While I was surprised to read about this hiatus of the SSOTY from Jim, I was not surprised about the comments following the announcement. I applaud the comments by Shawn Webster and Archie Black especially with the actual facts about the whole issue.
I, similar to Trey, launched into this hobby of collecting Casino related items by starting out with the Silver Strikes. Being a coin collector for many years drew me to these new tokens that I had no previous knowledge of (although now i wished i had seen them back in 90's). Once I joined the Silver Strike Club, that led me to the Chip Guide which in turn led me to the . Well you know that once the ball started rolling, it just grew, so starting out as Silver Strike collector lead me to being Chip Guide administrator to being one of your current CCN editors!!.
I too have heard all the past stories and issues from many different sides. As Archie mentioned, it was from a legal stand point that what was done had to happen and not a personal issue as many feel it was.
Going forward I totally support what Trey has said very well in his comments. While not quite as young as he is, I to see that we must strive to work together for the betterment of hobby instead of rehashing past negativity. You may have noticed that since I have been Editor of the CCN, I have included many Silver Strike articles and information. As a member of both clubs and CCN Editor, i will continue to do this as long as I am Editor.
Being a member of other Numismatic organizations and clubs, the times have changed. With the advent of the Internet, it has changed how clubs and shows operate. Pre-Internet times allowed us to only shop and socialize at meetings and conventions, now jump ahead to today and you can pretty well buy anything on line and meet by video link. We are all having a hard time retaining and gaining members in all facets of these organizations so working together is the only way to hold our clubs together.
The original topic at hand here was putting the SSOTY on hiatus, while that may have to happen due to lack of submissions, I too am hoping that soon the program will be expanding again and casinos will start taking on the new machines with new strikes to come out at which point we will have many more strikes to submit for consideration.
So in conclusion, I will continue as Trey has mentioned to support both organizations going forward and hope that you will too.