I’m excited to be running for the office of vice president of the world’s greatest coin club, the American Numismatic Association. I believe in giving back to the organization that’s given so much to me. What originally attracted me to coin collecting was that it was fun―fun individually and fun as a family. We need to keep coin collecting fun for everyone. We also need to act in a fiscally responsible manner, diligently watching the ANA’s assets. Most importantly, we need to keep our focus on education―after all, that is what our charter states.

I joined the ANA back in 1974 as a young numismatist (YN) and later converted to life membership. I was a student at the ANA’s Summer Seminar and am now an instructor (for the past 16 years). The ANA’s most important mission is education. That education should include the Summer Seminar, symposiums at coin conventions and traveling exhibits, and now the ANA must take the lead in online education. This new educational format is the most important way of connecting with today’s youth, who will sustain this great hobby and organization.

As the leaders of the ANA, we need to ­expand our membership base by making our memberships more valuable. We need to ­increase the ANA’s appeal to numismatists everywhere. Every coin collector should find it important to join the ANA, and every serious collector should proudly show their ANA affiliation. From local coin clubs to regional numismatic organizations, the ANA needs to become the resource that everyone uses, and needs to become indispensable to both collectors and dealers alike.

Financially the American Numismatic Association needs to watch every cent it spends, keeping our membership’s needs in the forefront. Is it important to the focus of the ANA? If not, then it should be reevaluated and reviewed, always remembering whose ANA this is―-the members’.

I ask for your vote in the upcoming election to continue the current direction of the ANA board, and always remember to keep coin collecting fun!