Two Welcomed into COCA Hall of Fame

Two new members of the COCA Hall of Fame were inducted during the November 2016 meeting in Chicago. The COCA Hall of Fame Award is presented at the fall meeting to one or more individuals who have made “outstanding contributions” to COCA and/or the hobby of collecting coin operated machines.

{image_1}Marsha Blau is the recipient of the 2015 award. Marsha served for eight years as Vice President with three different Presidents. During that time, she also served as COCA National Convention Planning and Operations Chairwoman.

Marsha helped organize our 3rd convention in Wisconsin in 2006. She coordinated several more, often traveling to host cities at her own expense to find hotels and other tour venues. She also organized many other social events for our club, including meeting speakers and meals, Chicagoland show hotel contracts and trips to Jaspers.

Marsha and her husband David collect coin-op and many other antiques and collectables. She remains a key factor in the growth of COCA and has earned our thanks for her many years of hard work for COCA.  As the “Official First Lady of COCA”, she deserves this prestigious award. Congratulations Marsha!

{image_2}Doug Cain is the recipient of the 2016 award. Doug served multiple terms as Treasurer and as President of COCA. He was a steady force, keeping the club on track both financially and structurally.

During his terms in office our club prospered and grew in membership numbers. Doug introduced an initiative to find new members through advertising in antiquing trade publications and auction house catalogs. While Doug was President our new website was developed, which led to an additional avenue to promote COCA online.

New promotional brochures, COCA gear and other new methods helped our club to continue its growth. Doug worked closely with the National Convention chair to help make those events even more successful.

Doug collects a variety of coin-op with a focus on vending, gambling and arcade. He was a pricing committee consultant on the valuations found in the Silent Salesman vending book by Bill Enes. Doug is certainly a worthy and deserving recipient of the 2016 COCA Hall of Fame award.