Presidents Message

  

Hello Everyone,

 In writing this letter it’s a New Year, I hope everyone had a safe and healthy and also a fun filled holiday. There are a few changes this year, one being the club membership dues.  We had to increase the dues an additional $4.00 across the board to everyone.  Due to the cost of paper, printing and postage. I think everyone should understand this knowing that the cost of living has gone up.  We have been absorbing this increase for a few years now and we can no longer afford to.  I am sure you all understand we want to continue to have a quality magazine.

 The next change is the new ownership of the Chicagoland Show, their first show will be May 30-31 at Grayslake Fairgrounds there is NO Sunday show.   We will still be using the Double Tree Hotel in Libertyville-Mundelein, Illinois as our host hotel.  We will also still be having our parking lot sales on Thursday morning at the hotel.

 I would like to put out a big THANK YOU to all the homes and businesses that allowed our C.O.C.A Club to see their wonderful collections and for all the delicious food that was served at The Houston Convention, we all had a fantastic time. We are hoping to plan our next convention in 2026, date and place to be determined.  We are looking for people to participate In these conventions to show their collections and others in your area that would like to show their collections also. We just don’t see coin-op, we see all kinds of collections cars, neon signs and we’ve even been to museums.  So please don’t hesitate to contact us if you would like to have a convention in your area, it takes a lot of hardworking and time putting a convention together.

If a convention is not able to be held in your area please think about having a C.O.C.A local gathering at your home and Invite club members to come and spend a day visiting your collection and talking and meeting new and old friends. An example, Stacy Wills is doing a C.O.C.A gathering this April 27th, 2025  Sunday at his house in Columbus, Ohio              

We would like to see or hear of our club members doing this at least once.  Just let me know and we can send out emails to club members in your area or you can invite all, of course not all would come.  Linda and I have done this a couple of times already. It’s really  fun and interesting onhearing what everyone has added or sold from their collections or just catching up on gossip.

 I would like to congratulate our recipients of our C.O.C.A Hall of Fame award went to Randy and Sue Razzoog for the hard and wonderful work that they put into our CO.C.A Times magazine. THANK  YOU Sue and Randy.

There will be NO meeting at the Spring Show.

                                          Until we meet again,

                                            John R. Fifer