Thought this subject should have a section of its own, so that it does not get buried and forgottem amongst all the other subjects. It is a fundamental building block of any association that those who use it's services should be members and pay dues. And if they want to finally become members or renew lapsed mebership, they should pay back fees for all the years they have taken advantage and not coughed up!!!

RULES POSTED BY WEBMASTER
Interesting points.

Here’s my take on things;

· I am happy to let non members advertise on our Classified Pages particularly if they have things to offer. Repeated use of the Classified Pages by none members, who free load off our meetings without joining, is a different matter. If people persist in this and enough members objected I would have no problem with deleting their adverts. This is a matter that needs to be raised with the rest of the members at a future meeting.
· I could password protect entry to only NMMA members to the Classified Pages but as its mostly non members who advertise the occasional “goodies” for sale which would be a bit counter productive to us all.
· As far as I am concerned non members are allowed to attend our meetings once. There after they are asked to join or not come back. This is stated elsewhere on this web site. Jeremy used to enforce this well but I understand he has not managed to get to all the more recent meetings. The only exception to this I have seen in the past has been when the individuals were known market dealers of mining memorabilia. In such cases they have been asked not to return without the option of becoming a member.

Personally I now think that market traders should be allowed to join the ranks of the NMMA. In the early days, like most of the others at the founding meeting of our Association, I was against letting market traders into our ranks. However, with the advert of changing times in the field of collecting plus the rise of the Internet, most of us have sold surplus items of mining memorabilia on Ebay over recent years. By the old definitions this would class most NMMA members as “dealers”. At the end of the day all our collections would be far worse off if dealers didn’t exist. I also subscribe to the thinking that it’s through the efforts of professionally minded dealers that more checks are turning up and coming onto the market.

On a separate matter I am still against password protecting this Forum also. The intent is it should be open to all and not just NMMA members, particularly as it has been the former group who have initiated some of the more interesting topics in the past. In recent days I have split the forum into a further two sub categories intended specifically for the discussion of lamp, check or badge related topics. This part of the Forum will remain a general topic area but persistent antagonistic entries, off topic entries plus those taking malicious jibes at named individuals or using bad language will be deleted if I spot them.

NMMA Webmaster
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My Comments posted
Charles Birdsall


IP: 86.54.202.11

Nov 4, 2009 - 8:30PM QuoteReply Re: RARE DAVID JONES BADGE BUYERS BEWRAE

Well said Webmaster.
People who take regular advantage of NMMA facilities without paying the measly annual membership of £10-ish should not have the use of NMMA facilities. These cheap skates who have used them regularly over the years without paying should not be allowed anywhere near until they have paid the back dues and current fees. I don't know how they have the cheek. But you can't rely on everyone to be up front and honest! The person advertising quite regularly for swops on the classified who has not paid membership in years should be deleted until he pays current and back dues, as an example of your/our membership insistance that people play fair with the Association.

Dealers? Yes a lot of us do sell quite a number of surplus items and could be called dealers because of the volume of items. Also a couple of members I know, travel far and wide unearthing stuff we all would never have the oportunity of acquiring but for their efforts. They deserve to make a bit on those items for the effort they put in. They could be called dealers, but I think they are more enthusiasts than a lot of people. However dealers who have a full time professional Company that is their full time employment, I am not so sure. but as you say lets have a forum discussion or a specific meeting with enough notice to gather views from the membership

As I have commented before, a very active forum will help highlite possible problems and also educate. We all need to remain vigilant to ensure our hobby remains enjoyable and untainted.
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