Message from the President June 2024
Looking at the Future of Clubs and Conventions
As we prepare for the ICGA Annual Convention in Middlebury, Indiana at the Essenhaus Inn on July 17-20th, a lot of discussion and conversations have been happening about the future of carnival glass conventions, as well as the clubs and organizations behind them. We have already seen some clubs fade into history after decades of wonderful activities and memberships, and the discussion came up again this year at the Heart of America Carnival Glass Association (HOACGA) convention. At that convention during the business meeting, an honest discussion was had by auctioneers, members and attendees, and the heads of various carnival glass clubs. Here’s kind of the gist of that conversation:
The auctioneers are seeing less and less attendees at the conventions and the convention auctions over the past few years. There are various reasons attributed to this:
- The carnival convention audience is getting older and thinning out a bit.
- Every convention auction can be bid on and monitored online, lowering the need to travel to a convention/auction.
- After COVID, the costs of conventions have gotten very expensive (gas/airfare is way higher, hotel rooms are a lot higher, food and beverage costs are very high, etc.) and everyone is generally trying to find a way to extend the value of their dollar right now.
- Some auctions have higher value pieces than others.
In the end, the clubs and auctioneers are feeling the strain of these costs. Auctioneers are spending much more for a convention auction than they would if they just had the auction online, which also means the consignor feels it too (since they inevitably pay for many of these costs). More and more, consignors are asking for their collection to be sold as an online auction instead of a convention auction, which costs them a lot more from their auction proceeds.
And more and more, it’s the auctions drawing people in the numbers needed for the convention to succeed, not the convention activities. And as much as we don’t like that fact (and I personally hate that), it’s just the way things are. So, what’s to become of conventions?
A suggestion that drew a lot of support at HOAGCA was having multiple clubs band together for a “MegaConvention” in which we have 3-4 days of fun, seminars and such, as well as a good auction or two. This simplifies the planning of the convention and it also means more people are working on one convention together instead of many working on multiple conventions. Plus, if we are lowering the number of conventions, the opportunity becomes more important. But all of this also reminds us of another inconvenient fact: some clubs are dying because no one is stepping up to take over the management of the club.
Sunshine State was the first carnival glass club I recall that went away because no one wanted to become an officer and run it. There have been more since (Air Capital, LincolnLand). And frankly, a few clubs out there are worried about making it through next year. Without new, younger collectors with the desire to keep organized carnival collecting going for the next several decades, it’s a fate all our clubs will face.
So what to do? Do we work with clubs like HOACGA and ACGA to plan a MegaConvention that all can attend and enjoy, hopefully bringing more people to the convention? Do we sit by and watch so much history disappear?
I am very interested in your thoughts on this. Please email me at bpitman@gmail.com and let me know what you think. How do you see the future of ICGA (and others) shaking out?
See you in Middlebury!
Brian
