nEWS
NCMI meeting draws large turnout
From left : Bill Craven , Art, Fein , So nny ilver rein , o rm Ba rk an,
M el Gro berg, Frank Ballo uz, Milli e McCa rth y, Earl Braff, M ino ru Arakawa .
The
ational Coin Ma chine
In stitute (NCMI ) held its third
annual seminar and meeting in New
York City May 30-31 and drew 120
attendees, exceeding even NCMI 's
expectations .
Speakers addressed a wide range
of seminar topics. Besides sessions
on the need of state and national
organizations to work together on
common industry problems, ses-
sions also dealt with establishing a
cooperative plan with game manu-
facturers concerning the purchase
and operation of the equipment in
the field. Public relations and legis-
lative issues also were the subject of
seminars.
Among the seminar topi cs at the
two-day NCMI meeting was a ses-
sion on private pay telephones.
Conducted by Marc Tobias of
Runyan Sales, it addressed the
operators ' snowballing interest in
private pay phones since telephone
deregulation.
Operator Sharon Harris of Stan
Harris & Company in Philadelphia ,
Pennsylvania, said afterwards, " It
was very informative . Anyone who
10
was thinking of rushing into this
new business should think twice .
The speaker went over a lot of infor-
mation for operators to consider ."
Dick Cro ss of R.J. Reynolds
spoke on the topi c of motivation
and surprised the group by saying
that , more than money, a person
looks for communication and
recognition in a career. He stresed
that employees need to know how
their jobs fit into the schem of the
bu siness and that what they ' re
doing is important.
M anufactur ers' r pr
nt ative
spoke on a numb r o f topi cs relating
to the operation of jukeboxes, elec-
tronic dart s, video conversions,
po ol tables, and pinball s. Among
those speaking were John Nelson of
Nelson/ Aved Tec hnologies, Frank
Ballou z of intendo, Gil Pollock of
Premier Technolog y, Marcio Bonilla
of Arachnid , Chuck Milhem of
Valley, Jerry Gordon of Rowe , and
Bob Briether of Seeburg .
A panel that included outgoing
NCMI president Art Fein , Mel
Grossberg, and Stan Harris dealt
with the subject of operators joining
together in a cooperative effort.
NCMI ele cted a new slate of
offi cers at the two-day gathering .
Norm Borkan of Standar·d Vending
in Amarillo , Texas, was elected pre-
sident ; Stan Harris of Stan Harris &
Company in Philadelphia was voted
first vice president. And Earl Braff of
AAV Companies in Cleveland was
e l ct e d sec ond vi ce pre sident.
Other s elect d includ d Millie
McCarthy of Catskill Amusements
in Hurleyville, New York, to th e post
of secretary; and Anthony Parina of
Parina Enterprises in San Jose, Cali-
fornia , to the position of trea surer.
Outgoin g CMI president Art
Fein comm nted , " Thi s as·so cia -
tion has accomplished a lot in its
short existence . We have gone after
strengthening the state associations,
have opened communications be-
tween the street operators, and
have worked on cooperative pro-
jects- such as the Coins cigarettes
that are made especially for vending
machines and insurance programs
for fleet s of vehicles ."
Fein added , " I think. the manu-
facturers are finally listening to
operators . The systems coming out
now are in response to what opera-
tors said three years ago."
Notably, NCMI had held a board
meeting in Seattle in March and
used the opportunity to discuss with
intendo " ways manufacturers
could help operators." At that
meeting , NCMI members were
given a tour of Nintendo's fa ci lities
and even held their meeting in one
of Nintendo's meeting room s.
Ballouz of Nintendo, comment-
ing on the New York City meeting,
noted , " It gave us manufacturers a
chance to talk with operators who
control a lot of equipment."
Oper ators at the NCMI meeting
claimed to represent 250,000 ciga-
rette vending machines and more
than 100,000 music and game
machines.
•
PLAY METER, August 1 . 1965