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The GTTC stands for Gymnastics Tape Trading Club. Several years ago, I found out that it is nearly impossible to find gymnastics tapes anywhere. I searched everywhere and finally decided that starting an on-line club was the only way to find competitions I had missed or wanted to see again.
Membership in the club is free. When you join the club, your list is added to the main pages alphabetically by last name. Members trade tapes among themselves and/or pay costs for tapes. Many people in the club report that they have struck up great friendships through their trading activities and several members have met one another at competitions or tour stops. I am proud to be a part of bringing people together who love this sport as much as I do.
Either browser is fine.
I am usually happy to let people borrow my format. I ask two things:
give me credit for the format on your page and give me the URL to your
page. So far, I have had six requests to use my format. It has
been used by four GTTC club members to make a Figure Skating Tape Trading Club, a Dance Tape Trading Club, a Gymnastics Photo Trading Club and an Eating Disorders Related Tape Trading Club. None of these clubs are still active as far as I know.
Two non-members requested to use the format for a Romance Novel Trading Club and a Women's Soccer Tape Trading Club. The Romance Novel Club is alive and well, but the women's soccer club is inactive.
No, you do not need to have a large tape collection to join. The purpose of this club is to help people build up their collections and/or get competitions that they missed. I have had people join who have only one tape and there have been members who had no tapes. Those people usually pay costs for tapes until they can get a small number to trade. I will accept members with no tapes, but I do recommend that you have at least one tape.
I have had several members who had very recent tapes such as the 2004 Olympics and they were unsure of whether or not people would trade for it. They thought that since it was so new, most members probably already had it. I want to caution against that thinking because it is surprising what people are looking for or what competitions they missed. Newer competitions are not necessairily a bad thing in the trading world.
No, you do not. In fact, I would prefer that you not join if you are only looking for one or two comps. The way to go about this is to send me an e-mail letting me know what you are looking for and whether you want to pay costs or trade. If you wish to trade, include the competitions that you have or a link to your competitions. I will send your request to all the club members and if one of them is interested in helping you out, they will e-mail you personally.
You can also use the GTTC search engine to find people who have the competitions you are looking for. Please keep in mind that there are several club members who only trade with other club members. These people usually have a disclaimer on their pages stating that. I ask that you not bother these people if you are not in the club.
Yes. I always keep the "temps" on the mailing list unless they
specifically request to be taken off of it. People who leave temporairily
usually like to keep up with the club news.
If I have received any complaints about anyone and if the complaints
pan out - that is, if the complaints have merit to them, I will let the
club know about those complaints through the mailing list. The usual
complaint is that someone is a tape cheater. If that person is found to
indeed be a tape cheater, I will let you know who that person is and I
will remove them from the club.
If someone claims that they sent you tapes and you have not received
them, it may be that the tapes were lost in the mail. This happens
sometimes. If this is the case, request another set of tapes be sent
registered mail. I had this happen to me once and the person was happy to
send me another set of tapes. I would like to think that in this sort of
mix-up, the person would send the tapes again.
No, there is not an age requirement at this time.
I get this question a lot. To send tapes within the U.S. cost is usually $3.85 (assuming the sender uses priority mail). I have no idea how much it costs to send tapes to other countries or within other countries. If this is a concern for you, ask the person you are considering trading with where they are from. You can also get shipping information from your local post office, of course.
There is no rule about how you ship your tapes or what kind of tapes you use. However, for those in the U.S., priority mail is a pretty good deal because the boxes are free at the post office and you can get a few tapes in one box for one price.
On this subject, I feel it is important to mention that traders should specify how they will be shipping things and what kinds of tapes they would like to receive. If you are using very high quality tapes and are shipping them in a costly manner of some kind and you are expecting the person you trade with to do the same, you need to be up front about that. For example, if you will be shipping two Kodak tapes priority mail with insurance and you expect the other person to use Kodak tapes and priority mail as well, make sure you tell them!
My goal is to update once a week. Sometimes, it's as long as a month before I can get to updates. I try not to let it go that long, but life gets in the way now and again:)
These days, it takes two to three hours to make updates, send club mail and answer club related e-mail from members. I work on club "stuff" (things not having to do with updates) a little bit each day. If I didn't, I wouldn't get my 10.0 start value:)
It takes a lot less time now than it used to. I recently instituted a rule that new members must maintain their own pages. This means that it is a lot easier to add new members so the longest you can expect to wait to be added is about a month. I try to add new people within a week of receiving their application, but that depends on how much time I have.
If you've joined the club and are not added within one month, please DO NOT join the club again. I've very likely received your application and just haven't added you yet. If you are concerned that I haven't received your application, please e-mail me and ask, but don't rejoin unless I tell you I haven't received your application. Thanks!
I very much appreciate the patience of new members waiting to be added. I am looking at software right now that would allow new members and current members to add themselves and make their own updates. Until then, hang in there with me and you will eventually be added to the club:)
If someone complains about you, I will e-mail you one time and one time only to let you know of the complaint. If you do not e-mail me or the person who complained about you AND if you do not send the tapes in a reasonable amount of time - I am giving two weeks for this, you will be removed from the club and placed on the tape cheater list.
If you have some problems completing the tape trade such as: vcr broke down, the tape was returned to you after you sent it, you've been taken hostage by frantic gym lovers who then stole all your tapes, please let the person you are trading with know what the problem is and when you will be able to complete the trade.
Questions about Shelley
The town I grew up in had no gymnastics classes available. I now live in what used to be the mecca of gymnastics training: Houston, Texas. I plan to start taking lessons again at one of the area gyms if I can fit it into my schedule.
I have a tape collection and a fairly extensive one at that. I have been following gymnastics since the 88 Olympics. I DO NOT trade tapes. Running the club takes a tremendous amount of time. I could not keep up on my life, run the club, AND trade tapes.
I graduated from law school May 13, 2005. At the moment, I am taking some time off and planning my July 2005 wedding. There are days when I wish the club was my full-time job because it takes up a lot of my free time, but I love every minute of it.
As for who I am exactly, you'll have to visit my personal web site for that answer. It's a lot easier to go there than to have me explain it here:))
My favorite gymnasts are Vanessa Atler, Shannon Miller, and Kim Zmeskal. I don't make club pages so people can trade for comps with a specific gymnast in them because I don't have the time to keep another trading page up and running.
