Minutes
July 9, 2011
July 9, 2011 was a hot ole day in the Midwest but we had a cool meeting at the Red Robin Restaurant in Overland Park, KS. with 15 members and 3 guests present (2 were Cambridge collectors but we hope we made them welcome and they had fun). Thanks to Bucky Will for arranging the site and bringing her fresh and fantastic blackberry cobbler for dessert. President John Mock and wife Trudy had a family celebration to attend so Tom Files called the meeting to order. Minutes of the previous meeting were approved and Tom put on his Treasurer’s hat to give that report. Our club was happy to have made a food donation to the convention’s hospitality room and to contribute $2,200 to HCA’s endowment fund (that will double as explained later).
Our program was presented by Ande and Greg Henne on the New Era pattern. Ande’s mother’s wedding pictures from 1949 were shown since it was she who had chosen New Era as her crystal pattern. The examples displayed (a very full table) included nearly every item in the pattern in crystal plus some cobalt and frosted pieces – many with etchings and cuttings. Beautiful to see the glass and we each received a great handout for future reference. Thank you, Ande and Greg, for a terrific and informative presentation.
Mary Cameron gave a 2011 convention report (yea, attendance was up!) and noted we had 18 Great Plains members in attendance. Mary and Gregg spearheaded the silent auction at the museum and banquet auction -- a great job that raised over $5,000 for operating expenses for our beautiful museum. Mary also explained the Gordon and Darlene Cochran challenge to match endowment fund donations and urged our members to ‘meet the challenge’. Mary announced a ‘challenge within the challenge’ where Pat and Rex Lucke will match all Great Plains members’ individual donations up to $7,500 made by December 1, 2011. So, for every dollar a GPHC member donates, the Luckes’ match will make it $2, and the Cochran’s match will then make it $4 to the endowment fund. That’s compounding at its best! Thanks to the Cochrans and the Luckes for their generosity. Ande Henne and Bucky Will conducted individual fund raisers to obtain endowment donations – the kind of creativity we need to ‘meet the challenge’.
It was announced that the HCA Board has approved the Great Plains Heisey Club to host the 2012 Percy and Vivian Moore event and 2012 Fall HCA board meeting in Omaha, NE during the weekend of September 8, 2012. Mark your calendars now and plan to attend. This will be our second hosting, the first was special, so we’ll have to work hard to make our second event even better and more fun. We have a year of planning ahead of us but we’re up to the task!
With the business concluded, we moved on to Show and Tell. Several convention “finds” and other pieces shown by our members included: Four #1184 Yeoman grapefruit centers (#3) with paper labels, #357 Duck ashtray/flamingo, #4004 Impromptu bar glass, #305 Punty and Diamond Point 1 handled nappy, #1165 oyster cocktail, #1300 octagon compote (cake salver)/moongleam, #27 Tall Six Panel salt with #9082 blackberry etch, #40 salt with cutting, #47 Spool salt/flamingo, #300 Peerless sherbet/flamingo, #393 Narrow Flute mustard with Lotus enamel decoration, #1183 Revere 9 inch footed punch bowl with cutting, #1406 Fleur De Lis 8 inch square plates – one with beaded stringer and one with straight line stringer, #1540 Lariat handled celery heart, #4160 Ellen 1/2 gal. jug with #152 Apollo etch, and a large #1519 Waverly footed vase probably created as a whimsy or feasibility piece.
The 50/50 auction (which we should call the 100% auction as all donors allowed total receipts to go into the treasury and eventually to HCA) was conducted by Bucky Will and started with the famous “Jean’s Jellies”. They were strawberry and tart cherry flavors this time. Thanks to the ‘Jerrys’ for donating 4 single candlesticks that helped enrich our treasury – and thanks to the other donors as well.
Our next meeting will be held at Pat and Rex Luckes’ home just west of Omaha, NE on 9-10-11 (a lucky date for all attendees at the Luckes). The program on the color Dawn will be presented by Mary Cameron – she promises we will see many sought after pieces in that elusive color. Hope to see everyone at the September meeting and, as usual, keep up-to-date by visiting our website at www.greatplainsheiseyclub.org.