Christie said; "I wish the officers would respond because they should know the specific guidelines for the awarding of the SSOTY ( silver strike of the year, for any new collectors out there )."

As Chairman for 2001 SSOTY award contest, I'm going to be guided by what the SILVER STRIKER's CHAPTER OFFICER's tell me are legitimate silver strikes or not.

Personally speaking, I do not consider the $200 medallion carrot prize that can be exchanged for 20 $10 silver strikes as legitimate candidates for SSOTY 2001. In addition, generally speaking, several of these $200 silver(non-strike) tokens have been issued prior to 2001.... or maybe even a couple of $200 award tokens may have been introduced in the year 2002.

My narrow interpretation for SSOTY is that silver strikes must be won from the machine as a direct payout ... and had to have been issued during the calendar year 2001 in order to qualify for SSOTY 2001. If the club begins to make exceptions for this, that, and the other thing, the rules will become very complex. I am a firm believer in the KISS principle.

My simple logic for this reasoning is suppose one were able to exchange twenty $10 silver strikes for some other prize (like a limited edition color television as an example) instead of a silver round valued at $200. Would the color tv be considered a far-fetched "silver strike" simply because it was exchanged for twenty silver strikes?

Archie Black