IGCA 43rd Annual Convention

 

Hi there,
Time has come to start making arrangements for attending this year’s convention.
The committee members are working hard to cover all the bases so that you can
come and have a great time. For those who have never attended a convention before
you will learn to make all sorts of different candles from fellow candle makers. We
also invite our vendors to attend and teach workshops and hopefully to help us keep
up on the new waxes, additives, scents and wicks that seem to be changing
constantly. It is a great place to make new friends, renew friendships from past
conventions and workshops and have a lot of fun with people who share your passion
for candles.

I’d like to go over the details we have planned so far for the convention. We will
continue to update the convention plans on the web site so keep an eye out for
updates and additions.

As we did last year we will be offering registration on the website using Pay Pal. Over
the past years we have had many requests to allow members to use their credit cards
to pay for registration and also workshops. It will only take a few minutes to register
on the web. We will also allow those that do not have a computer or wish to use Pay
Pal to register by mailing the registration form to me directly along with your check.
Please see the registration information page for more details. Workshops will only
be done on the internet. If that is going to cause problems please contact me. We
will be offering individual day registration this year for those that don’t have five days to
attend the entire convention. Please check the registration form for information and
costs.

Workshops will also be registered in advance on the web site using Pay Pal. Marie
Kauffman is our Workshop Chair Person and she is in need of teachers for our many
classes. If you are planning on attending the convention please contact Marie at:
salesflamindame@epic.net. She will answer all your questions. For those who have
never taught a class before but have been making candles please consider teaching
a class. We have candle makers of various stages in their candle making careers
and need all sorts of classes from beginners to advance so before saying no email
Marie and discuss it with her.

For those that are planning on driving to the convention there are many major routes
through out the country that come into Ohio so you shouldn’t have any problem getting
to the hotel. One warning for those that plan on driving once you cross over into Ohio
“watch your speed”, the Ohio State Patrol is a real stinker and they like nothing better
than pulling you over for speeding and writing a very expensive ticket. They seem to
be around every divider on those major highways so drive carefully and stay safe.
For those flying in here is some information for you. The hotel is north east of
downtown Cleveland (approx. 20 miles) in a suburb called Mentor. You can fly into the
Cleveland Hopkins International Airport (CLE) and then rent a car or hire a car service
to make the 35 minute drive to the hotel. I did some calling around and didn’t realize
the airport limos that used to shuttle back and forth from the various hotels and the
airport no longer are in service, seems the gas increases have done them in. I will be
listing the four services the hotel recommended and their phone numbers; you must
call and make reservations in advance to use their services. The cheapest I found
was $55.00 and it went up to $90.00 one way. In talking to Alice I mentioned to her my
chagrin at finding out how expensive this service has become over the past few
years. I have a 19 year old son who has offered to act as taxi for the group if you are
interested in using his services. Matt is going to be spending most of the summer
working to earn tuition for school and has offered to work his schedule around the
convention dates. If you are interested in having him pick you up in our van for $25.00
let me know and I’ll coordinate pick up times, he can also get you back to the airport
as needed. If you are uncomfortable with this there are all sorts of car rentals you can
get at the airport or you can reserve one of the car services.

You can check into the hotel any time from Thursday, July 10th and pay the hotel rate
they have given the group. For those that come in on Friday we will get a group
together to go to dinner that evening unless you have other plans. If you are a
baseball fan The Cleveland Indians will be in town for that weekend on a four day
series with the Tampa Bay Rays. For those that would like to see a game if you buy
tickets off the internet there is a bus from the Mentor area directly down to the Stadium
and back again. On Saturday I’ve been thinking about doing a trip to some local
wineries if anyone is interested. We have several wineries within a 40 minute drive of
the hotel. Again if interested please let me know and I’ll check on more details. For
those that don’t want to go to the wineries there are all sorts of restaurants in walking
distance of the hotel and many more in a 10 to 15 minute drive including some right
on the Grand River which is quite a site getting to see the sunset over the water, and
the many boats coming and going. The “official” no host dinner will be held on
Sunday evening at a local restaurant. For those that have not attended a convention
before a no host dinner is a gathering of those that would like to go to dinner as a
group and each pay their own bill. This is a great way to get to know those attending
the convention before classes start.

The hospitality room will be open from Saturday through Thursday. The hospitality
room is on the second floor directly above the lobby of the hotel. You can get there
either by the staircase in the lobby or by using the elevator. We will have snacks and
beverages in the room for those that would like to stop and visit with members. Again
for those that are new to the convention please stop by and visit if you have some
open time during the day or in the evening.

Our hopes are to have competition candles turned in on Sunday early and for the
judging to begin earlier than has been done in the past. It is rough on the judges to
be up to all hours of the night judging candles. If you are planning on bringing
competition candles this year plan on being there early Sunday so we can get them
turned in timely. More details on the competition will be updated to the website.
Depending on members stepping up and offering to teach we may schedule a few
workshops on Sunday afternoon. There will also be a “first timers” meeting held both
on Saturday and Sunday in the hospitality room for those attending the convention for
the first time. We will meet with all workshop teachers on Sunday to go over details of
the classes, supplies and workshop rooms.

We will need help on Sunday afternoon to cover the floors of all the workshop rooms
and set up the supplies so that we are ready to roll on Monday afternoon.
The business meeting will be held on Monday morning. The hotel provides breakfast
so we will not be having a catered breakfast before the business meeting but
members will be expected to attend the meeting at 9:30 a.m.

Following the business meeting the group will gather for lunch. Workshops will start
after lunch and go to 5 or 5:30 that day. The flea market will be set up in the same
room where the business meeting was held that morning. Set up will begin at 4:30
and open to the members at 5:30. The flea market will go to 7:00. If you would like to
bring items to sell at the flea market please fill out the form in the convention packet
and send it on to Rick. We have the flea market to help our members, those that need
or want to get rid of some of their items and for members that are looking for candle
making items to buy. We will also allow those that still have items left after Monday to
set up their items again Wednesday night for about an hour, in one of the classrooms,
before the auction for those that wish they had bought that item they saw and
hesitated. I’ve been there and wished I was given a second chance to see the items
again. The second shot is strictly up to you on whether or not you set up again but I
find most people don’t want to take their items back home again so it might be worth
the second set up.

Tuesday is Vendor’s Day. For most members this is a big reason to attend the
convention and make sure you let the vendors know you appreciate their being at the
convention and remember them when ordering supplies. We will have regular and
vendor workshops on Tuesday with a gathering for lunch. Vendor night starts at 7:00
and goes to 9:00.

Wednesday will be workshops all day and our auction in the evening. Michael Dockter
will be in charge of the auction again this year. For those that were not in Boise last
year you missed a lot of fun and hopefully you plan on attending this year so you don’t
miss a thing. We will also take a break for lunch with the group. More details in
regards to the auction will be posted on the website in the near future.

Thursday is our final day of workshops. We tend to do sharing or demo workshops in
the afternoon after lunch so that clean up is quick and easy. We will need volunteers
to help tear down the rooms and clean up at 4:00 that day. In the evening we will have
our banquet and say farewell to our old and new friends for another year.
Somewhere in between all this we will have another dinner provided for the group. I
haven’t gotten together with the hotel to pick the night yet but once we do this I will post
an update on the web site.

Please remember that to get the hotel rates we got at the Comfort Inn we had to
guarantee so many hotel nights and also so much money for food so please make a
point to stay at the Comfort Inn where the convention is being held. It is getting
tougher for smaller groups to have these gatherings due to the costs and to make it
work we must support the hotel we are gathering at. By staying at this hotel we are
able to save around $18.00 a night on hotel rooms, not have to pay for breakfast each
morning, we will have lunches Monday through Thursday, our banquet dinner and
another dinner so most of our meals are covered Monday through Thursday.
Hopefully these cost savings will help with your decision to attend the convention.
We are still in need of a Judging Chair Person and a Competition Chair Person. If you
have any experience in judging or competition and are willing to help please let me
know. We can also use help with some of our other committees so if you would like
to help please let me know.

If you have any questions please email me and I’ll get back to you as soon as
possible.

Hope to see you in July.
Kathy Szappanos
(440) 479-0290
workshopkathy@hotmail.com