NYSCC History Project NYSCC History Project Rags to Riches …Steve Herman

In 1979, the NYSCC celebrated its 25th anniversary with a boat trip The event was a huge success, attracting 300 guests. Unfortunately, it was not priced to break even, and the Chapter found itself with a year-end shortfall of $3,100. To offer some perspective, $1 00 in 1979 was the equivalent of $4 10 today, and the Chapter had no financial reserve A loan of $3,500 was granted by the National SCC Board Fortunately, the first successful Suppliers’ Day came to the rescue with 66 booths and the loan was repaid.

The 1981 Chapter Chair, Dino Muccia, instituted several changes to make Chapter finances more sustainable, including selling supplier advertising in the newsletter and renegotiating the monthly meeting contract at the Robin Hood Inn Suppliers’ Day grew steadily in the 1980s, and by 1986 generated $17,500 in income. Membership took two hits in the 1980s with the creation of the Connecticut Chapter in 1984 and the Long Island Chapter in 1987 By 1988 the NYSCC had its current geographic borders along with a Suppliers’ Day event capable of providing much-needed, dependable, operating income.

The 1988 Suppliers’ Day had 99 suppliers and over 1,200 attendees The exhibit was from 3:00

7:00 p m with a cocktail/buffet from 7:00 – 8:00 p m featuring an open bar The cost to attend the buffet was $30.00 for members and $35.00 for non-members, but the exhibit was free.

We had not yet reached the moder n digital age Interestingly, the March 2nd meeting that year was prophetically about computers, and over the next decade the Chapter evolved, as did the entire world with PCs, the inter net, e-mail, and smart phones changing how we communicate In the two photos from the January 1988 meeting that accompany this article, the registration desk and head table are shown Before online registration with credit cards, checks were mailed to the NYSCC using what is now referred to as “snail mail”

The device on the table in the photograph below is a slide projector. Microsoft acquired PowerPoint in 1987 and it became widely used in a short time The software produced a presentation that was converted to 35 mm slides by a photo processing store and those slides were arranged in a carousel. The computer projector was invented in 1990 So, in the January 1988 meeting, the NYSCC was using a projector with slides in a carousel; however, it was on the cusp of the moder n-day era with laptops connected to projectors.

The boat trip provided the impetus to stabilize the finances of the NYSCC and resulted in a Suppliers’ Day program that 53 years later is an industry event of global importance truly a rags to riches story.