Just for the record I'd like to point out a few things.
1. I am no longer the person who is tasked with mailing out the OFCC information cards.
2. Due to the legal contract I was required to sign just to take on that voluntary function I was not allowed to farm out any of the work except for getting people to come to my home and help prepare packages of cards. I asked for help here on the forums and NOT ONE of the OFCC powers that be contacted me. I did get some help and I do thank those people but it was too little too late.
3. I never liked the OFCC stance on these cards from nearly the beginning because as far as I could tell the idea of the cards was developed by BFA and they were doing quite well without our help.
4. The cards are supposed to be ordered by and mailed out to CHL instructors
as indicated here.
5. I had no way to vet requests to insure that the above was the case and when I pointed this out I was told to mail out cards to anyone who asked for them. I actually mailed out a large order of cards to someone in Virginia.
6. The information cards, unless they are causing people to donate to OFCC, are a loss leader, IMHO, the cost about 1¢ each to be printed and delivered and about, on average, 3¢ each to package and mail out. An order of 20,000 cards therefore costs OFCC $800. Not counting the mind numbing hours it takes to harvest the names and addresses from the incoming emails, editing them for proper case and format for the USPS, printing the labels, applying the labels to the envelopes, etc.
7. I can only assume that the cards are listed on OFCC's balance sheet as an advertising expense. So, I guess that if those 20,000 cards cause more than 32 people to contribute then they can be considered a success. Edit: In light of this last statement and the probability that quite a few more than 32 contribute, the cards are a success.
8. I haven't posted any cat pictures as independent threads for nearly two years ever since I got severely wrist slapped by the powers that be. And yet, people still mention them.
9. I'm one of the most senior members of these forums, time wise, and yet don't hold the record for number of posts because I follow the TOS in that I don't post "+1" or "ME TOO!" posts. If I did I'd probably have the highest post count on the forums. I guess that makes me one of the silent majority. Also, although I don't check who's online so I don't know for sure but I'd hazard a guess that I spend more time on these forums, physically in front of my computer, for more hours a day than 99.9% of the other members
10. As far as the request for suggestions that the powers that be requested that caused these changes, I suspect that this a case of the squeaky wheel getting the grease and if the changes had been put up to a general vote they would have been voted down. I think most of the members here didn't say anything because they didn't have any complaints and were satisfied with the way things were.
11. OBTW - unless I missed it. Has anybody pointed out that a good part of this whole uproar was caused by ONE MISSPELLED THREE LETTER WORD in a post by one of the coordinators?
12. I tend to look upon the regular contributors on these forums as a sort of an extended family. One with a large population of different people with different life experiences, expertise, points of view, etc.
There are a large number of very intelligent, knowledgeable individuals that are more than happy to answer, as best they can, nearly any question put to the group. IF these forums are limited to only Ohio concealed carry topics it will turn into a wasteland. It will be like a family that only gets together for a few holidays a year, weddings, and funerals. New people to the forums won't get nearly instant responses to their questions and will probably wander off after a very short time or never post at all.
Interestingly on the BFA forums, out of 2272 registered users 1188 have never posted a message, 246 have only posted once and of the top 12 posters one is the site administrator and five are moderators.