I was recently asked by our new Editor Brandon Frei to write a short President's address to be added to the upcoming newsletter. It comes at a time when we have much going on here at WINS with the Anniversary Token Project and the task of filling the Secretary's position recently vacated, makes for some real busy times. I am happy to say the Anniversary Token Project seems to be well on its way with orders and payments arriving both by mail and Paypal.

It was a long time coming but I think the wait was well worth it, we have a fantastic looking token, one I would say fares well against any club coin out there. Our designers JD White and Doug Prather deserve a great round of applause for their hard work, creativity, and vision required to come up with such a beautiful and desirable piece. Keep in mind our order period ends April 27th, so get your orders in. Order information is available on our website, it can be found under the announcement section, or contact Ken or myself if need be.

I'm happy to see the Secretary's spot now occupied; this brings us back up to seven board members and a full vote on all upcoming issues. We were thankful of Mike Nottelmann's willingness to help fill the void on our 2014 WINS board and look forward to working with him in the future. We will try to keep our board procedures as transparent as possible, so please feel free to contact me personally, or other board members with any ideas or questions you may have concerning WINS.

Lately, the board has been working on some changes to the Web site in the areas of our LINKS pages attempting to keep all links acceptable in content and assuring the removal of dead links. Our Vice President Joe Ceravone heads a committee checking the current links and adding a few more at our membership's request.

I know we have had from time to time some very interesting and educational publications written by our own WINS members. I hope in the future we can get a few of them posted to our library section with the help of our new Librarian John Mundwiller. We have many very talented and knowledgeable people in our group, and it would certanly do us well to display that knowledge in our own WINS library.

One other change we have for 2014 concerns our member's auction, I will be taking over the auction coordinator's job starting this month with my first auction to begin the 31st of March. I hope I fare half as well as JD did, I certainly have a new found appreciation for all the time and effort he put into running our auctions. As with most new things, I have to say it is a little enjoyable and entertaining now, but I'm sure that will wear off very soon. I would ask for your patience while I learn the tasks of auctioneering, and please take time to check over your lots as I get the information posted.

We have some big shows coming up this year; I would certainly urge all of you to attempt meeting up with other WINS members that might live close to your area. I have some very fond memories of my meetings with group members over the years, the shows we attended together and great dinner conversations we had afterwards. Those fond memories remain long after the coins we bought move on to other collections, I sincerely hope you all get a chance to experience that feeling with other WINS members some day. I hope to see some of you in Chicago this coming month and look forward to some interesting discussions of your recent finds in future posts.

Have fun at the shows and coin shops,

Dave Noble,
WINS#204, President