Messages from the President
The Biggest Summer in Years
Here’s hoping this column finds you warm and enjoying summer with your loved ones every day. Of course, summer is a wonderful season for getting out, looking for carnival glass, enjoying auctions outdoors (if you can find one), and evening conversations on the porch about the glass you’ve seen, owned, or missed that one time way back when. This summer, though, the meaning is a little different as two of the biggest carnival glass auctions in a long time happen to be only four weeks apart in June and July. The first auction is the Engel collection selling at the American Carnival Glass Association’s convention in June, and then the Tarkington collection will be sold at our own conven-tion in July. The combined value of these two auctions is estimated to be……well, a lot. A whole lot.
If you look through this issue of the Pump, you will see that attendees of the ICGA convention will have ample opportunity to bid on (and possibly buy) some really amazing pieces of carnival glass. Don and Barb Chamberlain worked very hard to photograph the pictures of the Tarkington collection and share them with you in this issue, as well as on the ICGA website at www.internationalcarnivalglass.com. They began doing so back in 2011 and every year since, ICGA members have enjoyed an early preview of the convention auction glass in the June issue of the Pump. Definitely take a moment at the convention to let them know you appreciate their help and effort in doing this for all of us!
Of course, a convention is a tremendous team effort, and this year, there are many people behind the scenes. The display room takes countless hours of planning and preparation to bring into existence, and Roger Dunham and his wife Cathy have been working to make sure that as many pieces illustrating this wonderful theme (Loving Cups and Mugs) will be on display throughout the convention for your enjoyment. Roger will not only be bringing several pieces from his own mug collection, as well as coordinating with many volunteers for glass and setup in addition to watching the room to make sure it is open for as much time as we need during the convention, but he will also be giving the presentation on Friday about all these pieces so that you get more information about them, who made them, in which colors, and more. It will be a wonderful payoff for such an effort, so please enjoy the display as much as you can during the convention.
We will also be enjoying seminars at the convention from Roger Macauley (who, like me, had a tornado hit his house this spring, though his did much more dam-age than mine), and Cale Wilcox, our banquet speaker. Cale had his dry run at the Texas convention, showing off 60 pieces from his stunning collection, but he is picking different glass for ICGA and will take us through a wonderful story that will remind many of us why collecting has become such a passion in our lives. Cale’s collection is definitely a highlight of his home (though his fun dogs will try to convince you otherwise!), and he will bring the same care and warmth to this banquet presentation as he does to showcasing his glass at home. I guarantee you will enjoy his presentation!
Of course, there is a bunch more work done behind the scenes for the convention, especially from our secretary Becky Cronin. Every year, Becky puts together the lists of people attending, makes sure all the registrations are entered, and the information for the badges is ready to go, she gets our counts for the various meals at the convention and then she checks people into the regis-tration when we are at the hotel. She always has a smile on her face and she always asks me if I am going to fire her. No. Everylasting. Way!!!!
So at this year’s convention, remember that they don’t come together overnight. They take time and effort from so many people (we haven’t even touched on Lane and the hospitality room and so much more!) who give up their ability to sit and relax at a convention so that YOU CAN. Take some time this year to thank those who contribute so much to the convention. Your apprecia-tive smile and words go a very long way. See you in St. Louis, ready to rock and roll!!