Behind the Scenes at ICGA, Things Are Happening...
By Brian Pitman, March 2008

I hope the new year has been good to you. The year began with two great conventions in Florida that were extra inviting this year with a strong winter finally hitting the rest of us not near the ocean. Many attended the conventions, with Sunshine State’s auction of another portion of the John and Jeanette Rogers’ collection drawing the largest crowds in the history of their club. Meanwhile, the Texas club had miniatures galore in their auction, and HOACGA is gearing up for another mega-auction, this time featuring the eye-loving beauties from Judy Maxwell. So what are we working on for our members at the good ole International Carnival Glass Association? Plenty.

First of all, we continue to provide the best newsletter in the business in the Carnival Pump. Carl Booker’s absolute love for people, glass, and education is apparent in every page. His continued diligence in providing a quality product has kept him (and Eunice, because they really are a team) up late many nights (a lot of that time is spent worrying if the President will get his President’s Message in before the absolute drop-dead date to get to print.) Carl can take a chicken scratch from a bar napkin and turn it into verbal artwork. I have heard many people say that the Carnival Pump is the reason they are ICGA members, and I don’t doubt it a bit.

Furthermore, Carl and I are working on releasing our first of many electronic versions of the Carnival Pump. This will not be the same stuff in the print version: it will be all new. If you want to receive the electronic Pump when it comes out, please make sure to email or write Carl with your current email address so that we can add you to the list. Our initial idea is to release four of them per year.

Turning to our annual convention, there is a ton of prep work being done for this event. Of course, you know that St. Louis is going to bring many friends, amazing presentations (more on that in a bit), a great auction, and a few surprises. Heading the “Fun Team” are Don and Barb Chamberlain, who are currently devising the evolution of carnival glass convention fun games. They have put together some truly innovative and challenging scavenger hunts in the past, but nothing compares to the game they are planning as you read this. These two are very serious about your educational fun (being the educators they are), and this year is going to blow you away.

I talked about our fantastic display room last time in the Carnival Pump, and several have called or written to me to say that seven different seminars based on each color of our seven-color rainbow is something they just have to see. Our seven presenters (each of which is a saint in my book) are working diligently to illustrate the meaning of each individual color being discussed. Behind the scenes on that effort are Bob and Sherry Cyza, who are making sure that we get a nice broad range of each color (as each one is being limited to 50 pieces, for a total of 350 pieces in the display.) If you have glass that you would like to be in our display, Bob and Sherry would LOVE to hear from you!

We are also working behind the scenes to provide an awesome souvenir this year. I have been working with Scott Fenton to try to get a 2008 ICGA Souvenir from the Fenton Art Glass Company. Fenton has surprised many with their unwillingness to die, and the company appears to be getting stronger and stronger. We did get our moulds from the factory in the dark days at the end of last year, and I am pleased to report that the Hockey Puck, the Frolicking Bears tumbler, and the Miniature Town Pump are doing well and waiting to be used again. Hopefully we will be able to sign a deal with Fenton to provide those lucky enough to get their orders in on time (when we announce) to get one, as the value of Fenton pieces have shot through the roof in the past six months.

Finally, we will be putting out another Member Directory this summer. It is important that we have your current information for this (I received some calls after the last time from people with changes.) If you know your information was wrong last time, please send Carl the correct information, and we will do our best to get you in there correctly. This year, 2008, is going to be a very fun year for ICGA, and one that will continue to show you why carnival glass associations are important to the hobby. Let us know how we can make it better for you.

Brian Pitman

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