Not having yet seen the messages in question, i cannot speak to
specifics. That said, i would STRONGLY disagree with any move to hold
COA bourses only on Saturday and Sunday. Many people worship on these
days - Saturday is the Sabbath for Jews and some Christians such as
Adventists and some Baptists, and the majority of Christians regard
Sunday as holy. Holding bourses only on those two days that many hold
sacred would exclude those people from participating in them, on either
a selling or a purchasing level. The old schedule of Thursday and
Friday is much more sensible, since no major religious group worships on
Thursday, so nobody is excluded on the grounds of their particular
faith. Perhaps a compromise could be reached: two days of bourse, one
on Thursday, which is a day everyone can participate in, and another on
Saturday for people who do not hold this day as being anything special,
and who can't make the Thursday date? I for one would very much like to
participate in COA conventions, but cannot reasonably do so unless i can
finance the trip via the bourse. Setting up on Friday and doing the
Sunday morning thing is a possibility, but not really a satisfactory one
since most of the large purchases are made on the first day of the sale.
Another advantage of the Thursday/Saturday proposal is that it would
be like 2 separate bourses: a good number of the buyers and some of the
sellers would be different on each day!! To my mind this could enhance
the convention significantly. Friday could be a day for field trips,
lectures, displays, demonstrations, etc. If set-up for the dealers
wishing to do the Saturday bourse only, was on Fri. evening, people that
could only make the weekend, could set up then - they wouldn't even have
to get off work early if they lived nearby!! This would enhance the
proportion of local specimens offered by people who are not full-time
dealers but have extra specimens of local material to offer.
From the Great Warming-up North (all the way to 50 F (10 C) today!!!),
Ross M.
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