Thanks for advance notice

I am going to the Nicolet Coin Club banquet tonight in Green Bay, Wis.

With the drive over, I will have to leave at 4:30 p.m. in order to arrive on time.

Coin club banquets might seem to be old-fashioned to some newcomers to the hobby, and I guess they are, but they are a wonderful way of relaxing with fellow collectors and catching up with them while enjoying a good meal together.

I have often thought to myself that this or that meeting that I was attending would be so much better if someone had ordered a couple of pizzas and some soda pop. But perhaps this is an old-fashioned thought.

Another thing that seems to be more and more old-fashioned is getting advance notice of some particular event.

Tonight’s banquet has been on my calendar since March 10. That is when I learned time, place and other salient details.

I am not so lucky with other things.

In my morning email today I have a request for a teleconference from a sender in Germany. It is important. I must participate. But I had no idea it was coming today and it will occur less than an hour after I post this blog.

Another email that I read this morning came after I had left work at 5 p.m. yesterday. It is a notice that there is a teleconference of the American Numismatic Association board of governors.

This will occur at 5 p.m. this afternoon.

I will be in the car on my way to tonight’s dinner.

This was less than 24 hours notice.

Fortunately, in this case, technology also provides its own remedy. An audio recording of the meeting will be posted on YouTube.

My reaction to these last-minute daily developments must seem quaint to some.

Perhaps they are.

But it is more efficient to plan ahead.

Where advance notice is really important is when coin show organizers would like a little advance word spread in the hobby about their events.

I am surprised by how many of these notices come just a few days before the beginning of the event.

It would be far better if the notices came a little more ahead of time to assure that they get some attention.

Too often these days I have to do editorial triage where smaller shows with late notices get ignored so that I can do something for larger shows that have a late notice.

My decisions are always based on numbers.

How many readers will be interested in any particular item is what I ask myself in making the evaluation. The further ahead I get a notice, the less likely something has to drop by the wayside to make room for something else.

So to all the old-fashioned show organizers who routinely provide comfortable advance notice of their events, I say thank you.

Please don’t retire before I do. Your good work keeps my day from being completely chaotic.

Buzz blogger Dave Harper is winner of the 2014 Numismatic Literary Guild Award for Best Blog and is editor of the weekly newspaper "Numismatic News."