage yard is high and dry, a convenient, well-known location, and a good price.
I. 50th Anniversary Committee – Tom Klunzinger
- T. Klunzinger has requested a price quote from Medallic Arts for bronze, silver, and gold medals – these would cost $10,
$20, and $600. He would take orders through the fall 2005 convention – then only strike what we receive orders for. T. Klunzinger wants the society logo on them. He has asked board to provide input from members, but received no answer. Last November, S. Bieda said he’d develop a design, and is doing so. There is no die charge, because it is built into the price of the medals. Medals are not medallions. Medals have higher relief, larger diameter; medallions are flatter and more coin-like. We can still get ideas from membership, just too late to get design from them.
- President Finger asked that T. Klunzinger work with Steve Bieda and keep in touch with us, with no expenditure of money approved.
Old Business
J. Convention Coordinator Compensation – Joe LeBlanc
- In the Fall of 2004, the MSNS paid Don Charters $750, as a reimbursement of his many miscellaneous expenses. This motion was only for Fall 2004. We should offer this also in the Spring of 2005. We may have to pay a successor, so we should be doing the same now with Mr. Charters.
- President Finger recalled that the board has agreed that it is worthwhile to pay Mr. Charters. We didn’t want to make it a salary in 2004. Al Bobrofsky and Dr. Parks also recall this. J. LeBlanc noted that the 9/12/04 meeting minutes said that we’d give $500 for Don’s use, $250 for his expenses, and concluded that the board does need to re-approve this payment in 2005.
- Mr. Charters has told J. LeBlanc that he’d like to do the 3 shows in 2005 alone, and to get a protégé later. Joe feels that we need to move up this timeframe; after all, Don is right now ill with Pneumonia.
- President Finger tabled the issue at this point; at the Spring convention, we will have a committee deal with the issue.
- We accept that the previous board minutes may be missing a fact, corrected with these minutes, that we WILL be paying the convention coordinator $750 for each convention.
K. Auction Contract with Whitford – President Finger
- At the fall convention we failed to meet our commitment of $2500 of ads in the Numismatic press. Craig
Whitford has refused to pay us the $1250 on this basis. Dr. Parks complained that Craig had a very good auction. President Finger recommended that we let this thing lie. Dr. Parks asked that we add to our contracts in the future that we get a list of prices realized. S. Friedman counseled that we should ask Craig Whitford what he needs to be happy – Al Bobrofsky has only recently received the contract for 2004 with Craig. We never had documentation of the ad requirement, but since we signed it officially, we are negligent. However, it wasn’t our fault because we tried to advertise in the numismatic press; they just didn’t run our ads. We DID spend $1800 in the local press. He recommended that we bury the hatchet. Dr. Parks said that this isn’t about last year; but next time we need to fix this problem. President Finger expressed gratitude that he said he doesn’t want any compensation for the breach of contract, and he wants us to call it even.
Al Bobrofsky moved, and S. Marzilli seconded, a motion to forgive any debt from our auctioneer for Fall 2004 and to move on – which was passed unanimously.
President Finger will himself send a letter of apology to Craig – this is not part of the above motion.
L. Fall 04 Convention Report – Don Charters (not present)
J. LeBlanc stated that this report is now closed.
New Business
M. Stationery – Joe LeBlanc
– we want MSNS to present an official, clean image. The letterhead changes continually, so we need to print our paper
pages on an inkjet as needed. But would the board authorize a budget of $400 or so for some nice envelopes? This would be preferable to the current stamping of envelopes. President Finger asked if we should increase the office supply budget. M. Marotta said that officers should do this on an as-needed basis – after all, you can use the website to copy the logo to your documents and envelopes. But he supported the Business Manager’s request for pre-printed envelopes because of his volume.
- S. Marzilli moved, and M. Marotta seconded, a motion to add $400 to the budget for office supplies to cover pre-printed MSNS mailing envelopes. This was passed unanimously.
N. Phone Line – Joe LeBlanc
- People are confused when they call MSNS and get instead an answer from Mr. LeBlanc’s business. We need to have an
independent line at his business – expected to cost $150 to install, and $25-$30/month to maintain. By the way, J. LeBlanc
absorbs costs of calling for MSNS on his cell phone without billing the club.
- S. Friedman moved, and D. Rothfeld seconded, a motion to increase the budget $450 for an independent phone line and service for one year at J. LeBlanc’s business. The motion passed.
– J. LeBlanc will try to get "COIN" or something similarly catchy into the phone number.
O. Fall 05 Auction with Whitford – President Finger
- B. Summerell asked why we are paying for an auction, and why we can’t at least break even. In response, some members
noted that the advertising requirement is combined for the auction AND the show, so that it kind of is a break-even expenditure.
- J. LeBlanc stated that the dispute was based on the need for room expense compensation for Mr. Whitford, provision of $2500 for advertising, and provision of 8 tables or so for auction lot viewing. LeBlanc questioned the financial benefit of the proposed contract.
- Al Bobrofsky admonished the board to forget personalities.
- President Finger agreed that we should stop inflaming old animosities. We have an auction committee.
- S. Friedman opinioned 80% of the dealers bid on the auction. It is dead-wrong to say only Mr. Whitford benefits from the auction. We have dealers who fly in for the auction, but then walk the bourse floor only because they’re already here.
- President Finger said that we already have a verbal contract; and that he was only showing it to the board, (not requesting approval).
- Dr. Parks and M. Strub requested that we amend any future contract to have prices realized provided afterward.
- S. Friedman asserted that we need to attract more people. We can’t get another auctioneer. Auctions attract people.
- President Finger explained that this contract is already agreed to.
- President Finger ended debate by stating that board approval isn’t required, so he will go ahead and write this
contract up.
P. Scout Program – Frank Passic (not present)
- T. Klunzinger explained that Mark Benvenuto has volunteered to take up this responsibility.
- D. Rothfeld complained that M. Benvenuto is unreliable.
- Al Bobrofsky explained that M. Benvenuto is certified by BSA (Boy Scouts of America).
- B. Summerell complained that M. Benvenuto never showed up when he was a board member.
Q. Membership Drive – Mike Marotta
- Discussion was moved into the committee.
R. Code of Ethics – Mike Marotta
- Wants us to adopt his code of ethics. President Finger said that the constitution already has stuff like this. Has no problem with putting it into the MichMatist and publishing it. But changing the constitution is different. M. Marotta wants to just publish it. M. Denany – noted that there is no language for contemporary counterfeits. Mike Strub noted that we need to work on this, some is a statement of principle, and only some is about cheaters. President Finger asked that M. Marotta be available for amendments and comments – a final version can come to the next board meeting for a vote.
S. Showcase and lamp charges – President Finger
President Finger asked that B. Summerell please review these charges.
T. Marriott MichMatist items – President Finger
- Craig Whitford complained about the $300 charge for full-page ads in the MichMatist – President Finger asked M. Marotta to review the discrepancy in the apparent real-estate cost between full page and business card ads. M. Marotta explained that we kind of give a subsidy to the business card advertisers. President Finger asked that M. Marotta explain the situation to Craig Whitford.
U. Exhibits – Dany Rothfeld:
- We don’t have insurance for exhibits – should we? What about the liability? B. Summerell replied that we have security with shotguns. President Finger replied that the security company we use is bonded. D. Rothfeld asked what happens to a case if somebody spills coffee on it? President Finger didn’t know. Mike Marotta explained that the procedure is, you bring the material, put it in a case, and keep the key. The ANA exhibit form absolves the association of responsibility that may otherwise occur. President Finger said this is the same as for dealers. Perhaps we need to put this to the exhibits committee to make recommendations to put this into the manual as necessary.
- Is the exhibit chairperson considered part of the convention? President Finger felt that he works as hard as anyone, and should be treated like a worker. J. LeBlanc said that the exhibit chairperson has been given a ribbon, is treated as a worker, including giving him a room for 2 nights. The board informally agrees.
V. 2-tier pricing – Mike Strub
- M. Strub verbally advanced the idea that our coin shows are beginning to favor well-heeled and well-established collectors at the expense of beginners. Many customers at his Fall, 2004 MSNS table said that they were pleased to see a dealer in less expensive and foreign material, and wished that there were more. M. Strub feels that the reason there aren’t more dealers in the less expensive material is that it is hard to make enough profit to cover the high cost of a dealer table while selling 25 cent coins; whereas, dealers in high-priced material can easily pay for their table with a single sale. He further stated that the purpose of MSNS is to advance the hobby of Numismatics; and that this is best done by helping the new collectors get started. Therefore he proposed that there be a fixed number of tables reserved at future conventions for inexpensive material. The maximum price of an item sold there could be $100, and the table charge could be reduced, perhaps to $150, for dealers willing to cater to these beginning collectors. The philosophy behind this move would mirror that of the ANA, which already has a similar practice for similar reasons.
- Some board members felt that M. Strub was seeking charity for dealers, which he adamantly denied – the sole purpose of
this proposal is to bring in more dealers who will cater to new collectors, thus fulfilling part of our organization’s charter.
- President Finger suggested that Charters M. Strub write this proposal up to propose at a future board meeting.
Committees
- Board members were asked to give to J. LeBlanc their contact information before leaving the meeting.
- Board members were asked to contact President Finger by email to suggest which committees they’d like to be on – he’ll establish them, then check up monthly with each committee. Al Bobrofsky added that we should have committees do their research and made solid recommendations; then the board shouldn’t disagree with their work without "darn good reasons". This will shorten our meetings to 1-2 hours.
- S. Friedman asserted that we can’t be called a board of directors, or legally we are required to be paid $50/meeting. Others questioned this assertion, also the complexity of changing the designation. President Finger will refer this to our legal counsel Steven Bieda, and change our titles back to "Board of Governors" if we need to.
W. Publicity Chairman – President Finger
X. Membership Committee – President Finger
Y. Financial Review Committee – President Finger
Z. Legal Counsel – President Finger
AA. Convention Manual Committee, Search for Convention Understudy, Convention Committee – President Finger
- B. Summerell said that B. Malnar would be a good understudy for Convention Coordinator. B. Malnar said he would be interested, but needs to work with Mr. Charters. President Finger said that this is an important job. The board agrees that Bryan should pursue this. B.. Malnar replied that he has a good rapport with Don, so it won’t be a problem - he’ll get with Don personally.
BB. Executive Committee – President Finger
CC. Auction Committee – President Finger
DD. Anniversary Committee
Board Member Comments
- Al Bobrofsky has made nice new box for the raffle cage. He has also completed the George Hatie awards, and will be giving them to Joe tonight. And he has a large box of foreign coins for the YNs (Young Numismatists).
- Parking is free because unsupervised.
- B. Summerell and Al Bobrofsky asked for a complete budget and design of the medals that T. Klunzinger is proposing, plus a
silvertown competitive bid.
General Membership Comments
- none
Adjourn
- It was moved by M. Marotta, and seconded by D. Rothfeld, that we adjourn. This was passed unanimously at 6:55 pm.