irish rifle posted:I had a fairly lengthy telephone call with Eastern Division President Dan Danielson a couple of days before the October Meet. Highlights of that call follow.
Dan initially indicated that only three decisions have been made by the Eastern Division regarding the York Meets. First, the April 2020 Meet will be Friday and Saturday. (Friday and Saturday hours in the dealer and member halls will be the same as they have been under the three-day Meet schedule.) Second, there will continue to be April and October Meets each year. Third, the Eastern Division was not prepared to keep the current three-day format for a once-a-year October Meet, although that alternative was raised by a number of individuals, including myself............
That's interesting, as the only option presented in the survey email (that matches Friday/Saturday) indicated that the Friday/Saturday hours would be Fri 9-6 dealers, 9-5 members, and Sat 9-3 both dealers and members.
That's NOT the same as what we had recently, including last week. We had 1 1/2 hours of time after member halls closed on Friday to visit dealer halls, and one hour on Saturday (members closed at 2, dealers at 3).
On a totally side note, re new memberships: One could argue from the issuing of new TCA numbers that people joining over the last 20 years has not been a problem. The problem is getting people to stay and also participate in events like York. A little over 20 years ago there were about 45-50,000 members. That was when the organization was a little over 40 years old. It's now 20 years later (organization now 65 years old), and I'm pretty sure we are around 74-75000 or so in the TCA numbers being issued (didn't have the latest HQ News handy, but I see high 73,000 numbers in one from early this year). So while not door-busting numbers, the issuance of new numbers seems at least on par on a new members per year basis (some being trial members - which is of course a new thing).
Of course eBay is a lot bigger than it was 20 years ago, and many people are either no longer able to participate or passing due to age, none of which anything can be done about.
-Dave
