From: Association of Collecting Clubs
18222 Flower Hill Way #299
Gaithersburg, MD 20879
301.926.8663
Info@Collectors.Org

To: Digital Reprieve, Inc.
Subject: ACC Update, Vol 3, No 2, March 6, 2005

If your club hasn't yet signed up to be represented in the ACC booth at the Atlantique City antiques & collectibles show, we're approaching the 12th hour! See how your club can actively participate in the Charlotte Antique & Collectibles Show at Metrolina Expo and the West Palm Beach Antique & Collectibles Show. Be sure to visit the new section on Instructions for New Member Clubs on our website. Place some focus on senior citizens in your collecting club. Read about these areas and more in this ACC Update.

Although many of these pieces were available here and there, now you have everything in one place. The instructions are broken down into four areas: what new clubs should do as soon as you join, "periodic" membership maintenance, benefits for optional consideration and what's coming in the future.

We urge our contacts at all ACC member clubs to visit this document and read it thoroughly. If you still have any questions regarding ACC benefits or services, please let us know.

As a reminder to all clubs, here are some of the benefits and options you have available to you as a member club of ACC:

Club Directory: Full listing of your club contact information - the "club directory of choice" for both collectors and dealers. Produced in partnership with Maloney's Antiques & Collectibles Resource Directory.

Join a Club: Direct link to your club's membership application from the Collectors.Org website.

ACC Programs: A broad area of club leadership information, resources and idea exchange through 20 or more program areas.

ACC News Service: Carrying club news through Collectors.Org geared to promoting your shows, conventions, and other events and activities.

Club Conventions Directory: lists upcoming club conventions.

Collectors Trade Show: A virtual trade show with aisle after aisle of booths offering products and services of interest to collectors and collecting clubs.

Collectors Insurance: Insurance for your members, and liability insurance for your clubs.

Atlantique City Antiques & Collectibles Show: Twice a year ACC has a large booth promoting clubs and recruiting membership for your clubs.

Club Conventions: Working with clubs in ways to strengthen your club conventions, increase participation and add creativity to your convention programming.

Looking back to the 1960s, 1970s, even the early 1980s when many of our collecting clubs got their start, things seemed a lot simpler. The primary goal of collecting clubs in those days was to establish a way for collectors in a given collecting area to communicate with one another, get to know each other, and to perhaps buy, sell and trade among the members. A newsletter got started, and usually some form of "gathering" which for many clubs developed into an annual convention. Later some clubs started local chapters and perhaps doing projects or offering other resources for their members. Often a member or two started a mail auction or sales list which provided additional opportunities.

The evolution in the antiques & collecting industry has made major changes during the past decade or more, and particularly since 1990. In fact, most everything has changed...except collecting clubs which often times seem to be resistant to change.

Yes, the Internet has a major role in this change. The way we buy and sell and trade has been influenced big time by the Internet. But collecting, itself, has changed. We have new types of collectors who are far from being traditionalists. And, for sure, they do not understand collecting clubs...and collecting clubs do not understand them.

This is why so many collecting clubs today are fretting over a decline in membership and an aging membership, while at the same time we have more collectors than ever, and more younger collectors.

Collecting clubs still have a significant role to play in the collecting industry, perhaps more so than ever. As clubs mature, there seems to be an evolution that takes place within the club, itself. Whereas it may have started out simply as a way for fellow collectors to get to know one another and to foster this communication, over the years the knowledge base of many of our collecting areas comes to rest within the membership of these collecting clubs. Hence, clubs now have an additional responsibility - that of a legitimate resource for the collecting area the club serves - and not only to their own members, but to anyone who has a need for information relating to their particular collecting area, i.e. the entire collecting community.

Bottom line, many of our collecting clubs need to start thinking differently and doing things differently. As an important resource to your collecting area are you fulfilling your role? Are you truly interested in reaching out to new audiences - collectors who need your help and expertise - and not only bringing them in but serving them in the ways they need to be served?

It has been documented that every generation seeks out and uses resources with which they feel most comfortable...and that these resources are quite different from one generation to another. If the bulk of your membership is in the age bracket of 50 or higher, chances are that you are not providing club information in either the correct context or using the right vehicles for reaching younger generations.

ACC plans to spend most of our efforts during 2005 on helping our member clubs do a better job of marketing and managing your clubs to reach new audiences and better serve the collecting industry with the knowledge base your club members possess.

You will be hearing more about some of these major thrusts in our next ACC Update. We are actively seeking partners to help with these projects and will be seeking your input, as well.

--Larry Krug, ACC

The March 2005 Atlantique City Antique & Collectible Show is less than two weeks away! - Friday, March 18 through Sunday, March 20 at the Atlantic City Convention Center. If your collecting group has never participated in the ACC booth, we strongly encourage you to join us this year. We will need 40-50 promotional fliers or membership brochures sent to: ACC, 18222 Flower Hill Way #299, Gaithersburg, MD 20879 by March 14. But, please, call (301.926.8663) or e-mail (AtlantiqueCity@collectors.org) before sending the material. We anticipate over 200 collecting groups to be represented in the booth at this show. We will have 2-3 staff persons manning the booth during the duration of the show, discussing the clubs and membership.

A complete listing of participating clubs in the ACC booth at the October Atlantique City show can be found directly from the home page at the ACC website, Collectors.Org.

ACC has already committed to continuing the Collecting Clubs booth at the Atlantique City show for both March 2005 and October 2005. We hope all of the participating clubs will join us again, and perhaps even a few more!

Again, let us know if your club is interested in being represented in the ACC booth. You can e-mail us at: AtlantiqueCity@collectors.org or call 301.926.8663. There is no cost.

Your club can conduct a show, receive great show promotion...and reach thousands of show visitors - and it will be easy!

Through ACC's partnership with dmg world media, collecting clubs can now set up as a "satellite" show (sort of a show within a show) at either the biggest monthly antiques show in the Carolinas, or Florida's biggest monthly antique show!

Lydia Sullivan, show manager of the Charlotte Antique & Collectibles Show at Metrolina Expo, and Bethany Coleman, show manager of the West Palm Beach Antique & Collectibles Show, are inviting ACC collecting clubs to consider setting up at one of their monthly shows. The shows are held 12 times a year at both locations.

What are the advantages?

1 - Clubs can sponsor a satellite show within an existing major show with minimal management effort. Producing a show, contracting for facilities, show layout, developing promotion, handling the audience, security, liability and all the rest of the factors involved means a lot of work, particularly when most clubs have to rely upon volunteers.

2 - The show management will promote the show to far more expanded audiences...on the show's public relations and promotion budget.

3 - Clubs can offer their club members who set-up in the satellite show as dealers far greater show traffic than they can provide at a show run by themselves...including crowds of new potential customers that probably would never get to one of your shows otherwise.

4 - A club operating as a smaller show within a larger show affords an excellent opportunity to provide greater club visibility and membership recruitment potential.

5 - A partnering show with a larger event gives your collecting club additional prestige.

There probably are even more advantages, but we feel the ones listed above build a pretty impressive case for clubs to think about such a venture.

Why would dmg world media offer clubs this opportunity at their Charlotte and West Palm Beach shows, you may be asking? Well, its only fair to list a few advantages it would be for them, as well:

1 - Participating clubs would bring in a new group of dealers with "new" merchandise. (Some of these dealers may become candidates to set-up at other shows sponsored by the show management on a regular basis, thus it potentially becomes a dealer recruitment tool.)

2 - In addition to those setting up in the club section, it is anticipated the club would bring in potential buyers, directly from their membership and beyond, some which may be new to this show.

3 - The club section offers a major, additional "theme" for show promotion and advertising for that particular event.

4 - Show management may wish to consider utilizing the expertise of the club membership in offering an appraisal component in the specific subject area(s) of the participating club, or as a knowledge resource in other ways.

5 - Partnering with collecting clubs is good public relations not only for the show in which the club is participating, but for continual involvement in the future.

Please remember that scheduling for these shows is done months in advance. You will need to plan ahead and have some possible optional dates if the show managers cannot accommodate you with your first preference. This is new territory for all of us, but a great opportunity.

The Association of Collecting Clubs has placed a lot of emphasis during the past year on reaching out to young collectors and involving them in your hobby and your clubs.

Anyway, Ray makes an interesting point in his article on "Topical Stamp Collecting: A Universal Hobby for Seniors"

"Topical stamp collectors are very much like the butterfly. They usually start their collecting of stamps early in their life. In time, they give up their collecting, building a cocoon as they marry and settle down, raise families, and compete for jobs. In time, something rekindles their interest and they emerge from their cocoons, often taking a radical change in their collecting habits. Where they were once stamp collectors, they are now philatelists. By the age of 50, most philatelists have a good idea of what really interests them and are looking for creative outlets to educate themselves in their interests and enjoy doing something that has an inherent, personal appeal. This, then, becomes a lifelong hobby for most. A hobby is defined as an activity which is done in order to find a venue for relaxation. Topical collecting fills that requirement for thousands of seniors. It is often one area in their lives over which they have total control."

Ray hits an interesting point. Many kids growing up in the 40s, 50s, and 60s were collectors. They collected coins, stamps, rocks, shells, pennants, baseball cards, dolls, comics and toys. As they became teenagers, often the collecting fell by the wayside. Eventually their moms threw the collections out or gave them to the community rummage sale (often a very bad decision!).

For many of these people who went on and started families and got involved in careers and other challenges of life, there just wasn't time to think about having a hobby. But once retirement comes, those old interests from childhood should perhaps be rekindled. We're not saying to necessarily go back to collecting the same thing as you did when you were 8 or 10 (although as Ray points out, with stamp collecting this does seem logical). But why not give some attention to attracting senior citizens into our clubs? Instead of worrying about the club's "aging factor", encourage retirees to rekindle the fascination of collecting they had as a kid and join your club. Retired seniors also are prime candidates for club volunteers!

We welcome your thoughts on this topic. Write to: info@collectors.org