Presidency
This has been a very productive year. The Board has worked very hard resolving some of our major issues & will continue to do so in the upcoming year. The question about the ICG’s 501(C)3 status and whether it can be utilized by the chapters had been the major discussion this year. We’ll discuss it more later in this meeting, with details & planned actions but I’m very pleased that we have made some decisions & are moving forward rather than stagnating. There will be action regarding the IRS this year.
Chapters
This year we have both gained & lost chapters. Last year at the ICG Annual Meeting we voted in 3 new Chapters; the Dallas/Ft Worth Costumers Guild (DFWCG), Fibre Fantasy Artists of Canada & the Costumers Guild of Western Pennsylvania. We’ve been glad to have their company & participation on the Board this year.
This summer the Costumers Guild West voted to disassociate themselves as a chapter from the ICG. We regret their decision to leave but understand the necessity of their actions given the circumstances. Their members who still had extant ICG memberships were transferred to the T-Chapter which we formed last summer to address the needs of members whose chapters choose to secede or are otherwise disaffiliated from the ICG. The T-Chapter, which Jan Price will tell you more about later, was created in response to the GBACG leaving early last year & will remain in place as a future haven for any “orphan” members.
At the beginning of this year we gained another chapter the
Southeast Costumers’ Society (AKA the SECS Fiends) based in
So our overall numbers are lower but the Corporation is stronger, with new blood & fresh faces that bring much needed enthusiasm to the core group. In the future we may never be as large as we once were, but pruning will often produce a healthier plant.
President’s Awards
The official presentation of the President’s Awards will be this Sunday evening, after the Historical Masquerade half-time. I’m going to wait to make those announcements until that time as I’m sure that all of the recipients will be in attendance and I want a large public recognition of their help.
But I do want a few “thank you’s” on the official record. For their help, hard work & support this year I want to thank: Byron Connell, Pierre Pettinger, Denisen Hartlove, Jeff Morris, Bruce MacDermott and the entire ICG Board of Directors.
I’d like to single out a couple of people for special recognition. They’ve kept me smiling with their enthusiastic & wry commentary as well as putting in a lot of hard work behind the scenes. So just to amuse myself I’ve decided to award them special badges as “Awesome Deputies” in the Presidential Posse; Elaine Mami & Karen Heim.