Interim President’s report

Board of Directors chair Amy Saldanha past chair Christine Blumberg chair-elect Amy Saldanha treasurer Kevin McGrath (2020) secretary Nick Tarzia (2021) directors Melissa Beese (2021) Betty Skoke Burns (2021), Jeanie Crone (2022) Corey Funkey (2022), Jacqueline Killian (2021) Lisa Orman (2022), Brad Ruoho (2022) Tom Rushton (2022), Jenna Stirling (2022)

Magazine editor Tom Savage assistant editor Dee Marsden graphic artist Maia VanOrman

Editorial Advisory Committee chair Tom Savage Jean Bailey, Consultant Theresa Duncan, Villa Villekulla Toy Store Tami Murphy, Grand Prix International Lisa Orman, KidStuff PR Relations Kemi Tignor, Little Likes Kids LLC Allison White, Sugar B Sales Phil Wrzesinski, HABA USA

ASTRA Staff

interim president

Sue Warfield

marketing and communications manager

Dee Marsden

technical project and support coordinator

Nicole Peavy

Toy Times Magazine is published by the American Specialty Toy Retailing Association, 432 N Clark St., Suite 305, Chicago, IL 60654, 312-222-0984, info@astratoy.org, www.astratoy.org. Copyright © 2020 American Specialty Toy Retailing Association. All rights reserved.

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2020

The Year of 3-Rs

Most of 2020 may very well be remembered as an overall negative year. This year was made for our good old clichés – make Sue Warfield lemonade out of the lemons, look at the glass half full, turn challenges into opportunities. Those are my mantras – always have been and always will be. 2020 has woken us all up to what we really can and must accomplish when push comes to shove. As we go into the holidays and what we hope will be a better year in 2021, I see 2020 as a 3-“R” year:

Re-evaluate Re-connect Re-invent

Re-evaluate

We have been forced into a “stayat-home” mode. Less out-and-about shopping, dining, entertainment and even physical activities have given us an opportunity to re-evaluate what is truly most important to us, our family, and our friends. In re-evaluating our priorities, we have also been forced to pay attention and evaluate what our close-by community activities and offerings really mean to us and how important it is to make sure they are still there when we come out of our safety zones. We are paying more attention to our families and friends, our educators and our overall community well-being. We are re-evaluating how we think and act in advancing diversity, equity and inclusion within our personal lives as well as in our businesses as we watch the divisions widen within our country. We are fatigued by the digital world – computers, online meetings and shopping, the tv screen, texting, social media. We need human, in-person interaction. We need understanding acceptance and awareness of one another. We feel safe in our inner circle, yet we are realizing we need to think beyond our comfort zone, examine our underlying pre-conceived ideas and work towards real change. This year has made us realize how important it is to stay in-touch with and open our hearts and minds to our basic humanity more than ever.

Re-connect

We have learned to keep connected through technology – Zoom meetings, FaceTime, Facebook, texting and more. We were doing this before the pandemic, of course, but with the turn of events that led us to the social distancing norm, we have had to rely on technology for most of our connections. Through the necessity of staying home and slowing down, we have taken a bit more time to re-connect with family and friends that we may have neglected a bit in our previous life of overscheduled events. We are now craving the in-person connection. Shopping in a store where we can touch and feel the products and get help from a person and not through a chat window on the computer screen, enjoying a concert, sporting event and yes, an in-person trade show – we miss these things and we see how we need to stay connected, in whatever form we can. Digital connections leave too much too interpretation. We crave and need the opportunity to sit over drinks and dinner with others beyond our immediate family to openly examine and work to understand our differences. Again, a cliché