@Arthur P. Bloom posted:One must be prepared to make sacrifices for one's hobbies and extra-curricular activities. For 37 years, in periods of self-employment, no employment, being laid-off, being retired, and Workin' for the Man, I have scheduled time off to attend the ED meet, because it's important to me.
If you can't figure out how to get one day off, twice a year, you need to re-evaluate your priorities, or switch to stamp collecting. It's worked fine since 1955. Let's not try to find a solution to a non-problem.
And, I concur that we don't want the general public attending. We want members. And we need to go back to the two-signature rule, for security reasons.
Glad to hear someone else speaking up about using time off. We Americans work more hours than every other first-world countries - too many of us are afraid to use the measly time off that we have EARNED, and some folks even leave vacation time on the table at the end of the year - why?? Like @Arthur P. Bloom, I've taken time off for York as an employee and while self-employed. If one can't take a few days off a couple of times each year, a new job is in order - good employees are hard to find, and life is too short. (Apologies to those whose jobs have seasonal busy times, but not many are busy in both April and October.) And, as I've pointed out in other threads, York was very well-attended back when a larger percentage of attendees were of working age - take the d*** time off!
I think @Putnam Division made some excellent points regarding why York's location might not be conducive to attracting the public. I'm open to a different schedule if it allows the meet to continue as a viable event.
Given the tax collection issue for the member halls, I'm not convinced that opening to the public will be the bonanza that some people think, but I also think that ED needs to be less provincial in their thinking about non-members.
