I would like to thank everyone who joined our September virtual meeting and participated in officer nominations. The nomination process seemed to go very smoothly and we quickly ran through the list of nominations. I also appreciate those who were nominated for the various positions and wish each person in a contested race the best as voting opens.
Concerning voting, GCCC conducts polling virtually, using tandylist.com, and each member can log in to https://www.tandylist.com/ and then click on the “Vote” icon at the top to cast your ballot. The polls will stay open until 6:30 PM Central on October 21, 2021, as we prepare for the monthly meeting where we will announce the new slate of officers. We do have some uncontested positions this year, but I am told “Abraham (Ab) Stain” could stage an upset.
The Glenside 2021-22 officer candidates are:
President
Jim Brain (incumbent)
Vice President
John Mark Mobley (incumbent)
Grant Leighty
Secretary
Richard Bair (incumbent)
Brian Goers
Treasurer
Eric Canales
Voters may update their ballot at any time prior to poll closing by simply filling out a new ballot.
Thanks in advance for helping select the 2021-22 officers!
As noted last week, we have dipped below the 2 month countdown to the 2021 29th Annual “Last” CoCoFEST! and we’re in the home stretch of planning and organizing for the show. I want to thank Terry Steege again for his early 2021 work concerning presentations, and I’d like to thanks Tony Podraza who is handling much of the detail work concerning the show.
I also want to make sure folks know we’re soliciting nominations for the 2021-21 GCCC officer slate this month. We’ve enjoyed a very productive year of change, and I’d encourage each of you to consider running for one of our positions (even mine :-). I think helping manage the work of the club like GCCC (who has adequate financial footing, a well respected following, and a well-attended yearly event) offers significant rewards, and the work is pretty light.
On the first point, here’s some CoCoFEST! updates prior to our meeting, though I’m happy to answer questions about them at the meeting:
As per last month’s decision, we’ve rented a third room at the venue to hold the presentations (we’ll use the next larger room as the auction space). The venue was nice enough to rent the room for $200/weekend, though I think it’s normally $200/day.
A number of folks took a tour of the facility last weekend after the conclusion of VCF-Midwest. I’ll try to attach some pictures to the posting. I think we’ll have plenty of room for all of the activities and exhibits
Power should be relatively plentiful, and they have 2 220V outlets int he room they will convert to 110V AC for more outlet action. But, exhibitors should definitely bring a power strip or three
And, speaking of power strips, the organizers of VCF-Midwest believe they will have some of the long 6-8 ft TrippLite industrial power strips to lay at the edge of the room, which should put an outlet much closer to the tables. Many thanks to Michael Lee for the willingness to help. We will probably still buy some of our own strips and I’m suggesting we have VCF-Midwest folks store the strips and allow them to use them for future VCF-MW shows (they are bulky and hard to store, but VCFMW organizers Jason Timmons and Michael Lee bought a building very close to the show site which makes storage easier).
A number of Glenside members attended the VCF Midwest show in person last weekend. As some have noted, there’s nothing that truly replaces a physical show (though I am glad we’ve all been able to stay connected virtually in the interim). I thoroughly enjoyed myself, and there were significant crowds. I can only theorize that people are eager to socialize and the cost of wearing a mask was not a significant concern. Kudos to the show attendees, as compliance was very high, and I didn’t see any altercations. This bodes extremely well for our November show, assuming the situation doesn’t change drastically.
That said, we are going to livestream the show for those too far away to attend or who find themselves unable to attend for other reasons. It won’t be the same, and I’m still encouraging everyone to make attempts to visit in person, but we will try to put the presentations and auction online for everyone to enjoy.
We still need to finalize exact times, but we do have the venue on Friday afternoon/evening for early setup. We will announce Friday setup times in the coming month.
If you’re an exhibitor, note that each table will be adorned with a lovely black tablecloth, courtesy of the venue. Color code accordingly
Folks who pre-register will have their badges already printed and ready to grab and go. Skip the line and pre-register at https://www.glensideccc.com/cocofest/ .
Now, while we prepare for this great event in November, we must turn our attention to elections in October 2021. As noted before, we’re actively soliciting for nominations for President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer. There’s no onerous work needed to put your name in the running. Make sure folks know you’re interested, and I’d encourage you to attend this Thursday’s discussion to express your desire.
As I noted in a previous communication, secretary Richard Bair officially requested someone take over his position in the coming year. He’s faithfully held the office for some time, and I think he’d like to pass the baton to a new face in the crowd.
Once nominations are made, we will be sending out via our various channels the full list and voting will commence on TandyList. We will close the voting right before the October meeting and announce the new officers in October.
To ensure we have plenty of time for nominations and also to answer any questions about CoCoFEST! planning, we’re starting the meeting an hour earlier at 6:30PM. I hope you can join us for part or all of the discussion.
For those unable to join us on BlueJeans or have prior commitments, we will livestream and have a replay available on our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/groups/290791956162) and our Youtube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFk2dMxcjJcX2qbSqFHQMbA).
As you can see from the countdown timer at the top of glensideccc.com, we’ve just passed below the “60 days to event” mark. With that in mind, I wanted to give folks some additional details on the upcoming show:
The show is still happening! I’ll admit I expected the skies to fully clear by this time such that the show dates would be a largely normal time. It doesn’t look like that’ll quite be the case, but the BOD sees no current issue with holding the event on our scheduled dates.
That said, there are some realities that will intrude on our normalcy. We’re obligated to comply with local statutes in our venue. Currently, the state of Illinois has instituted an indoor masking policy. We’ll let you know if the situation changes as we creep closer to our show dates, but I’d recommend ensuring a mask or 2 follow you to the show. Since there’s some time yet, I’d recommend splurging for a custom printed mask with your favorite computer adorning it. Neil Blanchard has some CoCo-themed masks for sale at (https://www.facebook.com/commerce/listing/332771551273852/?ref=share_attachment) and if I find others I’ll link to them. The venue confirmed they’ll have a few masks on hand for compliance, but I’d not recommend assuming they have plenty for everyone. Likewise, we will arrange for some to be available at the show as well.
We will also arrange to have hand sanitizer at various locations for use by our attendees.
To both help speed up entrance at the show and to cut down on people standing in lines, we’re encouraging attendees to pre-register. If you do so and the show cannot be held, we’ll process a refund or your ticket will continue to be valid for our next CoCoFEST! face to face event.
To both cut down on paper currency handling at the show and enable pre-payment options, we’re encouraging folks to use electronic and/or credit card payment options this year, even for day-of registrations
The Saturday evening dinner is still a GO! The venue did not feel the current compliance requirements created any concerns. I will soon post an informal poll on our buffet serving options for some feedback.
While we obviously want to make this a safe and enjoyable experience for everyone, we fully understand if you are not able to attend. We are working to provide some virtual “presence” options for those folks, and we will try to stream all of the presentations and the auction to YouTube and Facebook.
There’s still a few tables left for late exhibitors, and we can always squeeze one more presenter into the lineup. But, time is indeed growing short, so work to finish your projects and plan to join us in early November!
