On a happier note, 18 members made the journey to Canberra for the 22 September meeting of our club. It was a beautiful spring day in the nation’s capital, and once again members enjoyed the warm fellowship of friends as well as the warm weather, and some beautiful carnival glass. It was also great to see Doug & Sheila Russell again, who decided to shut up their antique shop in Kalaru for the day and join us. If you didn’t join us you missed a great day. Hopefully you’ll be able to come along to the Christmas meeting. More details later.

There was lots of ‘Animal’ theme carnival glass on the ‘Show & Tell’ table, as well as lots of other beautiful pieces members had bought recently.

The ‘For Sale’ table was also chock-a-block at this meeting with lots of nice glass at very reasonable prices. Quite a few pieces went home with new owners after this meeting.

Our raffle raconteur, Patrice did his usual sterling job and raised over $100 for the clubs coffers again. Well done Patrice. I would also like to thank those members who contributed wonderful gifts to the raffle. We all enjoy the raffle.

The Saturday night dinner seems to have become a regular feature of our meetings out of Sydney now, and a group of us gathered at the Town Centre Sports Club in Tuggeranong for a great night, followed by cappuccinos and lattes back at our home courtesy of my birthday present.

I would like to welcome our newest member, Arthur Williams, from Bairnsdale in Victoria. Welcome Arthur! I know you are some distance from us, but we hope to be able to see you at some of our future meetings. Our Internet site seems to be doing its job of attracting new members.

While we were in New Zealand in October, Rhonda and I were fortunate enough to visit Angela Bowey’s glass museum in Paihia, north of Auckland. Some of you may be familiar with Angela’s museum, and her font of knowledge on a wide range of glass. If you aren’t, why not check out her web site at http://www.glass.co.nz/. Angela’s collection of carnival glass was fascinating, and we spent quite some time studying her many other types of glass as well. We were also pleased to welcome into our home recently Margaret Dickinson and Betty Doody from the Victorian carnival glass club. We spent a wonderful evening looking at and talking about carnival glass, our clubs, and the adventures we have all enjoyed as part of our carnival glass ‘hobsession’. Sharing our glass with others is a wonderful part of this hobby, and I urge you all to take every opportunity to visit others who collect carnival glass to see their collection, and to welcome others into your home to see your glass.

At the September meeting we set the schedule of meetings and themes for next year, so please look for those details elsewhere in this newsletter. Our November meeting is at the home of John & Lorraine Friend in Blackheath, in the beautiful Blue Mountains. Our ‘Show & Tell’ theme will be ‘Milk & Sugar – sugar and creamer sets’. As it is our Christmas meeting, I urge you all to make a special effort to attend. As well as our usual raffle, we will also be exchanging Christmas gifts, so don’t forget to bring a contribution for the raffle AND a Christmas gift.

There is a notice elsewhere in this newsletter of a special general meeting which we will be holding in conjunction with our next meeting in Blackheath. The purpose of this meeting is to discuss and vote on the question of raising the club’s membership fees to $22 with effect the beginning of the next membership year. Our current membership fees are $20 per single or family, so the proposed raise is very small. Please give consideration to this issue before the next meeting, and come along prepared to vote.

Don’t forget to watch the ‘Treasure Hunt’ series with Alan Carter at 6:50pm on Sunday nights on the ABC. One of the episodes will feature Ray & Jean Rogers and their carnival glass.

Anyway, our new newsletter editor has told me to stop hogging the pages (bossy isn’t she?), so in closing, as 2002 draws to a close I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very merry Christmas, and a great carnival glass year in 2003.

Wayne Delahoy
President