Message from the President September 2024

And Now for Something Completely Different…

Welcome to the end of summer! I hope this message reaches you after a fun and warm summer that saw you out and about looking for more glass to add to your collection. There were many opportunities to add to that collection this summer, including at our annual convention, which was fun, had great food, and was more or less a carnival glass party among friends. If you made it to this year’s convention, I hope you enjoyed it (I did!) and we were very happy to see you! As always, a wonderful team spent many hours putting it together and it went swimmingly! A special thanks to Becky Cronin, Kenda Jeske and Barb Chamberlain for working very hard at the convention, as well as to our Board of Directors, all our speakers and contributors, Jim and Jan Seeck for a great auction, and to this year’s collection provided by Bob and Shirley Patterson. What a fantastic time!

As we look forward to next year, we had a very good and lengthy discussion at this year’s convention, both in Board meetings and in the general business meeting. The focus of these discussions was on carnival glass conventions and the health of carnival glass clubs like our own. It was a good, hard discussion, but we have a clear direction moving forward.

Several of the carnival glass club presidents recently met on a Zoom call to talk about the current state of conventions. As you may know, a handful of clubs are no longer with us, and the goal is to keep as many clubs happy and healthy for many years to come. One of the ideas that got support was for clubs to consider holding a joint convention so that potentially more people will attend, more people are involved in running the convention, and perhaps the bigger draw will bring bigger auctions.

Some of the biggest issues facing conventions right now is the rapid increase in hotel costs. After COVID, hotels fell into two categories: those that didn’t have the staff to keep going, and those that started to raise rates by 200% or more because people had cabin fever and were willing to pay pretty much anything to go out and about. We had hotels we used that suddenly wanted $270 a night or more for our convention, even as they only charged us $100 a night a few years back. On top of that, most hotels started adding fees and such to increase their profits, and with the increase in online auction frequency, carnival collectors decided to stay home and bid online, skipping the convention entirely.

So in the end, ICGA and HOACGA continued this discussion and next year, we are having a joint MEGA-Convention! This isn’t a merge or anything of the sort: we are two independent carnival clubs holding a big party together, and you are invited!

Both clubs will share: costs, planning, implementation, workload, and a common goal in one of the first, and best, MEGA-CONVENTIONS EVER! This is an opportunity to work together to promote and keep our ‘hobby’ of collecting, experiencing, and learning about carnival (for both new and seasoned collectors) alive. There is strength in numbers! Those of us who have been around the block more than once, know there is truth in that statement. The strength of the people in ICGA and HOACGA will be awesome as we work together to keep the carnival glass world alive.

Both clubs are putting their best efforts into making this the beginning of a new era in carnival glass, a new golden age where our clubs and hobby will continue and grow as we build our new members and we embrace the next generation of collector.

What we know so far about the convention:
PLACE: Columbia, MO (future conventions will be held in other locals to try to accommodate as much of the member population as possible).
DATES: THURSDAY, MAY 29, 2025-SATURDAY, MAY 31, 2025 (an attempt was made to find a time that (a) didn’t step on another club’s activities, and (b) was a fair split on each club’s past convention dates)
HOTEL: Hampton Inn & Suites Columbia @ The University of Missouri, 1225 Fellow Place, Columbia, MO 65201 (Rooms: $125/night, Free Parking, Free Daily Breakfast, Discounted costs on Ball Room Space – to date the team at the Hampton has been more than gracious and accommodating and a pleasure to work with!)
OTHER COMMENTS: There will be a real focus by the planning and program committees to bring in speakers for educational seminars, a display ‘competition’ with prizes, a chance to sell glass if you choose to, EVENTS, GAMES, AND ACTIVITIES to bring us together to enjoy games and learning focused on carnival glass, food and drink, and lastly (but not least) an environment OF FUN. So watch as we begin announcing the schedule of events and more for this coming MEGA-Convention! I cannot wait to see all of you there.

Brian