Message from the President March 2021
2021 One Heck of a Convention!
Alright, so we ended last year by saying 2021 has just got to be better, right? So far this year, that hasn’t really panned out so well. In fact, in many ways, 2021 is trying to be even worse than last year, but this year, we have a super weapon to dight it off: our convention!
The ICGA Board of Directors has voted to hold our convention this year at the Das Essenhaus in Indiana, the location we were going to have last year’s con-vention. As you remember, we ended up having one heck of a virtual convention last year, with our Equine display room theme and seminar, an entire week of carnival glass activities online, and the joy of spending time with other members/attendees. It really made for a wonderful time in the middle of a pretty awful year.
This year, several things have happened to make our decision to move forward with an in-person conven-tion possible. The dirst thing is vaccinations. As of writing this, there are two vaccines for COVID-19 available (Pdizer and Moderna), and after a slow start it seems they are dinally getting out to the public. I have had both of my Moderna vaccinations, and I know several on the Board of Directors have either had both of theirs or have had the dirst one and will have the second by the time you read this message. The key to success in vaccinations it seems is to just keep trying until you get one. Add that to the new skills this pandemic has taught you, I guess.
Now at the convention, we will follow all the rules at the time for social distancing and masks and all of that (not sure what they will be at this point, but we will pay attention and follow them). Safety is the goal here, and I do feel a heck of a lot better about a convention this year than last. So mark your calendars for July 7-10th, and here is the hotel information:
Essenhaus Inn & Conference Center
240 Hwy 20
Middlebury, IN 46540
Reservations: (574) 825-9471
We are in the process of establishing the schedule of events for the convention, but we already have several ideas for the display room and seminars. And as usual, Jim Seeck will be bringing us a fantastic auction. The best part of this, of course, we’ll be able to actually sit in the same room as many of you for the dirst time in well over a year and just chat. Amazing how quickly we miss that!
A huge thank you to our ICGA Board of Directors, who have spent the weirdest year in carnival glass over 2020, for staying vigilant and helping keep our club alive and well in turbulent times. And for our officers, especially Becky Cronin and Barb Chamberlain, for “keeping the lights on” by putting out four incredible newsletters each year, making sure you are aware of dues dates and such, and helping all of our new (and old) members happy, questions answered, and so much more! We have the best leadership for the best carnival club in the world, which makes perfect sense because we have the best MEMBERS IN THE WORLD!
Stay safe, stay warm, get your vaccinations (if you can, and that’s what you want to do) and we will see you in July!!
Brian
