Charmy’s September 2016 REPORT ON THE NCNA NUMISMATIC SEMINAR w/lots of Pics!
Earlier this year I was honored to be
invited to be one of the presenters at the Northern California
Numismatic Association’s (NCNA) annual educational seminar in
Vallejo, California, on the topic of “The Future of Our Hobby.” I
was also advised that all of my expenses would be taken care of,
including travel and lodging. I later found out that, if we wanted to
arrive a day earlier, they were even going to take us on a wine
tasting tour in Napa Valley. So of course, how could I
refuse!
Besides me, the speakers included the
following people (Xan Chamberlain is shown presenting each of us with
certificates following our talks):
Scott
English, Executive Director of the American Philatelic Society (the
stamp community has a lot of the same challenges as the numismatic
community)
Stephen
Woodland, noted Canadian numismatist (again, Canada has similar
issues as the US)
Jeff
Shevlin, specialist in So-Called Dollars
These
are the benefactors who helped make this symposium and
extra-curricular events possible!
Xan Chamberlain,
James Laird, Fred van den Haak, and Michael Turrini
So
I flew up to Oakland, and Lloyd Chan graciously picked me up from the
airport and drove me to the hotel where they had a room ready and
paid for. After I freshened up, we met up with the other presenters
and the benefactors who helped fun the entire symposium, and went out
to dinner where we had some lively discussions on everyone’s
thoughts about the hobby.
The next morning (Friday),
we were picked up at the hotel in a limo bus for our wine tasting
trip to Napa. The benefactors, patrons and NCNA officers also came
along. They even had bottles of champagne and orange juice waiting
for us so we could have mimosas along the
way!!!
They
had made reservations for a tour and tasting at the beautiful
Castello di Amorosa which was built as an authentic Tuscan medieval
style castle with hand-made stones and bricks employing the same
methods and materials that would have been used 700-800 years
ago.
View
from the castle
Then
it was time for the wine tasting!
One
of my favorites
I
ended up ordering several bottles of their delicious wine and having
it shipped home. What a great experience!
Our next
stop was a tour of the Jelly Belly Factory! Along the way, we passed
the famous Napa Valley Wine Train.
When
we arrived at the Jelly Belly Factory, they had two adorable Jelly
Belly cars out front!
I
didn’t know they also made candy corn, and a lot of other types of
candy as well!
Everyone
on the tour had to wear these hats!
They
had several portraits of famous people made out of Jelly
Bellies.
A
sea of millions and millions of Jelly
Bellies!!!
After
the Jelly Belly Factory tour, the limo bus took us back to our hotel
where we had a chance to rest and freshen up before dinner. We then
were taken to a favorite local bbq place called Gracies
The
next day, we all met at the Vallejo Naval and Historical Museum in
Vallejo for our presentations.
These
are more of the NCNA patrons
During
the preparation of my talk, I was concerned that my remarks would
overlap with the other presenters’ talks, so I decided to gear my
presentation towards why more women aren’t involved in the hobby
and how we can introduce and encourage young girls and women to be a
part of numismatics.
The gist of the talks included
of course, how to engage our youth to participate in numismatics.
There are no single answers but everyone agreed that technology plays
a heavy part in numismatics and will only play a stronger part in the
future, that dealer and club websites need to be up to date to
include modern technology and information with quality photographs.
We talked about that, unless the aging club members learn to engage
youth and meet them at least halfway by somehow including technology
in their club meetings, it will be very difficult for these clubs to
keep functioning. And even with that, our youth are more interested
in using online forums as a way to discuss numismatics rather than
meet in person in a club setting.
Scott, the stamp
guy, talked about how the stamp market is struggling with aging
membership but that they are trying to embrace more technology by
even having an online club where young members can use Facetime or
Skype to meet and discuss their collections, etc.
Steve,
the Canadian numismatist, had similar issues as U.S. clubs and with
less attendance at shows and auctions due to people using computers
to buy from dealers online and online auctions.
Jeff
Shevlin challenged each of the audience members to declare one thing
that they will do to help numismatics, then to report back to him
once they have done it so he can include it in an article he will
write.
We also discussed how there may be too many
small coin shows and clubs (particularly throughout Northern
California) and that perhaps they should try and combine shows and
clubs so as not to dilute the regional market with too many small
shows. However, we discovered that too many club members are
entrenched in their “own” turf and don’t really want to “share”
their shows or hold them in another club’s venue. Unfortunately,
it’s this way of thinking that will eventually end some of these
smaller clubs.
I specifically discussed different ways
I thought we could market numismatics more to women (which also
applies to our youth) by welcoming them at shows and clubs, helping
to mentor them, engaging them, making them feel less intimated,
introducing them to other forms of numismatics that they may find
more appealing such as love tokens, encasements, penny teapots and
charms, pop outs, elongates, etc. The main theme of my talk involved
being a mentor as I feel that after getting new collectors in the
door, in order to keep them engaged and interested, we need to make
sure they have someone they can turn to, ask questions of, and not
feel intimidated by who will help guide them as they grow their
passion and collection.
After the four speakers were
finished, we had a panel discussion where we all took questions from
the audience. There were almost 50 people in the audience, many of
whom had various questions about how we can make the hobby
better.
After the seminar ended, we went back to the
hotel to freshen up before the banquet. Then we all met at a
wonderful Italian restaurant along the harbor for dinner which was
entirely and generously sponsored by James Laird.
Coincidentally,
during my talk, I showed photos of some of my exonumia, including a
1900 celluloid encased Indian cent political charm with a photograph
of Roosevelt and McKinley on the other side of the charm.
After
my presentation, James walked up to me and showed me a very similar
charm he had in an airtight container attached to an original red
ribbon bow hanger. This had belonged to James’ grandfather and had
been handed down to him. I had never seen this charm with the
original hanger before and was so very pleased to see
one.
I
must say that I have never enjoyed a symposium as much as I enjoyed
this one. Everyone was so completely kind, generous, engaging,
welcoming, and gracious to each of us presenters. Not even counting
the Napa/Jelly Belly tour, if every numismatic speaker was welcomed
even half as much as we were, I don’t think any club would ever
have any problems finding speakers!
Thank you so much
Michael, James, Lloyd, Xan, Fred, and all the other patrons and
benefactors for one of the most fun and memorable numismatic
experiences I’ve had! I am grateful to you for all of your
hospitality and am honored to have been able to spend time and get to
know each of you. Thank you!!