I volunteered to help in a leadership role to create and implement a plan to make the club better for members. There are clear pathways for dramatic improvement not even thoughtfully considered because it is convenient now.  I love the people in this hobby.  I love the artifacts and the history they represent, this is not a personal issue for me.  We can bring this club to a higher level.

The show is almost here. How great it is going to be to see all that glass and all of those people we only see once a year. Hopefully we all sell more than we hope and find at least one great one for our collections.

Seems we have been having trouble getting the news letter out to some long time members and most new members.   George provides one hell of a service in putting the newsletter together and publishing it.  Jon Steiner Jr did not receive the January newsletter.  If you are a member and didn’t get this issue please let me know.  Hahaha ;) In all seriousness Dan, George and I will hopefully get this worked out and all members who have paid their dues will receive every newsletter going forward.  Jon Steiner Jr, of course, has been and will continue to be the exception to that rule.

The newsletter could be a great resource if members participate in sharing information with the community.  With that in mind, I am initiating a column called What Else.  The ‘What Else’ column will be in every newsletter from now on IF club members lend their expertise on something ‘related’ to bottle collecting.  Maybe Sid can do a piece on bottle openers, maybe Bob can do a piece on lithographs maybe you can write a small piece on some side aspect of bottle and advertising collecting?   While anyone considering writing for the newsletter can follow any format, some information you may want to include is common examples, reasonably priced examples and the holy grail in the genera for local collectors.  The prices paid always garner interest, so that too.

Members have a great opportunity to post a classified ad here.  Maybe just one you want to find for your collection or something you want to sell.  The newsletter classifieds give you the opportunity to put your add in the hands of the people it matters to most.  Jon Steiner Jr is going to put up an ad asking for someone to sell him their used copy of the newsletter. Jon just wants to see if his classified asking for someone to sell him a used copy of the newsletter gets published.

Every member of the Milwaukee antique bottle and advertising club would benefit from collectors discovering the wonderland that IS antique bottle and advertising collecting.  Our show is the single greatest opportunity to promote the hobby.  We have the show in a hotel no one other than people intending to go to the show will travel to?  There are great venues like The Domes, the Art Museum and the Zoo where people would come for other reasons and be exposed to our sub culture.  Our charter is to promote, not hide the hobby.   Dealers and collectors will show up no matter where the show is.  In some venues new collectors will be inspired.  While the show hotel is conveniently five minutes from my house, we are the MILWAUKEE antique bottle and advertising club.  The hotel is twenty miles from Milwaukee.  People doing the work don’t want to change;

I will take over and make it work somewhere else if that is what is needed to expose the show to people outside of collecting.  That was simple, painless and convenient for the entire club.   Why don’t we try in 2011 to have the show at a public venue?  The hotel is not going anywhere and if it is horrible at the Domes or the Art Museum they will still take us back for 2012 no questions asked.  I guaranty it.  If Dave does not want to run the show anywhere else I will gladly promote, set up and run the show myself at a public venue.  If the show is an overwhelming workload now other club members need to step up and help even if we don’t change locations.  I don’t even know if the county would let us have it at the Domes or Calatrava, we owe it to ourselves and the hobby to find out.  Maybe at the February meeting we can agree to hold off on committing to another year at the hotel and to find out what it would cost to use the Calatrava or the Domes by the March meeting.

Let’s get at least one club outing booked this coming summer.  Maybe late May?  An issue seems to be one event will be difficult for the entire club to participate in.  Maybe we hit a small town with easy access water and do both privy digging and diving on the same day meeting up at the end of the day?  I picked up a bottle in a town that would be perfect this past summer.  The town is an hour north of our house in Delafield.  A couple of experienced privy diggers would likely need to go out a week ahead of time to get permission and locate privies. 

We can make this club one of the best ever, anywhere if we set goals…  One hunt or more this year, two next year, five new participating members this year, ten next year and so on.  We all may be more comfortable the way things are now.  If we put some effort into making the club special we will all have more fun than is possible in the comfort zone.  If you as a community want to explore ways to make the club something better for the hobby and collectors I am with you.

Again, please consider writing for the newsletter.  You will be glad you did and will be providing an invaluable service for the club.

Steven