Oct 17, 2007 | ANA
Following the cancellation of the plans for a numismatic museum in Washington, DC, the American Numismatic Association Board of Governors voted on Monday to withdraw their support for Gold Rush Museum that will be built in the old San Francisco Mint building known as the Granite Lady. Just as with the Washington project, the ANA cited the association’s inability to financially support the project.
As part of this vote, the ANA and Steven L. Contursi, President of Rare Coin Wholesalers of Dana Point, California withdrew the pledge of $1 million Contursi made for the museum projects. Contursi, who was awarded an ANA Exemplary Service Award for his previous assistance to the Association, said that he looks forward to working with the ANA on future projects.
The Board of Governors will continue the study the feasibility of expanding the Edward C. Rochette Money Museum at the ANA headquarters in Colorado Springs.
Oct 15, 2007 | ANA
Citing the inability to commit to raising the $20 million dollars that would be needed to support the project, the American Numismatic Association Board of Governors voted unanimously to cancel plans to open a museum in Washington, DC.
“At this point in time we can’t make the financial commitment to raise over $20 million that would be needed for the Washington project. When the association’s finances allow us to do so, we may revisit this proposal in the future,” explained Barry Stuppler, ANA President.
The ANA will take up the expansion of the Edward C. Rochette Money Museum at the headquarters in Colorado Springs and their participation in the development of the American Money and Gold Rush Museum at the old mint building in San Francisco during the scheduled board meeting on October 15-16.
Although there was no reason provided why the Board did not wait until their scheduled meeting two weeks later, there may have been a commitment issue that had to be resolved at the beginning new federal fiscal year (FY08) that started on October 1.
Commitments for these museums were lead by Executive Director Christopher Cipoletti. Soon after, it was questioned whether the ANA can afford these commitments. This was one of the issues that lead to the questions of the ANA’s fiscal responsibility during the recent ANA elections. This was probably one of many reasons that Cipoletti was placed on leave when the new Governors were installed—even though the “official” reason was to prepare for a trial.
As a resident of the Metropolitan DC area, I am a little disappointed that the ANA will not be working to open a museum in the area. Maybe they can consider working with the Smithsonian Institute to find a place to display The National Numismatic Collection, the world’s largest, that closed in December 2004.
Aug 27, 2007 | ANA, shows
Did you miss the American Numismatic Association World’s Fair of Money held earlier this month in Milwaukee and want to see some of the highlights? How about the introduction of the 100 kilogram gold coin from the Royal Canadian Mint? What about the meeting of the new Board of Governors? You can thanks to Cointelevision.com.
Cointelevision.com is a great service run by Executive Producer David Lisot. The site is free and supported by advertisements. At the World’s Fair of Money, David Lisot was been appointed as a co-chairman of the Technology and Website Committee by the newly elected Board of Governors. With my background in technology and being an ANA member, I will be reaching out to this committee to provide my assistance.
Aug 13, 2007 | ANA
In keeping with their campaign promises to resolve the issues with the operations of the American Numismatic Association, the newly installed Board of Governors voted to place Executive Director Chris Cipoletti on paid leave and to appoint a special audit committee to look at the ANA’s finances and determine whether a full audit is necessary.
Cipoletti has been a controversial figure with the new Board members, but was placed on leave to prepare for an employment case which he is a co-defendant with the ANA that will begin in September. Former ANA president Ken Hallenbeck will serve as acting executive director and will be assisted by Kim Kiick. Cipoletti will provide reports to the Board regarding these preparations before the beginning of the trial.
The new Board also appointed a new counselor to assist on legal matters.
It was reported that all of these votes were unanimous with the exception of the vote on Cipoletti. For that vote, Ed Rochette abstained. Rochette preceded Cipoletti as Executive Director and felt that the up coming trial could represent a conflict of interest.
Kudos to the new ANA Board of Governors for acting so quickly and decisively.
Jul 31, 2007 | ANA, Eagles, fun, YN
Over the weekend I went south Florida for a family function. In Florida, I saw my teenage nephews. Last year, I gave my older nephew various coins and coin sets to commemorate his birthday and reaching 13. I did the same for my other nephew this year. These gifts include Mint sets from the year they were born, a package that included the last Susan B. Anthony Dollar and the first Sacagawea Dollar as being the first coin change in their life time, and other coins. For this year, I found a folder of coins with the pre-Euro coins that my nephew found interesting.
Giving coins as a gift has inspired my older nephew into building a collection. While both do collect 50 State Quarters in a map folder I had given them, my older nephew seems to have gravitated to American Silver Eagle Proof coins and colorized State Quarters. I do not understand why he likes the colored quarters, but that is his choice. He has a lot of questions that are not focused, so I will need to work with him to get him to better focus his understanding.
My older nephew is more intense than his younger sibling. He is more concerned with the worth and value of the coins than the history. I gave him a copy of Coinage magazine that I finished reading and the first section he looked at were the yellow price guide section! For this year’s birthday, he was given junior memberships to the ANA and FUN. My younger nephew was last seen staring at the Mint set and pre-Euro coins admiring their beauty. I will have to sit with each to figure out their numismatic interests in more detail.
It is fun talking with them, answering their many questions, and encouraging their interest in numismatics. While talking, I was told that they will be in New York in two weeks. So I offered to take them to the Philadelphia Branch Mint for the public tour if my work schedule permits. They would take the train to Philadelphia where I will pick them up at the station. They are hoping my work schedule will allow me to do this. They are also scheming to figure out how much money they can bring to buy souvenirs.
All it takes is a gift of coins to convert someone into a young numismatist. Give it a try and watch the hobby grow!
Jul 25, 2007 | ANA
The American Numismatic Association announced the results of the 2007 election. After two years of controversy, voting members of the ANA elected a new Board that consists of no incumbents or anyone tied with the previous Board. Aside from the unopposed president and vice president, this election returns Ed Rochette, a past president, to the Board. Along with Rochette, the new Board includes Cliff Mishler and Chet Krause whose problems with the outgoing Board have been well documented. Also returning to the Board is Walt Ostromecki, the member who was dismissed by the outgoing Board during the Krause/Mishler issues.
The new Board of Governors will be installed at the ANA World’s Fair of Money in Milwaukee. The new Board is as follows:
| President: |
Barry Stupler |
| Vice President: |
Patricia Jagger-Finner |
| Governors: |
Clifford Mishler
Chester Krause
Edward C. Rochette
Joseph E. Boling
Radford Sterns
Walter A. Ostromecki
Wendell A. Wolka |
I may not have voted for every member who was elected for the Board of Governors, but they are a Governor on the Board of my ANA and I hope they do a good job. Congratulations to all who will serve.
Jul 24, 2007 | ANA
American Numismatic Association Board of Governors election ballots were due to the accounting firm last week. Although I have no contact with the ANA or their accounting firm, I assume that the ballots are being verified and counted. As this is happening, some of us are speculating what the outcome will be.
Dave Harper, editor of Numismatic News, speculates that based on his version of “conventional wisdom” incumbents should make up at least half of the upcoming ANA Board of Governors. However, after attending the ANA candidate forum in Charlotte and reading the editorial comments in publications like Numismatic News, this may be a case where the ANA electorate is looking for a change.
The questioning at the candidate forum made it clear that the audience was ready for a change in the board. Those what distinguished themselves as someone who wanted to improve the ANA with change were embraced while incumbents and those with close ties to the current Board were not seen in a positive light.
Considering the forum and subsequent publication coverage of this election, my version of conventional wisdom says that the ANA electorate wants a change. This would indicate that other than the president and vice president, who are running unopposed, it would not be surprising to see one member of the current Board or someone with an associate with the current Board be elected. These candidates do not represent the change members seem to desire.
I admit that I voted for change. I withheld my vote for president and vice president out of principle because they are members of the current Board of Governors. The balance of my ballot was used to vote for those who are not on the current ANA Board of Governors. When I cast my ballot, I voted for Joe Boling, Michael Doran, John Eshbach, Cliff Mishler, Walter Ostromecki, Radford Sterns, and Wendell Wolka.
I admit that Walter Ostromecki is an emotional choice. Although I did not vote for him during the last election, I do not believe that Ostromecki was treated well by the current Board during his dismissal shortly after his term began. I want to give him a chance to serve a full term.
Joe Boling and Cliff Mishler are experienced with the ANA with Boling being a judge for the ANA exhibits. Both have strong backgrounds with a passion that could not be resisted. Mishler comes off as a gruff person. But after having a conversation with him, it is easy to tell he as the passion and intelligence to help the ANA.
John Eshbach, Radford Sterns, and Wendell Wolka are three who impressed me at the candidate forum. Eshbach was plain spoken and passionately to the point. He is an “old timer” who can be a great contributor.
Sterns and Wolka were outspoken in their use of technology to improve the outreach and communications to the ANA membership. Wolka really seemed to understand my concerns that the ANA can leverage technology as a tool and involve membership who have the background to provide advice. I gave Wolka my business card noting my interest in helping the new Board with technology and planning. We will see if Wolka follows through if he is elected.
Michael Doran also impressed me in Charlotte. However, following that forum, Doran published statements in support of the current Board. Doran’s views were interesting and understandable from the perspective he gives. Since dissent is good for debate, I thought that Doran would help provide the fodder for the debate without including any current Board members.
There are other good candidates, but this is the slate I chose. Regardless of who is elected, I will borrow a phrase from John Wayne: I may not have voted for every member who is elected for the Board of Governors, but they are a Governor on the Board of my ANA and I hope they do a good job.
Jun 27, 2007 | ANA, coins, fun
One thing that slipped my mind following the ANA National Money Show™ in Charlotte was that the candidates forum was being tapped for showing on line. I should have remembered since I was sitting next to David Lisot, Executive Producer at cointelevision.com. I was reminded of this site by a mailing from Numismatic News.
In short, Lisot attends coin shows and tapes the key activities. Videos are digitized and posted on the cointelevision.com website for anyone to view. Videos are posted in Quicktime format and viewable to anyone with Internet access.
Cointelevision.com is a marvelous idea. For those of us who cannot attend every coin show, having the videos available for some of the key highlights is wonderful.
For those interested in seeing the candidate forum from the National Money Show,™ you can find the video on ANA’s website.
Jun 26, 2007 | ANA
Yesterday, Dave Harper, Editor of Numismatic News, posted a note on his blog saying that he had not received his ballot for the ANA elections. At the bottom of his post, Harper notes that his ballot arrived with the morning mail. I was optimistic that my ballot would arrive on Monday. When I arrived home, I found my ballot along with the rest of the household mail.
Between now and July 19, I have to decide whom will receive the privilege of my vote. While I may not be anyone special, I do have a blog where I plan to talk about the ANA Board elections one or two more times before ballots have to be mailed.
In the package with the election materials is a survey asking for membership opinions about the proposed changes to the ANA Bylaws. With the opinion form is a copy of the new bylaws with a summary of changes on its cover. My first impression was not good. When I first opened the pamphlet, I noticed that the committee who worked on these updates did not have corporate or non-profit business experience. Also, reporting and oversight functions are missing, as required by Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) that defines standards for corporate governance. Finally, too much is made of a name change of the top two offices from president and vice president to chairman and Vice Chairman.
I wish there was an option to see a marked up version of these bylaws. A marked up version could be created using standard word processing software to compare the two versions to create one version with change markings. I will ask the ANA Board of Governors for electronic copies to do this. Otherwise, I can try to use the optical character recognition (OCR) to “read” the documents and save them in a form the word processing software can read. If there is an interest, I will post the results.
Jun 21, 2007 | ANA
This month I received the renewal notice for my membership in the American Numismatic Association. When I opened the notice, I selected a renewal for the next five years and mailed it back to Colorado Springs along with a little extra as a donation. Regardless of the trouble the ANA has experience in recent years, I will remain a member. There was no consideration otherwise.
The troubles are the serious cause for concern from the membership. Closed meetings, expelling board members, budget deficits, and mistrust of the executive director has created a hostile environment amongst the members. In some cases, conversations on these matters overwhelmed the normal excitement of the bourse floor of the ANA National Money Show in Charlotte. This carried over to the Meet the Candidates session held the Friday night of the show.
When it comes to running an organization like the ANA, I would classify myself as progressive with an eye toward fiscal discipline. The ANA should be doing more to carry out its charter objectives of education and providing an oversight role for the industry. However, at the Meet the Candidates session, audience members saw how the philosophies of the various candidates diverged. It was clear who saw the ANA as a shepherding organization that made some mistakes to those who saw the entire governance structure as broken and has radical ideas to find them. It made for an interesting discussion.
I entered the meeting room in favor of reform but weary of the reformers and not wanting to like the “old guard.” I left the room in favor of some of the reformers and gaining a little respect for the old guard. Nevertheless, the bottom line is that I feel the ANA needs change and now is as good as any time to make the change.
Although I commented about the convention before and promised one correspondent saying I would write more about my impressions of that meeting, I have decided I will not to write a review but my impressions of what I am looking for in a candidate.
The areas I consider most important to the success of the ANA is transparent governance, a better working relationship between the membership elected board and the headquarters, expanding education and outreach to reach more members, and using twenty-first technologies to assist in solving the problems being faced in the twenty-first century.
Transparent governance and a better working relationship between the board and headquarters should be a given. For any organization to be a success, they must be able to work together for the common mission that supports the membership. This goes beyond saying “can’t we just get along.” Board members and headquarters staff have to be committed to the success of the organization. Candidates for the board do show this trait. However, a few are too willing to let the emotions of the past affect their judgment by announcing that they want to change the executive director. I am not sure if this is a good stance since I do not know Chris Cipoletti. I would prefer a candidate say they want to have his performance be reviewed by an outside arbiter and let the results speak for themselves.
Education is the core mission of the ANA. Not only should it remain a core mission but should be expanded to work regionally rather than nationally. Some suggested taking the courses on the road, offering them in different areas of the country, even customizing them for use by clubs. All are very good ideas but there have to be a commitment from the board to do this. Some have said that education is important, even saying they want to bring back the old logo with the Lamp of Education. Only a few candidates recommended expansion of the programs. I support those who look to expand educational opportunities.
As a professional in the computing industry, I advocate the use of technology to resolve some of the more difficult issues that plain human power cannot resolve. Technology can be used to resolve the communications issues, expand education opportunities, support virtual meetings, and can open up a world that would benefit the ANA in ways a pretty but difficult-to-use website cannot. Think about it, if you have a conflict with this year’s Worlds Fair of Money as I do and cannot attend, it would be wonderful if I could attend board meetings virtually using a service like Skype. A few candidates support the use of technology in this manner, but not enough.
Finally, I would like to see the new board look for ways to reach out beyond the “usual suspects” and bring in new people to help expand the organization. For example, how many ANA members have been in the computing industry for over 25 years with a background in putting together systems along with security and privacy that could help them make these technological changes and comply with Sarbanes-Oxley? Would it be wonderful if that member, who just paid his renewal, were allowed to help the ANA merge technology with numismatics for the benefit of everyone? I mentioned this to a few of the candidates who showed interest in the idea. I will await their response after the election.
It was reported that ballots were mailed on June 7. I have not received a ballot as of June 20. When I receive my ballot, I will provide my endorsements. Until then, if you are not a member of the ANA, I urge you to become one. If you are a member, make sure you renew on time. For everyone else, please remember to vote when your ballot arrives. This is probably the most important election in the last few years and every vote counts.
Loading ...