Message from the President September 2025
A Fantastic MEGA Convention in Columbia
This year’s ICGA Annual Convention became the MEGA Convention when the Heart of America Carnival Glass Association (HOACGA) joined us for the first time in history for a wonderful dual convention. People went into this with high expectations and unsure how it would work out, but very quickly we saw just how much energy this convention had. This was truly one of our most fun, best conventions of the past several years.
Our MEGA Convention kicked off with an early bird dinner at a nearby steakhouse, which was packed with carnival glass collectors. We had great food and conversation and laughs, drinks and more with more than 50 people in attendance. I don’t remember the last time we had that many people at our early bird, and everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves! So much fun!
As you read for the past several month, this convention featured everything happening in a big room with everyone in there together, including most of the room displays, the big, themed display, all the seminars, most of the sales glass, and auction glass, and our food events. Thursday morning started with the ICGA Annual Business Meeting at 8:30 am, where we had a nice turnout and elected officers and directors. Galen and Kathi Johnson kept the program going with a Hooked on Carnival seminar that was very interactive and taught a few new tricks to everyone who uses the site frequently. And then, the plate display started coming together.
We had a huge gift exchange/swap and steal (which brought LOTS of laughs) and Tim Cantrell and Sam Scott gave a fantastic seminar on the highs and lows of collecting carnival glass with some amazing glass. It was a wonderful way to kick off the evening. The evening continued with something completely different, but very fun. We had snacks for a horse racing party and everyone was way into the horse racing with tables cheering and hooping and hollerin’ throughout. Tony DeMichael was the brains behind the horse racing party and it included some beautiful glass for placing your bet sheets on. We had around 100 people for that party, which had a lot of happy people.
Friday continued the packed program with the HOACGA annual meeting, and then the first of two seminars about the huge plate display discussed the (always controversial) topic of what makes a plate. As said during the seminar: “Ask 10 collectors what a plate is and you will get 10 different answers.” Indeed!
After lunch, our roundtable seminars from past years returned with six tables and great 10-minute seminars from each table. Then we had the second plate seminar. After dinner, Tony DeMichael and Mitchell Stewart gave a great seminar about contemporary carnival glass, followed by Sheffield Auction selling a nice collection of rare contemporary carnival.
On Saturday, the fun continued with an auction preview, a Carnival Glass Road Show seminar (which featured some glass and people that came to the convention by reading about this session in the local papers and on local television) and then our banquet brunch. The banquet seminar featured Fenton Rarities from Anne and Max Blackmore. People really enjoyed this seminar as well.
And finally, the Sheffield Auction took us through the rest of the program and the day. Scott, Suzanne, and even an appearance by Mickey Reichel to sell some glass, did a great job selling some beautiful glass from the Heavin collection and others.
The convention was a real hit! At the ICGA board meeting, the board voted unanimously to invite HOACGA and other clubs to join us next year for a MEGA2 Convention. HOACGA accepted, and we are currently negotiating with various venues for that convention to occur in July of next year (and possibly in Illinois, a state we have only visited once in the past multiple decades for a convention). Stay tuned for the announcement on the dates and location for the MEGA2 Convention.
As usual, I extend a huge thank you to the many people who made this convention work and be such a huge success. The ICGA board did a great job. Your officers (Mitchell Stewart, Becky Cronin, Barb Chamberlain and Kenda Jeske) put in many hours work for the past year to help make this happen. The committee comprised of ICGA and HOACGA members did a wonderful job on putting together the program, the display room and much more. The Sheffields did a wonderful job on bringing us a pretty collection for the auction. And our speakers and volunteers helped make it so memorable!
Two of my biggest thank you’s go to two longtime ICGA officers who have decided that this next year will be their last before stepping away from the ICGA board. The first is Barb Chamberlain. Barb has done it all: she was our treasurer for many years, and then she stepped into putting together the BEST newsletter in all of carnival glass, The Carnival Pump. The huge amount of work she puts into each newsletter (not to mention how hard she has to work to get my article each issue!) has brought us fantastic articles, color throughout the Pump and just a permanent written record of how incredible she is. I don’t think I can imagine a time without Barb there for every board meeting, but I am going to have to get used to it. She deserves a break because she has done SO MUCH! Thank you Barb!!!
The second is our Secretary, Becky Cronin. Becky is not the carnival collector in the family, but she came to conventions with her husband Ben and she got to know everyone with her outgoing happiness and friendliness, and then one day we asked her to replace Lee Markley as our Secretary when he retired from the position he had held for decades. And she said YES. Since then, she has worked as hard as anyone, daily, on our club. And that amount of work and effort came because she cared about this club and its people. She is ready to step down (and we have an enormous void to fill with both Barb and Becky), and she does so with eternal gratitude. Becky, THANK YOU!!!! You have been a breath of fresh air at ICGA!
Which leads me to the final part of my president’s report. Since our MEGA Convention (and such a wonderful time we had together), Carl Booker has gone to his heavenly home. Carl didn’t think he was going to be able to make it to MEGA, but he did. And spending it with him and Eunice was truly a highlight in such a wonderful convention. I was able to chat with him by phone briefly after the convention a couple of times, but I really miss him, as I know many others do. Carl was an integral part of ICGA for decades and decades, with pretty much the entirety of ICGA history including him. When we think of ICGA, we will always think of Carl…
I hope this issue of the Pump finds you all happy and healthy and I wish you the best of summers and autumn. It’s been another eventful year for ICGA and we will do it yet again over the next year. Be well!
Brian
