Sunday, August 30, 2009

The Pottery Papers Blog

Way back in '01 at this blogger's first HLCCA Conference, Candy Fagerlin presented a seminar entitled The Pottery Papers, highlighting HLC wares and ephemera. As a souvenir of that seminar, Candy distributed customized Fiesta bread-and-butter plates in the then-new color SUNFLOWER.

Now, you can view much of Candy's presentation on The Pottery Papers blog. Check it out!

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Cinda Gambill Memorial Fund for "Dollars for Scholars"

Today, HLCCA received a contribution from the “Hat Ladies and Friends of Cinda Gambill” designated for the “Cinda Gambill Memorial Fund”. Since Cinda was a strong supporter of higher education, the memorial funds will be given to Dollars for Scholars, a program that benefits the children of HLC employees through their local school districts. HLCCA has made annual contributions to Dollars for Scholars for many years.

If you would like to contribute to the “Cinda Gambill Memorial Fund,” you may either send your contribution in care of Sandra Bond, HLCCA President, PO Box 721, North Platte, NE 69103, or directly to Dollars for Scholars (to the attention of Catherine Vodrey), PO Box 458, East Liverpool, Ohio 43920. In either case, checks should be made payable to Dollars for Scholars and designated for the “Cinda Gambill Memorial Fund”.

Thank you for your generous support in remembrance of a beloved founding member of HLCCA.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

200 Votes in on HLCCA Conference 2012 Location

Kansas City and Seattle are neck-and-neck, and the polls will be open for only another month. Be sure to let us know your preference for the location of HLCCA's "away" conference in 2012.

UPDATE 8/26/09: We're not pointing any fingers, but we suspect that there may be a little ballot-box stuffing going on with the blog poll. Apparently, it is possible to vote several times. Therefore, we'll also be distributing a mail-in ballot for the 2012 Conference location in a future edition of The Dish. Thanks!

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Room Sales at the Annual HLCCA Conference

We had a question from a blog reader the other day about "room sales" at the annual HLCCA Conference. If you attended the Annual Business Meeting on Sunday morning in Pittsburgh this year, you'll recall that this matter came up when an HLCCA member announced that he had conducted a room sale in his suite on Saturday during the Show and Sale.

The HLCCA Board's position on this matter is that we do not encourage, condone or sanction room sales at the annual HLCCA Conference. The Board expends a great deal of effort each year to make sure that the greatest possible variety of dealers can have booths at the Show and Sale. The (nominal) fee charged to dealers covers the cost of table rentals, which the HLCCA must incur. For individual HLCCA members who have items to sell, HLCCA offers a consignment table. HLCCA benefits from these consigned items by collecting a small percentage of the sale price of each item.

The HLCCA Board believes that room sales pose unfair competition for dealers at the Show and Sale, and that they deprive HLCCA of an important source of revenue. The Board also believes that the majority of conference attendees value the Show and Sale as one of the "centerpieces" of each year's conference. This being said, however, the Board has no desire to become the "Room Sale Police." We do not have the time and resources to try to regulate what individual HLCCA members may choose to do in their own hotel rooms. We simply trust that members will use their own best judgement and sense of fairness in how they choose to conduct themselves at the annual conference.