ACC Program Area:Reaching Young Collectors - Program

Program

Acknowledging a Role to be Played

Far too many collecting clubs do not invision their collecting area as being of any interest to youth. We maintain that ANY collecting area, if presented correctly, and given the right circumstances, will be of interest to a young collector. True, it may be more challenging for some areas than others. Young boys may be more interested in collecting sports cards or state quarters than they are in Tea Leaf china or Bohemian art glass, but then again, maybe not! And, likewise for young girls!

The rule here is simple. No collecting club should ignore youth as an important, vital component of their membership recruitment process. They must look towards the future. Find ways - and they are abundant - to recruit and involve and support and imbrace youth membership. The potential of having an active youth component in your club is well worth the effort. Integrating youth activities and opportunities in all of your programming areas is even better!

Clubs ask, "How do you involve youth, reach out to young collectors? The stock answer is that kids expect to have fun in the collecting area. They want to be challenged, to be entertained, to be `active.'

We contend a more important ingredient is that if you are recruiting young people, they need to be involved and accepted...period! If your club can truly demonstrate your desire to have young people significantly involved in the club - and treat them as equals - you are more apt to be successful.

So, how should clubs which may be conceived as being `non-traditional youth potential' clubs proceed?

First, do not convey the message that "kids need not apply." Subtle messages are important. If the messages from your collecting club screams out that you are a club of blue-haired little old ladies, and you go to a club event and find blue-haired little old ladies, your chances of cracking the youth market are a major challenge.

OK, so you still want to involve youth in your collecting area. Probably first you need to adjust both your image and also your message.

If your club has a goal of increasing youth membership make sure the leadership of the club is committed and that the goal is realistic.

One of the best approaches is to find a couple of existing members of your club who are interested in kids and willing to take on the project of developing a youth program. Ask them to develop a plan. If possible, involve youth in the planning process.

Before starting a plan it is best to first define your target audience. We like to break the young collector market down into three destinct audiences, and each is very different from the others.

The pre-teen audience of 12 and under. Here we are talking about children - but young kids can get "turned on" to collecting as easily as any other age group, if the approach is right and the interest is there. For young kids, having a collection can provide a quality leisure time activity. It can create new learning experiences in an entirely new atmosphere. It can strengthen family bonds and broaden a young person's "world."

Many pre-teen collectors may be collecting at the urging of a parent or some other mentor. This is fine IF the young person likes and enjoys collecting that particular type of item. Pre-teen collectors like "hands-on" experiences. They need to know and understand the relevance of their collecting activities.

Clubs targeting the pre-teen audience need to have AND FOLLOW a published kids' privacy policy. This is the law (more on this later).
The teen audience - 13 to 19. Teens may be the most difficult audience to reach, but if they get "hooked" on a collecting area, they can become as dedicated and as enthusiastic about collecting as anyone else. Having a collection is good for individuals in this age group. It can create an environment for developing new friendships. It can enhance their knowledge base and supplement their school education process.

For the teen audience, peer pressure may be a strong factor when it comes to serious collecting. This can work both ways. If their current circle of friends "put down" collecting and make jokes about it, the teen may soon give up the idea of collecting as a leisure activity. However, if he or she finds other collectors their own age, particularly through your club, they may soon find that they have a new group of friends. The Internet helps here, as well. Kids can easily find other teens who collect in their collecting area and through e-mails, discussion forums, etc. it can almost replicate the old pen pal process of long ago.
Young adults - 20-25. The third, and final audience when discussing young collectors are the young adults in their early 20's. For many, they are experiencing some major life changes. Completing their education, having a full time job...and perhaps some spare money...moving out on their own, maybe relocating to a different city, changes in friends - experiencing life changes. A collecting hobby can fit in well at this stage of a young person's life.

An observation - many young collectors today are different than those of past generations in their collecting philosophy and collecting habits. They may genuinely be interested in collecting in a certain area but are not infatuated with it or "consumed" by it in any way, shape or form. This may be why a leader of a collecting club which supports a collecting area with a great deal of youth appeal recently remarked that there are plenty of young people collecting, but they have little interest in joining the collecting club.

Related to this is another observation. Young collectors can still easily get hooked on collecting, but as Harry Hinker of Rinker Enterprises explains, it is the concept of collecting that has them hooked and not a specific collecting category. And, in the course of their collecting life, they will change their collecting focus six to ten times, even more for some.

The Internet has added greatly to this latest aspect of collecting. With the large Internet auctions and fixed price sites, a collector can easily assemble a large collection in years, not decades. When they become bored with the collection, they change their collecting focus.

Many young collectors also fit into the group of "impulse" collectors or "trendy" collectors. They buy and collect items because they like them...with no particular pattern or focus to a particular collecting area...and, they have no intention of becoming a serious collector or of accumulating a large collection. This translates into not really ever being a serious candidate for joining your collecting club.

Obviously clubs differ from one another, but here are some ways clubs are currently involving youth. Selecting some of these as possibilities which may work in your club is a start.

YOUTH ACTIVITIES

The educational process of presenting knowledge about antiques and collectibles and about collecting may well be the first step in instilling the idea that collecting is "fun" and something that I would like to do - I would like to start a collection!

Teaching with Antiques & Collectibles

Any collecting club interested in "reaching out" to young collectors should devise tools their members can use in working with youth groups and classrooms in their local areas. These tools do not have to be fancy, or expensive. The main thing is to provide the instructions or framework which will make the member's role easier, and which provides a level of confidence and comfort in trying to work with a group.

Show and Tell - Perhaps one of the best ways to interest young people in a specific collecting area is the "show and tell" approach which kids are totally familiar with starting in kindergarden. It is our opinion that this approach can be used effectively for youth from around age 6 up into the teen years, obviously changing the approach and the message for the various ages. (In fact, we have very successfully used the "show and tell" method with collectibles presentations to senior citizen groups.)

Most collecting clubs should be able to develop a presentation structure whereby any of your members could take the framework and create a "show and tell" for local school classrooms; library activities or other community groups; Scouting, 4-H, Campfire, Boys & Girls Clubs, and similar local presentations. ACC can provide some generic tips that should be useful to any collecting club relating to techniques and approaches. Then the club needs to devise their own tools tht relate more specifically to their collecting area.

For the presentation itself, keep it simple, keep it entertaining, and encourage questions and audience participation. Take along a variety of samples from your collection. Try to think of what may be of most interest to your audience. Note: your most expensive or most valuable items may not be of any more interest than something more common with which the kids can identify. Leave the expensive or valuable items at home. If your presentation is announced to the group ahead of time, perhaps the teacher or leader may suggest to the class or group that they may wish to bring in from their home a sample of the collecting area you will be discussing.

It's always good if you can have handouts to leave with the audience - even an inexpensive sample of your collecting area could be given to each of the class members, or to one or two who "win the prize". Perhaps the club can develop an inexpensive printed handout that could easily be duplicated by the members as they need them.

Remember, too, you are talking about your collection, your collecting area, your collecting club, but don't force it - talk about collecting in general and how satisfying it has been to you...how you found your most interesting piece and perhaps the experiences you have had and the collecting friends you have met. Although some in the room may indeed want to start collecting the same types of things that you collect...let's say you're a model train collector...if you just instill the "idea" of collecting and someone in the room starts collecting sea shells or license plates or Barbie Dolls, that's fine. You have made a meaningful contribution to that kid's future experiences.

We can think of very few collecting areas that do not lend themselves to the "show and tell" technique. Here are some quick examples...and most of these have collecting clubs representing the collecting areas mentioned:

Something no longer ordinarily used: Inkwells and fountain pens are good examples. Or, buttonhooks, match holders, watch fobs, straight razors and shaving mugs.
Useful collectibles that were produced in a very wide variety: Lemon squeezers, corkscrews and bottle openers, flashlights, coffee mills.
Holiday collectibles: Old photos and postcards show some tremendous differences in the way traditional holidays were celebrated (Remember, Santa Claus wasn't always a rotund, jolly man in a red suit; he used to be depicted as a tall, rather lanky man in a long fur coat; or, sometimes even in a green outfit. Some popular holidays of years gone by are almost gone, like May Day, Children's Day, even Columbus Day.
Putting it in context: Setting up an elegant Victorian dining arrangement could support a whole array of collecting areas like napkin rings, toothpick holders, knife rests, butter pats, bone dishes, open salts, cruet sets, moustache cups and "funny" looking serving dishes and utencils - all with a specific purpose.
Occupations and the "tools" of the vocation can each be a program of its own: The doctor's implements, mining tools, firemen and policemen collectibles, certainly barber tools, farm tools, primitive tools from the kitchen or the laundry, even the "tools" from the teacher of the one-room schoolhouse. What would a bell collector do with this area - everything from the teacher's desk school bell to the farmer's cow bell or sheep bell, the firemen's bell, the dinner bell, and so on.
Sports: OK, kids probably know all about sports cards, but have they ever handled a basketball from the 1920's or tried on an old baseball catcher's mitt? Collecting clubs representing sports collectibles make a great "show and tell" possibility.
Glassware & pottery: We have many glassware and pottery or porecelain collecting clubs. Most of these represent specific types of glassware or ceramics which have a story all of their own. For example, the story of stretch glass or depression glass can be made very interesting to the youngster.

Obviously, this list could go on indefinitely - collecting clubs representing the collectors of old toys, dolls, puzzles and games, advertising, postcards, coins, stamps, matchbooks, political memorabilia, banks, perfume bottles, phonograph records, canes, almanacs, marbles, clocks, comic books, doorknobs, music boxes, photographs and tintypes, hair ornaments and purses, jewelry, musical instruments and transportation collectibles of all types. Again, practically every collecting area - every collecting club - can develop a presentation and handouts that would help their members in doing "show and tell" programs with kids at the local level.

The Philosophy of Collecting

For many people, and particularly for little kids, they may ask, "Why would you want to have a collection? What do you do with it?" and probably many more questions along these same lines. For many of these young questioners, they're not trying to be coy or difficult; they just cannot relate to why a person would collect anything. What many of them don't realize is that probably they have a collection of their very own but don't consider it a collection. They may have a particular fondness for certain types of dolls or toys or may have had to have the latest product line relating to a recent Disney movie. Perhaps they stood in line for a Harry Potter book, have shown an interest in the new state quarters, or pleaded with mom or dad to purchase the collectibles distributed by the local fast food store. Perhaps they were picking up sea shells while walking along the beach or collecting lightening bugs on a summer evening. If pointed out to them, they might readily realize that yes, they are a collector, too!

Although this area may not be considered an activity, it is placed here as an important component in any club's program targeting young people. When talking to young people about collecting, probably the most important thing to attempt to "get across" is that collecting is a very personal thing, something someone should do for their own enjoyment and because they like it. There is no right or wrong thing to collect - no right or wrong way to collect. And, its OK if you loose interest in a particular collecting area and move on to something else; maybe to a different collecting area, or something entirely different like sports or dating!

It is important for a young collector, if their collection is in an area with potential value, to learn as quickly as possible some of the history and knowledge about the area. Where are the best places to find items? Are items in this particular collecting area being reproduced? ...and, if so, how can you tell? Find a friend or mentor who collects in the same area. Check to see if there are any price guides or other references in your collecting area. And, join a collecting club. These pointers are particularly important when talking with a budding teen collector.

Every collecting club which is directly reaching out to the young collector - and recruiting them as a member - should have a special printed piece directed toward the young collector which relates to the philosophy of collecting in their particular collecting area. Since most kids are active on the Internet, make sure this information is also easily found on the club website.

Games & Puzzles

Collecting areas relate nicely to games and puzzles which can be developed for any age level. We have already talked about Show & Tell as an approach. Other similar approaches include: Can You Identify?, Treasure Hunts or Scavenger Hunts, Crossword Puzzles, Trivial Pursuit and similar challenge games.

Some of these may already exist, however with a little creativity, it is very easy to develop your own games and puzzles which can specifically relate to your collecting area. If you have a couple of older teens in your club, just ask them to come up with some puzzles. These are great for your website, your club publication, for use at the convention or local chapter meetings.

Take a look at Puzzle Clonzz: Computer printable jigsaw puzzles - www.surfnetkids.com/cgi-local/pl/pl.cgi?pc An 8-1/2" x 11" forty-piece puzzle can easily be made from any photo or drawing by running it through your computer printer. This site of Barbara Feldman's also offers a great e-book, "How to Add Games to Your Site."

INVOLVING YOUTH IN THE CLUB

Obviously, all clubs are slightly different; all collecting areas are somewhat different, but there are major components of the your club management and leadership where the youth component should be addressed if you are reaching out to - and involving - young people.

Youth Division or Committee

We strongly advise all clubs who are interested in involving young people to establish a youth division or youth committee. This provides the appropriate leadership mechanism for this area and sends the message that your club leadership is serious about reaching youth and involving youth. It provides focus.

It is important that the club leadership clearly defines the role and expectations of the youth committee and provides solid backing for it...and hopefully a budget! A Youth Committee does not have to be large in number, but should definitely include people who have an interest in the area and have some ideas they would like to try. Our recommendation is that the committee be composed of a combination of adults and youth, if this is practical.

Recruitment

While specific, targeted recruitment "tools" for youth or for teens can be very effective, we would also recommend that the youth audience always be a segment of anything the club does or produces in the way of recruitment. True, this is a very special, targeted audience but it should not be a totally segregated audience. Youth, teens and young adults, once they become members, must be integrated into the general operations of the club just like every other member.

Dues Structure

Some clubs offer youth memberships - or student memberships - at a reduced rate from regular memberships. While this has merit, and is normally recommended, a caution here is not to give the impression that by a reduced membership rate, youth are relegated to a "second class citizen" level.

Leadership

Often the club leadership tends to want to deliberately provided a youth representative "slot" or position on their governing board. Again, although this may work, and may even be necessary to get youth leadership involved in the club, we would prefer that qualified youth be encouraged to run for board positions on their own merits rather than filling a youth representative "slot."

The club leadership can play a major role here by always including youth representation on appointed committees. This gives them experiences they will need if they eventually run for an elected position in the club. Working on the club website, in your publication, and planning the annual convention are all excellent ways to involve kids who display an interest in wanting to become involved. This is particularly important for teens and young adults.

CLUB ACTIVITIES

Young collectors, teen collectors and young adult collectors are all part of your total club membership. While they need not be treated with "special consideration" for each and every event or activity, they need to be included and made to feel welcome - particularly by the club leadership - as standard operating procedure. Some of the specific activities or events are listed below:

Annual Convention

The annual convention is often the biggest event on the calendar for most collecting clubs. Unless a young collector has a mentor in the club who urges him or her to attend, chances are strong that the young collector will forego the convention for a variety of reasons - probably including costs - but more likely the anxiety of "not fitting in." Smaller clubs which often may have only one event a year, should think strongly about some smaller 1-day events in various geographical locations in order to foster more member involvement - including youth.

If you are at the stage where you know there may be several dozen young people or teenagers at your convention, now it becames feasible to perhaps consider a couple of special events for this particular audience - a special exhibit category for youth, a youth seminar, maybe a pizza party.

Shows

Show managers should be alert for ways to bring young collectors...and potential collectors...into the hobby. The experiences of attending a "first show" can easily motivate a young collector to become more involved...or it can "turn them off" just as easily. If a concerted effort has been made to invite students or other young potential collectors to a show, the show manager has a responsibility of making sure that their show dealers are aware of the club's interest in reaching out to more young collectors and involving them. The actions of a single dealer sometimes can make a real difference.

Whenever possible, we encourage show managers to give students free admission to their show by providing a student I.D. If this is not possible, at least a reduced show admittance should be considered.

Auctions

Club-sponsored auctions, whether at your national convention, other shows or at chapter meets, should demonstrate some "balance" in collecting. That is, for example, don't include just premium, top-of-the-line pricey collectibles. This may well be what the seasoned collectors wants and enjoys, but include some more "average" collectible examples that the new collector, and particularly the young collector, can identify with and afford to bid on for their own collection. Encourage young collectors to participate - to bid. This doesn't mean everyone needs to "back off" and let them win necessarily, but they should be able to experience the thrill of bidding, regardless of whether or not they end up with the item.

When your club gets to the point where you have quite a few young collectors as members, you may want to sponsor some youth-only auctions. These do not need to be as length as your other auctions or contain as many items or lots, but it can be a special activity that youth will enjoy and look forward to. Initially, an auction of 20 to 30 items is appropriate for a young collectors' auction. The auction rules may need to be altered slightly for a youth auction but this will come with time and experience.

Website

The club website is a great place in which to involve young collectors. Chances are that most of your young members are already "computer sophisticated" and can find their way around the Internet, and around your website with ease. This is also a good place to actively involve kids who may want to help with the club. Contributing to the various features and segments on the website should be encouraged. You may have a young collector or two who would be interested in moderating a Youth Discussion Forum on your website. The webmaster should take the responsibility of working with them on such a project so they understand that they are representing the club and have the responsibility for conducting an "appropriate" discussion forum as its moderator.

Electronic Newsletter

Many clubs are finding that an electronic newsletter is a quick and inexpensive way to communicate among club members. Young collectors in your club should be encouraged to contribute news items and articles to the club electronic newsletter...or, if there are enough young members in your club, perhaps an electronic newsletter just for the young collectors should be considered. This would be a good way for them to develop friendships and to communicate between meetings or conventions.

Publication

Like the club website, the club publication is a good way to involve young collectors. Encourage them to write articles for the publication. Occasionally do a feature on a young collector and his or her collection. Actually, for a kid to participate in the club publication is not a whole lot different than working on the school newspaper staff.

Chapters

If your collecting club or association has local chapters, this is an advantage. The local meetings and events add greatly to ways that young collectors can become more intimately involved in the club at a local level.

SOME KEY WAYS TO "TURN OFF" THE YOUTH AUDIENCE

Admittedly, the youth audience is fragile - all three levels as identified. Unless a young person has a very strong mentor who brings them into the collecting area and nurtures them, practically on a one-on-one basis, young collectors, or potential collectors, must have some very positive experiences before they become convinced that they should join the collecting club serving their particular area of collecting. No matter how many invites, how many show discounts or how far down you extend the student or youth membership dues, it doesn't make any difference if the kid has a bad experience. It's over. Here are a few areas to guard against:

Do not assume that every young collector who shows an interest in your collecting area is going to be as serious about collecting as you are. They may eventually turn into an avid collector, but chances are equally good that they may not, and at some point may simply no longer be interested in collecting in your collecting area. The key here is don't "push" - let the kid set their own pace for collecting.

In many collecting areas the boastful conversations of veteran collectors - the one-upmanship of the latest acquisition - can turn a new collector off faster than a light switch, particularly if the new collector senses the veteran feels superior and shows little interest in the new person's collecting experiences.

Specific Club Examples

The following are representative comments about young people and collecting interests. The comments show some varying techniques, but even more than that, they demonstrate that most any collecting area can be of interest to kids if presented in the right way.

Stamp Dealers: The American Stamp Dealers Association, at their major stamp shows, include a Youth Center where kids can congregate for educational computer activities and each is given a free gift "bag" which includes assorted items plus an ASDA "My Stamp Album" which has been distributed to over 200,000 children.
Antique Radios: John Ellsworth writes, "we are the Vintage Radio & Communications Museum of Connecticut (nationalcommunicationsmuseum.org), a group of volunteers who have put this museum together to share the rich and wonderful history of communications with the general public. Being a teacher in my real life, I understood the need to reach the kids. We have many things in the museum which are hands on and interactive, which attracts the kids. We also set up an educational piece which includes crystal radio building classes and telegraph building classes. The majority of our classes are made of kids from 7 to 10 years old. They are very much intrigued by the history of communications that we show them. Providing activities and classes for kids is a great way to interest them in a specific area of collecting. Home schoolers are great groups to work with and very well behaved kids. Kids have a great potential to become young collectors.
Chris Craft Antique Boats: Wilson Wright, chief executive of the Chris Craft Antique Boat Club says they are in the process of developing a soap box derby-type of event for young boaters. Similar to the Scouting program using model racer kits, the Chris Craft activity will use kits for kids to assemble row boats, small outboards or sail boats for the races.
Fountain Pens: The Pen Collectors of America's "Pens for Kids" program is a great member-driven concept whereby PCA's members go into the classroom and share information about penmanship and teach kids how to use a fountain pen, normally a totally new experience for most children. PCA members donate old usable fountain pens to the program so that each kid in the classroom has a pen they can then take home with them. Read the feature by Sam Fiorella, President, Pen Collectors of America, in the archives of this section.
Griswold Cookware: After some discussions with the Association of Collecting Clubs, the Griswold and Cast Iron Cookware Association's board determined they needed to try to get some young people involved in their club. By initiating a youth membership and suggesting to some of their older members that they encourage their grandchildren to come along to meetings, they now are beginning to experience an intergenerational collecting experience from within.
Ring Wing Pottery: For several years now the Red Wing Collectors Society has been very active offering KidsView seminars at their annual convention. This past year they had 111 kids participate. The seminars are heavy on activities and starting in 2003 they began developing a multi-year project of putting together a book book on collecting Red Wing by kids and for kids. The kids do research on their own stoneware piece or pieces that were in their family, wrote up the history of it and brought it with them to the convention. By the week's end children of all ages were able to accurately describe soneware by size, glaze, decoration and markings. Another popular KidsView activity is the kid's auction. Dick Houghton, auctioneer of Houghton's Auction Service in Red Wing, MN, donates his time to help teach the children what is involved in an auction, how to evaluate items that are to be bid on, the proper etiquette in bidding, and checking out.

The Importance of Young Collectors to Your Collecting Club

Many clubs are truly facing a major dilemma. The leadership...and the membership...have felt so comfortable with the status quo for so long that all of a sudden it has caught up with them. The membership is aging. Those who attend the club's national convention year after year have developed very strong friendships...almost a social club...which is difficult for any new attendee to penetrate, particularly if there is an age gap of 20 or 30 years.

How long can this continue before the membership of the club declines and the leadership of the club tires? Add to this the growing concern of who is going to buy all of the artifacts of the major collections of club members when the time comes for those collections to be dispersed? Now it has become an economics issue.

Children's Privacy Policy

The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 2000 applies to the online collection of personal information from children under the age of 13. The new rules spell out what a website must include in a privacy policy, when and how to seek verifiable consent from a parent and what responsibilities a webmaster has to protect children's privacy and safety online. The Federal Trade Commission administers the Act. Their website is at: http://www.ftc.gov

Who must comply. Any collecting club which is operating an online service (which basically means all collecting clubs) which is either directed to children under 13 that collects personal information from children (e.g. youth membership enrollment), OR if you operate a general audience website and have actual knowledge that you are collecting personal information from children (again, e.g. youth membership enrollment), you must comply.

Personal information. According to the FTC, "the Act and Rule apply to individually identifiable information about a child that is collected online, such as full name, home address, email address, telephone number or any other information that would allow someone to identify or contact the child. The Act and Rule also cover other types of information - for example, hobbies, interests and information collected through cookies or other types of tracking mechanisms - when they are tied to individually identifiable information."

Privacy Notice

A webmaster must post a link to a privacy notice of its information practices on the home page of its website as well as at each area where it collects personal information from children. There should also be a direct notice to parents.

Guidelines for the content of the privacy notice and the notice to parents, including verifiable parental consent, is available specifically on the FTC website at: http://www.ftc.gov/kidzprivacy