Presidents Message

President’s Message Spring, 2012

     The last several months have been a very busy time for C.O.C.A. and it’s members. The totally redesigned web site came online in late October with enhanced features such as member profile pages, photos accompanying classified ads, and the ability for new members to join and pay online.

Our November meeting was the most successful to date with more than 150 members and guests attending for the dinner, the election of officers, and the induction of Dick Bueschel, Marshall Fey, and Jasper Sanfilippo into the C.O.C.A. Hall of Fame. Following the meeting, more than 200 members and guests attended our “Trip to Jasper’s”, an opportunity to visit The Sanfilippo Foundation ‘Place de la Musique’, the spectacular estate and collection of Jasper and Marian Sanfilippo.

If you attended the event, I’m sure you came away amazed and eager to go back again, and if you weren’t able to make it this time, we hope to do it again next year.

 

Our next meeting will be Thursday, March 29, 2012 at The Hilton Garden Inn, St. Charles, IL. Please make note of the change since we will be holding our dinner and meeting on Thursday evening. In the past, meetings have always been held on Friday following the dealer setup and preview of The Chicagoland Show.

With the parking lot sales beginning before daylight, it makes for a very long day, and with all of the miles walked looking for treasures, or the day of hauling merchandise and setting up our booths, most of us are exhausted by the time the show closes on Friday. With that in mind, the board has decided to change the meetings to Thursdays.

It should make it easier for most members who attend since Thursday is a more relaxed day, and it also provides us with more flexibility in planning events such as the Trip to Jasper’s since the dinner meeting and the trip can be scheduled on separate nights. Also, if you are planning to attend the dinners or any special events, please make reservations with Cindy Champer.

It is critical to the club that our counts are correct when we coordinate with the hotel or we end up paying for meals that aren’t served, or worse, having too low a count that doesn’t accommodate all members who would like to participate. We will always try to make it work so that all members who would like to participate can, but we need your help with reservations

 

Following a very successful convention in Houston Texas, Convention Chairperson, Marsha Blau, and convention hosts Larry and Ryan Gustafson have stepped up preparations for the August 17-19, 2012 convention in Minneapolis Minnesota. This will be C.O.C.A.’s ninth annual convention and is sure to be another fun one.

There will be several local collections to view, room to room buying and selling, a no-fee auction following Friday’s dinner, and a dinner cruise on the Mississippi River. With almost 50 reservations in already, the convention is filling up fast so don’t wait to make your convention and hotel reservations if you’re planning to attend.

We have a limited number of rooms available at The Hilton Minneapolis/Bloomington Hotel, and with vacation travelers and back-to school shoppers heading to The Mall of America, adding additional rooms may not be possible as we get closer to the convention dates.

 

I would like to thank our outgoing officers, Erick Johnson, Marsha Blau, and Lester Aaron for their service to the club. I would also like to thank all of the members who have served on committees, helped with meetings, hosted local gatherings, opened their homes for conventions, and contributed to our magazine, C.O.C.A. Times.

Without members volunteering their time to help the club, we wouldn’t exist, at least not as the successful club that we’ve come to enjoy. We do need your help and ideas to keep it growing. One area of special need is articles for our magazine.

I’m sure you all have a story to tell about that one special machine that you’ve spent countless hours researching, or the restoration project that brought a great machine back to life. Or maybe the time someone sent you a photo and you loaded the wife, the kids, and the dog into the van and drove through the night hoping to be the first one there to buy a rare machine.

We would like to publish your stories and will give partial credit toward your annual dues for each article published. For information on submitting articles or advertising, contact Paul Hindin at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

 

Just a reminder, we still have almost 150 members who do not have a current email address on file. If you have not been getting emailed dues invoices, convention flyers and meeting updates by email, or have had problems getting onto the new web site because it doesn’t recognize the email address you’ve entered, yours is probably one of the emails we need.

We try to publish all important club information both on the web site and in the magazine, but when changes have to be made, the best way we have to get the new information to you quickly is by email. Current email addresses can be sent to the club via the contact form at www.coinopclub.org, or to Keith Morris at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Hope to see you all in Chicago!

Doug Cain
C.O.C.A. President
330.837.2265
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)