Message from the President December 2023
Recruit the Next Leaders of ICGA
Here we are at the end of another year, ICGA’s 56th year in existence. It was a good, if stressful, year for carnival glass clubs and the waves of change continue to roll in across the world. More people who collect and love carnival glass communicate with each other online (via Facebook and Instagram) more than have ever communicated about carnival glass in this history of the hobby. It’s a welcome change (one could easily argue that carnival glass was never more popular among the people than it is right now) and one that brings opportunities to accept those changes and help ICGA evolve and grow into the future.
One of the biggest perils carnival glass clubs has faced in the past decade is the lack of leadership replenishment. In fact, several carnival glass clubs, with long and beautiful histories and traditions, are no longer with us because they simply ran out of people to run them, to nourish and treasure them, and to keep them going. Several others are facing this issue right now and may (or may not) continue to exist past the next few years.
As we make plans for next year’s ICGA convention at the Das Essenhaus in Middlebury, Indiana on July 17-20th, we need to put some time into considering who will lead our organization past the immediate future. It’s not a difficult set criteria to consider, but the next leaders should:
- Love carnival glass
- Have the time and desire to dedicate to the club and its daily, monthly and annual duties
- Have a genuine desire to share carnival glass education with others
- Have a basic understanding of how an organization such as ours works
That’s really about it. Because we have a Board of Directors and a set of Officers, the beauty of it all is that it’s always a group effort. Now, the hard part: we need to recruit younger carnival glass collectors to become the leadership of ICGA. The future is theirs, and we want ICGA and carnival glass to always be around, so now is the time to start looking.
Each of us know people who collect that would be great leaders for the future of the club. They should be invited to come to our convention, join our club and learn all about the wonderful things ICGA does and has done for almost six decades now. And they need to be prepared to make this club the pinnacle of carnival collecting for another 5+ decades.
I have been the President of ICGA for 20 years of those 56, I was 33 when I became president and I am now 54 years old. Many of our board members and officers are slightly older than me. Now is the time for us to find some 20, 30 and 40 somethings to become board members and officers. They won’t just show up. We need to actively recruit them.
So I challenge each of you to think about who should be the next leadership of ICGA and to actively pursue them as members. Bring them to our convention. Get them involved. It’s time for them to learn what it takes to make ICGA strong for a very long time.
And what a wonderful convention we have planned for them! Our convention auction is the incredibly beautiful glass of Bob and Shirley Patterson, we have a special Banquet Seminar team up in the form of Maxine Burkhardt and David Kastor to show us the exotic and beautiful essence of Art Glass, Mitchell Stewart will be giving us a great seminar on contemporary glass, we have round two of our Show and Tell Table Top Mini Seminars, and so much more (don’t forget the fried chicken!) Registration will be going live soon, and you can make reservations for the Das Essenhaus Inn by calling them at 800.455.9471 and mentioning carnival glass as our group.
May you have a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful, warm New Year. God bless each of you, and let’s make 2024 the year we start building a young new leadership crew for ICGA!
Brian
