HELPING LOCAL COIN CLUB NEWSLETTER EDITORS

It has long been recognized that local coin clubs across the country are generally focused on growing interest in the numismatic hobby within their communities, providing a social activity for members and sharing knowledge and experiences among colleagues besides the typical buying, selling and trading of coins and currency among members.

Three other areas of endeavor in particular always seem to be a top priority for most clubs whether they are small or large in membership size, regional in nature, or are of a specialty area focus (like Liberty Seated series collecting)

The #1 Priority always seems to be getting more members of the club engaged in actually helping out with administrative responsibilities on a consistent basis. Usually it is just a few members or officers who do most of the work for the club and not enough other members come forward to volunteer and help out. Also, too few members tend to provide the educational programs needed for others to enjoy.

The #2 Priority is of course attracting young people to the club as members. This priority is certainly the #1 for the numismatic hobby overall if the hobby is to endure well into the future. It is even a bigger priority than say fakes & counterfeits, overgrading & gradeflation, and coin doctoring.

The #3 Priority is the important need these days for local clubs to have a viable website and club newsletter for its members. At times, clubs struggle with finding a capable member with the time, desire and ability to create and manage their club website, and to find the same capable type of member to publish their club newsletter.

Like all these priorities, there are challenges! But putting together a club newsletter with fresh information and engaging articles each period, not to mention its design and layout can be a difficult task for the chosen volunteer given the responsibility.

There may be a general hobby support solution for club newsletter editors on the way...

For about a year now, there has been a small group of newsletter editors from various coin clubs across the country that have shared amongst ourselves our published monthly newsletters, and shared both ideas & tips for improving the product of our efforts for the benefit of club members and improving our own skill sets with the publishing tools at hand.

It is also a way to share news and educational articles relevant to our own clubs that might only get published locally, but worthy of a larger audience for those authors.

This all started because Phil Vitale, President of the Albuquerque (NM) Coin Club and Editor of their monthly club newsletter Pocket Change presented a class for the ANA Educational Forums on the serious topic of improving Club Newsletters. Pocket Change also won Best Club Publication from the ANA's Literary Awards before the pandemic.

Here's the big question: As a club newsletter editor, would you be interested in being a part of this group? We could have periodic Zoom Meeting conference calls with training, troubleshooting and great idea sharing on topics of importance to you with the goal of making your job as an editor a little easier.

In addition to myself and Phil Vitale, Greg Burns, Editor of the California Numismatist for CSNA & NASC, Len Augsburger of the Newman Numismatic Portal and other club editors are interested in supporting such a specialty group as organizers and mentors.

Organizing ideas are flying off the shelf!

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web