FOHBC President’s Message

Ferdinand Meyer V

John o’neill

itting down at my desk, on this first back-to-work Monday after New Years, I conjure up a vision of a stove with lots of pots-a-cooking. The kettle labeled antique bottle events has us all looking forward to the stretch leading up to the FOHBC 2016 Sacramento National Antique Bottle Convention & Expo this August. We have a coordination conference call later in the week and plan to step it up a notch or two. We are also pleased that we locked in Springfield, Massachusetts for our 2017 National Antique Bottle Convention, and by the time you read this message, the FOHBC 2018 National Antique Bottle Convention & Expo will have been announced for Cleveland, Ohio. We really have our teams in place and our wheels in motion. I suppose we should start thinking about the 2019 Convention in the Southern Region. Planning ahead has many benefits. The FOHBC is also proud to say that this March | April 2016 issue of BOTTLES and EXTRAS is the first to be printed in full color, which only costs us an additional $184, an issue. This change prompted a few design revisions, which we hope you will notice, such as the Table of Contents and a few of the section headers. We receive quite a few really nice compliments on how the magazine looks and have come so far in a relative short number of years. Oh, and look for a new section in the back of the magazine called “Member Photo Gallery”. This new section is dedicated to the fine photography of antique bottles and glass. Please feel free to submit your images for consideration. We have already started work on the May | June issue and hope that you will consider authoring an article for the magazine. We are here to help! Within this issue of BOTTLES and EXTRAS, please read the proposed bylaw updates and revisions that have been marked in red. All revisions have been approved by the FOHBC Board of Directors. These bylaws have been amended and need to be reviewed by the FOHBC membership prior to the annual general membership meeting at the FOHBC 2016 National Antique Bottle Convention & Expo in Sacramento, California by an affirmative vote of a majority of all votes cast by the eligible voters in attendance, provided that a copy of the proposed changes are made available to each member in advance, either directly by mail or by timely notice in the Federation’s official periodical or on the Federation website. In other news, we are moving ahead with photography for the Virtual Museum and hope to have regional photography labs set up in regions to start photographing bottles both in a standard format and 3-dimensionally. This effort is being spearheaded by Museum Director, Alan DeMaison. You may have met Alan at the Virtual Museum table during the FOHBC 2015 Chattanooga National Antique Bottle Show last August. Federation member Alicia Booth, is heading up the nomination process for the election of all Federation officers including the President, Vice President(s), Secretary, Treasurer, Business Manager, Membership

Director, Public Relations Director, Conventions Director, Historian, Merchandising Director, Directors-at-Large (3), and Region Directors (4). These elections occur every two years. Any officer may run for successive terms. This committee has prepared a slate of nominations for each office and is listed below. It is important to note that any member FMG Design, Inc. desiring to run for any office in the Federation may file a nomination 101 Crawford Street form with the Election Committee (in accordance with procedures apStudio 1A proved by the membership and instituted by the Election Committee) Houston, Texas 77002 indicating the office they desire to run for. The deadline for filing this 713.222.7979 x115 fmeyer@fohbc.org 1805 Ralston Avenue, Belmont, California 94002 650.619.8209 is April 1st 2016. We have seen successful campaigns by our membership before so if you want to run for a position, please let Alicia know. You and reach her at this email address, alicia@cis-houston.org. You Joneill@risk-strategies.com will be receiving a ballot for voting so please take the time to vote. I want to start off by saying I am very pleased with the news that the increased vaccination rates and decreased rate of Covid-19 infections are making an impact. It seems as though we are starting to see a light at the end of a long dark tunnel that has taken both a financial and emotional toll on our hobby. It has in so many ways impacted the lives of our family, neighbors, colleagues, friends and fellow collectors. The limiting of our ability to connect socially through our bottle shows, club meetings and auctions has had a huge impact. The 49er Club, which is located in Auburn, California, is a very good example of a club that has a good following, active and increasing membership and puts on what I think is the best bottle show in California, always occurring in November or December. They continue to do things and hold events even during the pandemic (safely) that helps sustain and retain their members. Nonmembers are also welcomed to attend these with advance notification. Recently I was invited to a 49er Bottle Club event held at the home of Rick and Tammy Pisano in Nevada City, California but was unable to attend due to a family commitment. It was held outdoors, food was served and they had 66 attendees participate. A cup of bleach, and a good dose of UV light, made it safe for everyone. The photos that were shared online illuminated a highly successful event. A lot of good glass exchanged hands, and I think everybody was just happy to reconnect and enjoy the afternoon rehashing their tales of past digs and future ones to come. Even the unusually hot weather earlier in the week broke in order to put the icing on the cake for a great outcome. It’s encouraging to see these return and to be able to spend quality time with old friends and the opportunities to make new ones. The pending medical procedure has also reminded me, “You hope for the best, but plan for worst,” not that I have any reason to think I won’t make a full recovery. Estate planning is important to secure the best outcome for the benefit of your family. I bring this up for several reasons. How many of our members who have put together some really amazing collections have no plan on what or how they want their collections to be kept together, sold, donated or gifted to the next “temporary custodian?” I am sure we all heard stories about someone passing away unexpectedly and their collection is sold for pennies on the dollar or worse yet thrown out. It’s important to create a detailed record of your collection and more important that you take the time to sit down and provide the necessary passwords or passcodes necessary to access the data. And if you don’t think that’s an issue, believe me it is. I use as an example the CEO of Quadriga, a Crypto currency company who died unexpectedly without leaving the digital keys to his clients, thus locking up over $200 million in client funds that are now completely inaccessible. It’s hard enough losing a loved one, why complicate it by leaving them a mess to deal with when you're gone. I regret not starting this project earlier. I started it a couple of months back and have begun the long process of entering data in the system. I use a software program for my collection called collector system. It’s comprehensive and very intuitive to use, while not inexpensive there are other alternatives including something as simple as a journal with organized hand written notes on each purchase. In my database every object is assigned a unique identification number which I assign to it. I include a number of photographs on each object, as they say a picture is worth a 1,000 words and I believe that is the single most important documentation point. Other things to include are the purchase price, provenance, historical notes, colors, size and shape and anything else you believe is important. Those photographs of the objects in our collections will be the single most important tool in understanding the historical and financial merits of each object. Your family or Executor will now have the ability to make the best possible decisions when they have all that knowledge that you have just bestowed upon them. It also provides a real benefit in case the taxman decides to make any inquiry into your estate. Wouldn’t it be nice for your loved ones, be that wife, partner or children have a nice road map to follow when you're gone? Of course it would. In my database, I have included all my art, tokens, paper ephemera, advertising signs, and bottles. There is an investment of time, but I am committing to enter at least ten objects a day in the database, so every day it gets a little bit better in terms of documenting the collection. The hard part about developing this database is entering the information on each object. The database is maintained in the cloud so I can access if from my I-phone, and have complete access to all the objects in the collection at all times. Who can possibly remember the nuances of the thousands of items in our collections, certainly not me, as evidenced with unintentionally buying of duplicates of the same item on more than one occasion. Until the next time, please give this some serious thought, I know your families will thank you. One final development that I am sad to announce is that the National Show planned for Syracuse in August has been cancelled by the FOHBC Board in a phone call of June 2, 2021. I really appreciate all the efforts of Jim Bender, Val and Jim Berry who did their best to handle the logistics surrounding the show. The bottom line is the board held a vote and it was unanimous with every single director voting to cancel the show prior to the committed deadline. The reasons are multi-faceted; however, as a board we have a fiduciary obligation to you the members to act as fiscally responsible stewards of our resources, and the projections were we would incur a substantial loss if we went forward with the event. We are all disappointed in this development. We lacked support from collectors purchasing sales tables to administration and promotion for the event. We still lack a Conventions Director Position or Public Relation Director Position for the FOHBC Board which are critical to the success of any major convention. We also lacked the traditional souvenir program for the event which helps defer the cost of the convention. It’s easy to say this is another blame it on Covid outcome, but I think it goes deeper than that. I will commit to you that the board will focus on making Reno 2022 an incredibly successful event for our members, and plan on opening up reservations from sales tables to rooms earlier than normal. Please stay tuned for future announcements. We have had a number of comments from collectors who are understandably upset by this decision; regrettably, our final vote was not made without careful consideration. I would urge those individuals to get involved and volunteer their time and efforts to help us create future successful events as I have requested for each and every prior President’s message. Remember, this is a volunteer board giving up their personal time to benefit you, so criticism is fine but encouragement and your involvement is better.

FOHBC Candidates President: Ferdinand Meyer V Houston, Texas Here is the slate of FOHBC recommended candidates First Vice President: Sheldon Baugh put forth by the nominating Russellville, Kentucky committee (Alicia Booth, Chairperson) for 2014 - 2016. The slate is being put forth for Second Vice President: Gene Bradberry Bartlett, Tennessee your consideration and anyone Secretary: James Berry desiring to run for office may Johnsville, New York be nominated by going to the website and printing out a Treasurer: Gary Beatty nomination form. Then, mail or North Port, Florida email to Alicia Booth, 11502 Burgoyne Drive, Houston, Texas Historian: Jim Bender 77077. alicia@cis-houston.org Sprakers, New York Closing date for nominations Editor: Martin Van Zant is April 1, 2016 at midnight. Danville, Indiana Additional nominations will be printed alongside the slate Merchandising Director: Val Berry proposed by the nominating Johnsville, New York committee and will be listed in the May-June 2016 issue Membership Director: Linda Sheppard of BOTTLES and EXTRAS along Sprakers, New York with a short bio of each candidate. Conventions Director: Louis Fifer Brunswick, Ohio Business Manager: Elizabeth Meyer Houston, Texas Director-at-Large: Bob Ferraro Boulder City, Nevada Director-at-Large: Steve Ketcham Edina, Minnesota Director-at-Large: John Pastor New Hudson, Michigan Midwest Region Director: Matt Lacy Austinburg, Ohio Northeast Region Director: Andrew Vuono Stamford, Connecticut Southern Region Director: Ron Hands Wilson, North Carolina Western Region Director: Eric McGuire Petaluma, California Public Relations Director: Rick DeMarsh Ballston Spa, New York