HELP! Our YN meeting is dying.

CoinHusker · March 17, 2006 11:06PM

My son, notlogical, is and has been the only YN at our coin club's YN meeting for nearly 6 months. He acts like he doesn't care but it has be to kind of boring for a kid to be the only one, month after month and it has to be hard on the YN leaders to stay invloved and focused when they have only 1 YN to prepare the meeting for. I know they try but it has be hard to put a lot of work into something when you know there's only one kid there to present it to.

The regular club doesn't seem to be too concerned about it, but I think it is a glimpse into the future of the hobby in general and the exisitence of our club in particular.

Does anyone have any success stories with YN clubs/meetings, recruitment? Ideas, activities, resources, links, etc.? I'd sure appreciate hearing them so I could pass them along.

Thanks

pontiacinf · March 17, 2006 11:19PM

I do not have any hints for you, but i commend you for bringing up such a great kid

CoinHusker · March 18, 2006 12:43AM

Thanks!

TwoSides2aCoin · March 18, 2006 12:50AM

It is hard to raise a NUMISMATIST....

I know, my mom had to deal with me. I asked her after fifteen kids what kept her out of the nut house.
She said: "I had a son like you, Joseph"...

I didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing, but I staked claim as being the only numismatist in the family .

My kids don't care about the coins, they care about how much I sell them for so they got some spending money. How old is the boy ? My daughters are 16 and 20 and really cute ....LOL

JrGMan2004 · March 18, 2006 12:52AM

Check the local cub scout and boy scout troops... there is a coin collecting merit badge, and I know they usually have events at the major shows for this... maybe you could help do something similar... find out what it takes, talk to the local troop leaders... if you can do it, make one YN meeting night all about doing that, and who knows, you may hook a few kids...

oreville · March 18, 2006 1:01AM

An idea:

A YN needs to bring in another YN and each time they do so they each earn $5 in play money to buy coins.

It workd to a limited extent. You might have to raise it to $10 for the new YN for the first three shows and then drop it down to $5 thereafter.

vega1 · March 18, 2006 1:03AM

JrGMan suggested a great idea which I would also recommend. Cub Scout and Boy Scout troop leaders are always looking for good activities for the kids. You should also extend it to Brownies and Girl Scouts.

CoinHusker · March 18, 2006 1:29AM

Thanks for the ideas!

p8nt · March 18, 2006 1:43AM

If our local club had anyone under 50 I would consider those my YN friends

Agflyer · March 18, 2006 1:50AM

There used to be a merit badge for coin collecting in the Boy Scouts. If they still have one then this might be a good way to draw them in and maybe hook a few?

p8nt · March 18, 2006 1:54AM

<< There used to be a merit badge for coin collecting in the Boy Scouts. If they still have one then this might be a good way to draw them in and maybe hook a few? >>

There is. I have it. It will be pretty boring for those already in numismatics but it might be good for beginners.

Click here and you can see the requirements of the badge.

Agflyer · March 18, 2006 1:58AM

Neat site p8nt. That's the one I was thinking of.

DUIGUY · March 18, 2006 2:30AM

Also, might want to check out 4H groups . Many long time farmers big and small have a collection of coins passed down through the family and they never bother to see what they are or worth . Just a thought .

MAD4MORGANS · March 18, 2006 2:36AM

Maybe CAMMY can offer some suggestions or take him under his wing (oops...just thinking out load).

Does PCGS or another grading company have a sort of YN apprentiship program. Sounds like it could be good for the industy and also a tax-write off.

I think they call that mentoring or something.

deansmint · March 18, 2006 2:44AM

<< My kids don't care about the coins, they care about how much I sell them for so they got some spending money. How old is the boy ? My daughters are 16 and 20 and really cute ....LOL >>

Photos???

HTubbs · March 18, 2006 2:51AM

<< If our local club had anyone under 50 I would consider those my YN friends

>>

Young at heart

joeyuk · March 18, 2006 3:02AM

I have no real ideas for you but one of my 8 year olds , lower left as you look at the pic. is taking a interest in coins.
I give him a Frankie or an Ike and he loves it. My 14 year old niece is into it also. I picked up a loupe for her as well as
mostly filling a Whitman cent folder '41-'74 let her find the rest. Also some off center and clipped state quarters. She
had approached me with a off center quarter she found in change to show me her new hobby.

291fifth · March 18, 2006 3:35AM

I doubt if current coin clubs are going to be of much interest to juniors. The clubs have grown old. I am, at 58, my club's youngest member. Our oldest member is 92. We will be holding our final meeting in June after a run of 44 years.

CoinHusker · March 18, 2006 3:44AM

Unfortunately, that doesn't appear to be very uncommon.

notlogical · March 18, 2006 4:51AM

<< If our local club had anyone under 50 I would consider those my YN friends

>>

That's how it is at our club too!

291fifth · March 18, 2006 6:29AM

At one time the club had 160 members, about 40 of whom were juniors. Today it has 7 members, none of whom are juniors. There haven't been significant numbers of junior members for at least the past 26 years (the period of time I have been a member.)

tmot99 · March 18, 2006 7:01AM

<< 

<< If our local club had anyone under 50 I would consider those my YN friends

>>

That's how it is at our club too! >>

Hey, this thread is about you. Close your eyes, plug your ears, and go away. You can come back as soon as we are done talking about you.

I wonder if a school event of some sort would draw in kids. Maybe a presentation involving history or something. Talk to the teachers and or principal.

OffMetal · March 18, 2006 7:07AM

I know

Free coins

p8nt · March 18, 2006 7:14AM

Look at all of these brilliant YN minds going to waste. Quick! Someone come up with something for us to do!

MAD4MORGANS · March 18, 2006 7:43AM

Let's see...I could send you all my morgan dollars and you could attibute them for me

By the time you're done, you won't be a YN anymore!!

err...on second thought...nevermind!!

carl · March 18, 2006 8:51AM

Here is some suggestions. For instance where you live there may not be a lot of coin shows but when there are and your going, try having your son, who is reading this, ask some school friends if they want to go along. Exposure sometimes helps start an interest.
Ask forum members if they have any old coin books they don't want such as old Red Book editions and try hading them out to classmates that show any interest. At coin shows if you see any YN's, be bold and bring up this subject to their parents. You may be surprized that many are in the same boat.
The internet is a great tool for YN's. For instance there are some right here like p8nt and others. Try forming an internet coin club just for YN's. Try other forums for other YN's in your area. There are forums like this at Coin Talk or NGC. Try them for any YN's in your area where they may want to meet at a coin show for instance.
Also, have young kids try the international types of forums. sometimes it could be fun to trade coins with other kids all over the world. I remeber when I was a kid an a ham operator how much fun it was talking to people all over the planet.
Try to remember that although us old people like our kids around they usually think of us as kind of a dinosour and don't speak the same language. So it is critical for them to find others of a similar age group to communicate with and if it's the coin topic, so much the better.

carl · March 18, 2006 9:04AM

Don't know how much influence you may have at his school but you may want to ask a teacher if they could make an assignment to write something about any thing or body that is on a coin.
Ask forum members if they have any miscellaneour tokens similar to coins they may not want. Find ways to have school or neighbor kid givaways with these.

Merc · March 18, 2006 9:06AM

<< We will be holding our final meeting in June after a run of 44 years. >>

Sorry to hear that 291fifth. That is sad after going for so many years.

We started up a new coin club last year in Maryland. We started small but had 16 attend at the last meeting. Only a few members are over 50. Right now, we only have 1 YN who is 17. We just had elections and made him our secretary.

To encourage kids to attend and to come back, we have a kids attendance prize -1 free coin per meeting. Plus we had a dealer donate some supplies like books for new collectors.

CoinHusker · March 18, 2006 9:59PM

<< 
I wonder if a school event of some sort would draw in kids. Maybe a presentation involving history or something. Talk to the teachers and or principal. >>

He just had someone from he Coin Club do a presentation with his school group and it was a great success. The kids loved it! But guess what. Neither the club or the guy doing the presentation (real nice BTW with slides

) had ANYTHING to hand out about the club or when it meets, etc. I was flabbergasted. If I knew that I would have printed something up on the old PC myself.

At the first meeting after the presentation I asked the officers if they have flyers or cards or anything to hand out at presentations like that and they said they stopped doing it for "security" reasons. Well, hey, let's just meet in a Y2K bunker with cans of beans, bottled water and a few guns and wait out the threat.

OK, I know I'm being fictitious and a bit sarcastic, as I'm sure the reasons are sincere, BUT if Coin Clubs become "secret socieities" out of fear of inviting outsiders in, not only will the YN meetings die, but so will the clubs themselves (as we've seen in some of the posts here.

)

Steve27 · March 18, 2006 11:04PM

" If our local club had anyone under 50 I would consider those my YN friends"

Me too (OK we do have a couple real YNs).

Our coin club has an annual show which includes a YN session. From that we have been able to draw in a couple YNs. You could try the same tactic.

carl · March 19, 2006 5:16AM

Just came back from one of the many coin shows around here. While I was there, there was only one YN present. That is usual for coin shows. I am always surprized that so many people are there and can't find one son, daughter, grandchild to accompany them there. Even a bride of a free hot dog or something. Not interested in going? Pretend to need them because of their great eyesight and youthful wisdom. Once there they may become interested.
Maybe too if coin shows passed out a free coin or token of some kind, kids would want to go just for that.
As to the crime and risk factor it is so prevelant around these parts that no one wants to join a coin club and the ones that do exist won't be around for much longer. There are many posts on this and other forums about being followed after coin shows. One of the flea markets I frequent just yesterday there was a guy that had a few coins vanish right in front of a bunch of people. He said he'll never bring a coin to the flea market again. This is just one more thing that is killing the hobby.

HELP! Our YN meeting is dying.

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