History of the HGMS
Annual Show—Part 3
by
Scott Singleton
Member
of The Houston Gem & Mineral Society
Prolog
The following is Part 3
in a 5-part series on the history of the HGMS Show.
PART 1: 1948-1968 –
Early Days (In May 2006 BBG)
PART
2: 1969-1977 – Rise to Prominence (In June 2006 BBG)
PART
3: 1978-1989 – On Top of the World (In July 2006 BBG)
PART
4: 1990-2000 – Fall From Grace
PART
5: 2001-Present – The Phoenix
PART 3: 1978-1989 – On
Top of the World
Introduction: There were no major
changes that distinguished the start of this era from the end of the
previous era with the exception, of course, that we had just completed
our very first Federation show and were already thinking about our
next. This in itself was enough to separate the two eras because it
essentially changed the collective psychological outlook of the club
from a “small club” mentality to a “large club” mentality. This is
demonstrated by the fact was that despite having an uninterrupted
string of eight incredibly successful shows, the club in the 1970s
still thought “small.” It preferred to have shows in a small place like
the Shamrock (which Bill Cox calls “the garage hotel show”) with 16–19
dealers, despite the fact that we were attracting between 8,000–10,000
people to each show (I commented on this imbalance in the Epilog of
Part 2). We will see that the club rectified this imbalance during
the 1980s.
An overprint on events in the
late 1970s was the inevitable changeover of key personnel. In April and
May of 1979, Gene and Anita Shier and Jim Knight, respectively, moved
to Austin to retire. In June of that same year, Ed Pedersen was
transferred to Denver. At the time of his transfer, Ed was the sitting
Vice President and Cochairman of the ID Service with Irene Offeman.
Each of these people was very active in the club, and their leadership
was missed.
At the same time, several
others were entering into the club’s leadership circles. Ron Carman,
John and Ruth Hammett, Sister Clement Johnson, Yvonne Dobson, Frances
Harris, and Janelle Walker had all been in the club for at least a
little while but started helping out in a big way between 1978 and
1982. Of course, many people who had already held leadership positions
were still around, including Bill Cox, Tom DeHart, Anne Frank, Irene
Offeman, and Gus and Frances Lindveit.
The new Dealer Selection
Procedure rules were modified in 1978, 1979, and 1980 as the club
sought to make this overly-stringent process more workable (see
Appendix 2 in Part 2 for a full description of the original
regulations). In 1978, a representative of the new Faceting Section was
added to the committee. In 1979 the rules were modified to take the
Board Secretary out of the loop and to allow dealer contracts to be
sent directly to the Dealer Chairman and to be kept on file by that
person. 1980 saw several significant changes: The position of Assistant
Dealer Chairman was created, and it was specified that this person
would automatically become Dealer Chairman the following year. The
provision prohibiting more than 12% local dealers in the show was
abolished, and text was added granting the Dealer Chairman authority to
replace cancelled dealers without Board approval if the cancellation
happened within 60 days of the show.
But perhaps the largest single
factor affecting the club and the show in the late 1970s and throughout
the 1980s was that we had to share the Houston market with a second
major show, in large part due to our own failure to recognize what the
market was telling us. The relationship with Herb Duke started out in
1977 very dubiously, in my opinion, with Herb wooing the HGMS Board
with phone calls, letters, gifts to the club (for instance, equipment
provided by Herb at the first two Intergem shows in 1977 and 1978 were
then donated to the club following the show), and assurances that he
would NOT interfere with our show in any way. This “mating dance”
continued for several years.
However, the relationship
started to sour in early 1980 when the club declined Herb’s offer to
participate in his show. The reasons for this are not entirely clear,
but the supposition of those I talked to is that it began to be
apparent Herb Duke was sweet-talking us while at the same time trying
to take over the Houston show market. For instance, there had
apparently been assurances from Herb that he would not hold a show
prior to our National Show in 1982. However, by late in 1980 Herb’s
true designs on our city were becoming clear as he wrote and said that
he would, after all, be having a show in 1982. Needless to say, we
didn’t participate in his 1981 show either.
However, to show he was a nice guy
and held no grudges (!!), Herb invited us to have a table in his show
in March, 1982. We accepted because we wanted to promote our own
National Show in June of that year. At that show, Bill Cox and Herb
met. I would have loved to have heard that conversation. (From the very
start, Bill had been emphatically against the HGMS having any sort of
relationship with Herb Duke because he knew what Herb was trying to
do.) At any rate, Herb was apparently nonplussed by this meeting and
the rest, as they say, is history. Intergem soon went to two shows,
then three shows in the late 1980s, then four shows in the 1990s. The
effect was, to say the least, quite dramatic on our bottom line. We
have suffered hugely from the loss of identity because most people did
not (and still do not) realize that there were (and are) two separate
organizations having gem shows in the city.
The Intergem show now boasts
being in 30 cities nationwide and having 80 shows per year, as well as
producing their own magazine (Gems and Jewelry). If it’s any
consolation to the club, it is my guess that most, if not all, of these
30 cities have gone through exactly the same difficulties that we have.
But that is what America’s free enterprise system is based on and is
the same reason why Wal-Mart is reviled in every small town across
America. The fact is that it is difficult for a small business (or, in
our case a nonprofit organization) to match wits with a dynamic,
rapidly growing business, usually led by a similarly aggressive and
visionary businessman.
1978: As it turned out, this was our
last show in the Shamrock Hilton (thankfully). Anne Frank was
President, and she asked Bill Cox to come back into the leadership
circle to take on the roll of Show Chairman. Bill had continued to be a
member and attend club meetings, but he was starting his ascent into
the AFMS (the nationwide American Federation) leadership circles
because, in his mind, that was the last remaining mountain to climb.
Gene Shier was again the
Dealer Chairman (this would be his last year with the club). He abided
by the new Dealer Selection Policy regulations and submitted a list of
dealers to the Board for approval in February. However, there had not
really been time to set up the necessary processes required by these
new rules, so Gene had just made up a list. In the meantime, the Board
secretary (Frances Harris) had duly begun receiving and tabulating
requests for dealer space. This list would be used for the next show in
1979, using the full “dealer committee” as specified in the policy.
In my view, this show was
remarkable because it was unremarkable. By that I mean that it was the
first show since 1969 to attract less than 7,000 people (it had an
attendance of only 6,540). Bill Cox reported it actually was a good
show but that really bad thunderstorms during all three days were to
blame for the low attendance. However, I have a different suggestion:
perhaps the Intergem show, now having completed its second year in
Houston, was already having an adverse impact on our attendance.
I am supported in this
hypothesis by the show’s statistical data (see attached tables). The
shows in the 1970s only fell below 8,000 in attendance once, and that
was in 1970 when we barely missed that mark. On the other hand, after
the beginning of the Intergem shows in Houston, the club has gone above
8,000 only in 1982 (the National show), and in 1988, 1989, and 1990.
The average attendance from 1970–1977 was 9,115, whereas from 1978–1989
(excluding the National Show) it was 6,469. I believe this was due in
large part to the presence of Intergem.
The other notable item from
this year was that the club had decided to start looking for land on
which to build a clubhouse. Bill Cox, Tom DeHart, and Mitchell Peters
were on this committee. There were a few possibilities, but nothing the
club was seriously considering. In association with this idea, Bill
suggested the club think about a museum as a contribution to the
community. The Board liked the idea and promptly assigned Bill to be
chairman of a committee to look into this, with Sister Clement Johnson
(who was a Board member at the time) volunteering to be the museum’s
curator. However, this idea apparently went nowhere.
1979: This year was an interesting
one for the show. It was Ron Carman’s first year within the leadership
structure of the club (although he was the Mineral Section’s chairman
the previous year). It was the beginning of a long career with the
club, culminating in Show Chairman for our second National Show in
1994, after which he went on to become AFMS President in 2003.
The year started out
inauspiciously enough, with Ron duly making the requisite reservation
at the Shamrock before the end of 1978. He had tried to get the Grand
Ballroom, as had Bill Cox before him, and had a similar result
(failure). Nonetheless, the Board voted to have a total of 30 full
dealers at the show and five half-space dealers, for a total of 35
(similar to the number in 1977, except that they had the Grand Ballroom
that year for the Federation show). I’m not exactly sure where they
thought they were going to fit all these dealers, but that’s what they
voted to allocate. Of note is that Sister Clement Johnson was the
Dealer Chairman this year, representing the first year since 1973 when
someone other than Bill Cox or Gene Shier was Dealer Chairman.
Things proceeded well through
the spring with Herb Duke offering to let us sell GemBrite at the
Intergem show (we politely declined), and Bill Cox being nominated to
be the Show Chairman for the 1982 National Show. He accepted and
immediately started working on initial preparations. By September he
had the Astrohall reserved for June of 1982, and in October he convened
a planning meeting for the preliminary 1982 National Show Committee.
However, come summer things
started to unravel for young Ron. He already had a rather rocky
relationship with the Shamrock because he felt they treated the club
like second-rate citizens. Then, in June he received a letter from them
saying that the Shamrock would not be available for the weekend he
reserved. Apparently, we hadn’t signed a contract for that year’s
reservation, and they didn’t have a deposit from us (oops!). So,
because of one reason or another, they had double-booked the weekend we
wanted. To compound the problem, it was too late to change our show
dates. Things were definitely looking bad for the 1979 Show Committee.
But blessings come in many
disguises. The Shamrock, by kicking us out of their hotel, actually did
us a favor by forcing a reluctant club to do what it should have done
at least eight years before—find another location to hold the show.
Somebody had mentioned to Dealer Chairman Sister Clement that the
University of Houston (U of H) Hofheinz Pavilion might be a place to
look into. Thus, she and Ron Carman immediately went to look it over
and have a meeting with the facilities manager. They were suitably
impressed and went back to the Board to report their findings. The
Board promptly voted to approve the Hofheinz as a show locality for
1979.
Now, to understand the oddness
of having a show in the Hofheinz Pavilion, you have to first understand
that it is an arena for the men’s and women’s U of H Cougar basketball
teams. Thus, it has a wooden floor, 8,000 seats ringing it in theater
fashion, and an upper court with refreshment stands, luxury suites, and
offices. We used the entire upper concourse for the main part of the
show and tried various plans to make use of the lower floor.
Thus, in 1979 the dealers, ID
service, and working exhibits were upstairs on the main concourse. The
case exhibits were downstairs on the basketball court. Of course, the
first year everyone was finding out what works and what doesn’t work.
It turned out that there were a lot of complaints about having to walk
up and down the stairs to get from the exhibits to the dealers. Plus,
running electricity to the exhibits was a real pain. In fact the whole
setup strained the capabilities of the facility electricians. This
arrangement would be changed for the next show.
The show went off as well as
could be hoped considering the location was changed three months prior
to the show. Of course, attendance was not great (5,450), nor would
anyone expect it to be. You can imagine the fretting publicity chairman
Earl Nelson did over having to completely revamp all the publicity
materials and submit them on such short notice. Property Cochairmen Tom
DeHart and Jerry Grimes had to redesign the floor plan from scratch and
get a handle on the electrical arrangements, and Dealer Chairman Sister
Clement Johnson had to notify all the dealers of the change in venue
and give them directions.
1980: This year started out with
quite a bang. Literally. An auto shop that was adjacent to the
clubhouse on Alder blew up in January, causing the common wall to
collapse and the roof to cave in. Then fire swept through both.
Clubhouse chairman Tom DeHart worked overtime through the entire
episode and for months afterwards. Many club members came quickly to
help save all our equipment and move it to a hastily-rented storage
shed. In fact, due to the quick action of so many club members, we
apparently didn’t lose any equipment whatsoever. This is a real
testament to the devotion of our club members.
The Board had to move quickly.
Several club members fanned out over the area to find potential
clubhouse locations. At the Board meeting in February (held in the
Garden Center), President Sister Clement Johnson, Kris Wittlinger, and
Tom DeHart presented details of a warehouse near Bissonnet and
Hillcroft. It was a building in the Ashcroft Industrial Park on 7329
Ashcroft. It was a bit more expensive than the Alder clubhouse
($425/month versus $250/month), but it was the best option they could
find on short notice. And it wasn’t a bad place either—it had a room
for the shop and another for meetings. It was approved by the Board and
by the club at the February General Meeting.
The Ashcroft quarters would
become our clubhouse for the next five years. At the March Board
meeting, Tom DeHart was given authorization to spend as much or all of
the preliminary insurance disbursement ($1,500) on whatever he needed
at the new building. By April, he had the new clubhouse livable and the
Board started meeting there. The remainder of the insurance claim money
would come later.
This calamity reinforced a
growing perception that we needed to find our own clubhouse. In May, a
building fund was created as a separate bank account. Any donation
could be earmarked for the building fund if desired. As a result, this
fund was continuously increased over the next few years.
Despite these distractions,
show preparations proceeded as normal. Numerous discussions were held
with Herb Duke by various people (Kris Wittlinger, Al Police, Sister
Clement). The details are not reported, but they most certainly were
concerning his delicate balance between keeping us mollified and taking
over the Houston show market. We were obviously beginning to see this
because we declined the invitation to participate in his show this year.
But several changes were
occurring. Ruth Hammett was starting up a new Youth Section with help
from Consie and Dalton Prince. Steve Blyskal got the idea to have a
Swap Area from the Clear Lake show, and he convinced the Show Committee
to begin one. And this year saw Yvonne Dobson start on the Show
Publicity Committee as Cochairperson with Earl Nelson. This event is
notable for the simple reason that Yvonne would end up being involved
in publicity much of the decade. Her contribution to the show was
immense, since several of our best shows in this period can be
correlated to her involvement on the publicity committee.
Ron Carman was Show Chairman
for a second year and applied his experiences from the first year to
make this year better. All case exhibits were put on the upper floor
with the dealers and exhibitors so people wouldn’t have to walk up and
down the stairs to see them. Steve Blyskal’s Swap Area was the only
thing on the basketball court, which gave them plenty of space. Dealer
chairperson Ruth Hammett had about the same number of dealers as in
1979, and program chairman Dr. Al Kidwell had an array of interesting
talks lined up for the show.
This, by the way, was becoming
a regular feature of the show—a full program schedule so people could
attend talks as well as see exhibits and visit dealers. Dr. Kidwell was
responsible for the programs during the Federation show in 1977.
However, upon our move to the Hofheinz in 1979, he expanded it
considerably because he had the use of rooms in which to hold these
lectures. Dr. Kidwell continued supervising the annual show programs
for several years, including for the National Show in 1982.
The improvements mentioned
above were all evident in the bottom line. Attendance increased to
7,558 (highest in three years) and profits climbed to $6,659, which
just barely edged out 1975 as the most profitable show ever held to
that point. I’m sure everyone was quite happy to be having a
successful, stable show once again.
1981: The two main preoccupations
during 1981 were Herb Duke (again) and the National Show in 1982. Bill
Cox had suggested in late 1980 that the 1981 and 1982 Show Committees
be combined for more efficient planning. The Board agreed to this, so
the 1981 Show Committee regularly met in combination with the 1982
committee. The 1982 Dealer Chairman (Art Smith) presented a list of
dealers for the National Show as early as April for Board approval. It
was decided that in addition to Art’s dealers, all the 1981 dealers
would automatically get invitations. This began adding up to a large
number of dealers—exactly what Bill Cox’s plans were for the National
Show.
Show and Board positions were
similar to those in 1980. Ron Carman went from Vice President and Show
Chairman to President, Ruth Hammett continued being Dealer Chairperson,
and Yvonne Dobson added Vice Presidency and Show Chairpersonship to her
Publicity Chairpersonship. So the 1981 show benefited from having Ron’s
experience at making the Hofheinz work for us the previous two years
and from Bill Cox putting his energies into our first-ever National
Show the following year.
The result was a show very
similar to the previous show—and with the successful results of that
show as well. Steve Blyskal reported that his Swap Area, now in its
second year, was very successful. Dr. Kidwell’s programs also went
well. There were 65 case exhibits for this show, 34 of which were
competitive.
Farewell to the ID Service: In Part
3 of this history, the ID Service is in the twilight of its long and
productive life. In 1977, the service celebrated 10 years of existence
in conjunction with the Federation show that year. However, the
departure of Ed Pedersen in 1979 was a significant loss. He essentially
helped run the mineral side of the ID service so Irene could
concentrate on the fossil side. (Gemstone ID was abandoned due to the
difficulty of finding qualified gemologists, and the unfortunate
reality was that people would buy gemstones from dealers and
immediately take them to the gemologist to verify their ID and value.)
So in 1978 Linda Northcote agreed to help run the mineral side of the
ID Service. She would also perform that task in 1979 with Gus and
Frances Lindveit assisting on fossils. Things went smoothly because
there was a core of experts that had been in the Service for many
years, such as Dr. Charles Riley, Theo Miller, Dr. Al Kidwell, Dr.
Russell Jeffords, (all from Esso Production Research), Dr. Dick Zingula
(Humble Oil), Dr. Elbert King (U of H Geology Dept. Chairman), as well
as our own members, Art Smith and Linda Northcote.
By 1980, Irene was again
running the ID Service with the help of Jim and Terry Weedin. They were
very busy at the show but complained (as had Linda two years earlier)
of kids bringing grab bags over for identification so they could use
them in their rock kits. This was not supposed to be the idea behind
the ID Service. Concurrent to this, the Mineral and Fossil Sections
were mature enough to handle identifications on their own (especially
since people from those Sections were also doing duty in the ID Service
booth). Too, these Sections had their booths relatively close to the ID
Service (especially at the Shamrock where they were cramped for space)
and thus the distinction became even more muddied. Over time, this
issue grew into a minor skirmish.
By 1981, things were
definitely winding down. Only 582 identifications were tabulated, which
is suspicious because this booth had averaged over 2,000 for many
years. I’m not sure whether the advertising was not sufficient, the
experts were not tabulating their identifications, or the Sections were
starting to provide this service. Perhaps all three were happening at
the same time. But regardless, the 1982 National Show Committee
discussed the issue and decided that they would not have a separate ID
booth. Instead, the Sections would officially be responsible for this
service. And it has been that way ever since.
It was a good run, lasting for
14 years. During this time, the ID Service made a valuable contribution
to the appeal of our show and club. It helped put us on the map and
demonstrated that we do provide worthwhile benefit to the community.
And it all grew out of a desire by Irene Offeman to identify the kinds
of minerals and fossils we normally collect, and to pass that
information on to our club and the general public. It was a wonderful
idea, and for this we all owe her our thanks.
The 1982
AFMS National Show: Bill
Cox had been working on plans for this show since he was appointed 1982
Show Chairman back in March of 1979. By September of that year he
already had reserved the Astrohall for this show. As discussed above,
the 1981 and 1982 Show Committees met in combined fashion so that
following the 1981 show (in September) they already had a plan for the
National Show and were in the middle of implementing it.
Figure 1:
Patch commemorating the 1982 National Show
One of Bill Cox’s fundamental
philosophical tenets was that we had the capability to be a larger and
more prominent club. He lived this philosophy in his personal life as
he climbed through the regional Federation (SCFMS Vice President,
President: 1976, 1977) and then through the national Federation (AFMS
officer, culminating with President: 1978-1984). Thus, he was chosen to
be Show Chairman for the National Show because it fit perfectly with
his abundant experience and his vision. In addition he was a CPA with
his own business, so his budgets were always fiscally sound.
So, logically, the “Bill Cox
National Show Plan” was simply to have the biggest and best show the
HGMS and AFMS had ever seen. His first mark was dealers, since he had
been Dealer Chairman numerous times in the 1970s. Thus, his plan
required that we have over 100 dealers at the show, a number that
included about two dozen wholesale dealers (which was new to the club
at this time). Everyone told him that it couldn’t be done, because this
was a club that was accustomed to having 16–19 dealers at the Shamrock
and was just now starting to have 30–32 dealers at the Hofheinz. But
Bill was having none of that. In March of 1981, Dealer Chairman Art
Smith presented 90 dealers to the Board for approval. In November he
mailed out contracts to 101 dealers. In the end, 60 full-space, 21
half-space, 11 demo, and 27 wholesale dealers were at the show, a total
of 109 dealers.
Now an aggressive plan such as
this is extremely dependent on attracting a sufficient number of people
to the show so that the customer-to-dealer ratio doesn’t plummet (see
my discussion on this in the Epilog of Part 2). So Yvonne Dobson, in
her third year as Publicity Chairman (and, by the way, was also
President of the club this year!), stepped up to the plate and showed
that she had learned well from her accumulated experience as well as
her mentorship with Irene Offeman. The statistics tell the story:
33,000 fliers mailed (a list of 12,000 names came from Herb Duke to
supplement our own show list), info sent out to 93 newspapers, 26
magazines, 40 radio stations, six TV stations, and 57 libraries. Total
expenditure for this effort was $9,700, $4,000 of which was for
newspaper advertisements. This was a very large sum for those days,
where the typical publicity budget was on the order of $2,000. However,
in this case the end justified the means, because 10,278 people
attended the show, up from about 7,600 the previous two years. To this
day, the 1982 show stands second in the list of top show attendances,
edging out the 1977 Federation show by about 200 and only being beaten
by the infamous 1971 show.
Another crucial component of
any Federation show is the Federation activities. For this, Bill relied
on Ruth Hammett, who had been Dealer Chairman in 1980 and 1981, was
Vice President this year, and soon to be President for two straight
years following this show. Ruth, assisted by Janelle Walker, had the
unenviable task of coordinating eight meetings that required breakfast
or lunch and seven more that required coffee and donuts. In those days
a National Federation Show lasted a full week. Registrations were
conducted continuously from Monday to Thursday, the first three days of
which were Federation meetings. The show itself was a four-day show,
starting on Thursday with hours of 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. except on Sunday
when it closed at 6 p.m.. The official hotel was the Astro Village
Hotel, where we had 250 rooms reserved and had arranged for a bus to
ferry people between the hotel and the Astrohall.
Figure 2: Ribbon cutting at the
opening ceremonies. From left to
right in front
are: Bill Cox (Show Chairman and AFMS Board member), Emerson Tucker
(SCFMS
President, from Lubbock G&MS), Barbara Gross (AFMS President),
Yvonne
Dobson (HGMS President, Assistant Show Chairperson, Publicity Committee
Chairperson). The scissors in Bill Cox’s hand are the same as was used
in the
clubhouse opening (Figure 10). |
Figure 3:
Yvonne Dobson (left) and Bill Cox (right) at
the welcoming ceremony in one of the meeting rooms. Dr. Dick Zingula is
visible
in the back (with grey beard). |
 Figure 4: Editor’s
breakfast. From left to right in the front half
of the table
are: Dr. Harold Dobson (Yvonne’s husband), Dalton Prince (holding up
his ham
slice), Ron Carman in front, Yvonne’s empty chair (she’s taking the
picture),
Linda Northcote. |
Competitive and noncompetitive
exhibits were handled by Ron Carman. He had a total of 84 competitive
and 41 noncompetitive exhibits, totaling 125 cases. This required the
services of 46 judges (each was paid $50 for their services and given
glazed, ceramic armadillos made by the club). The large number of cases
caused a minor “case panic.” Thus, we had 20 extra cases made and sent
out appeals to various regional clubs asking to borrow extra cases.
Programs were again handled by
Dr. Al Kidwell. They were presented in three separate rooms; one for
general lectures, one for the Faceter’s Guild lectures, and the third
was his own creation, the “Rocksey Theater.” The Theater showed 25
movies, most averaging about 30 minutes long. Twenty-six program
lectures were conducted, including an Arkansas Minerals Symposium on
Saturday afternoon.
Special exhibits, handled by
Sister Clement Johnson, included gem clocks from Cartier’s, oriental
malachite and lapis lazuli carvings from the Lizzadro Museum of
Lapidary Art, and (of all people) Herb Duke showing gems and artifacts
from India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. Working exhibits, handled by Tom
Wright, included “singing rocks” (chimes made from slabs), faceting
demos, silversmithing demos, and turquoise and opal carving demos.
Steve Blyskal reported that
his Swap Area, now in its third year, was very successful. He had 22
tables and did almost $2,000 worth of business. He was not so thrilled
with his out-of-the-way location, but there wasn’t much that could be
done due to the scope of the other parts of the show.
No mention of credits for
putting on this show would be complete without recognizing the
important task Tom DeHart had as Properties Chairman (in addition to
his position as Clubhouse Chairman). Tom had to lay out the floor plan,
determine how many tables we could put in the space we had available,
and how to allocate those tables to participants. He then had to
supervise the property company (Freeman) during set-up and try to get
enough electricity into the areas that needed it. This ended up being a
real pain because our requirements were greater than what was available
in the Astrohall.
The end goal of Bill Cox’s
plan was to make enough profit to move us as far as possible towards
our goal of acquiring our own clubhouse. Having over 100 dealers was a
bold move, but he backed it up with over 10,000 attendees. The
resulting customer-to-dealer ratio was 94, which is just about as
picture-perfect as one could possibly hope. He also spent just over
$60,000 putting on this show, about four times as much as normal in
those days. But the bottom line was that his show produced about
$26,000 in profit and a respectable profit margin of 43%. Not bad. The
club would be very thankful for his success in another two years.
1983-1985—Show Hangover and a New Venue:
Ruth Hammett took the Presidency in 1983 with the statement in her
banquet speech and in her January President’s Message: “We have reached
the top of the mountain. Now what?” She answers her own question by
saying: “I have set for myself two mountains….The first is to start
earnestly looking for a new clubhouse of our very own…..My next
mountain … is one with the youth of Houston.” She will see both
mountains climbed in the next few years.
In January the club realized
they would have to buy an existing building rather than vacant land in
which to build a clubhouse. In February a Building Committee was
established composed of Bill Cox, Harold and Yvonne Dobson, and Sid and
Billie Wald. They were given a three-year term and the commission to
find a clubhouse. It was tough going, but in mid-1985 they would have
success. I will discuss their success in conjunction with the other
events of 1985.
Also in February, Ruth started
pursuing the establishment of a Youth Section in the club. For this she
gained the active support of Peg Wright and Consie Prince. On May 28,
12 youth gathered for a Saturday morning meeting at the clubhouse. They
decided to meet twice a month and learn cabbing and other techniques,
and to call themselves “The Pebble People.” And thus our newest Section
became a reality. Ruth continued to set up meetings and presentations
through the year, but Janelle Walker officially led this Section in
1984, Lexy Bieniek in 1985 and 1986, then the leadership returned to
Janelle for the remainder of the decade.
So, with a club that was
looking to capitalize on “reaching the summit” and yet having no choice
but to put on a show similar to what they had before “reaching the
summit,” Show Chairman Stan Madsen gave it his best shot. Dealer
Chairman Sam Koster got the requisite number of dealers, which this
year was increased to 42 with the official inclusion of 8 wholesale
dealers. These dealers were put on the basketball court, sharing it
with the Swap Area, so they could be well separated from the retail
dealers. Publicity Chairperson Yvonne Dobson churned out her usual
superb publicity, including a program that featured a closeup of a
cerussite crystal from the Sams Collection (this poster still hangs in
our clubhouse to this day). Ron Carman continued to supervise the
competitive and noncompetitive exhibits, but complained that the number
of exhibits was dropping substantially. He noted that this is a
nationwide trend. Compounding this, show attendance was again down to
the 6,000 level as was seen several years earlier.
In addition, the Hofheinz
management was slowly taking away rooms that had previously been
available for our programs, leaving us with a net smaller space at a
time when the club was definitely thinking bigger. An investigation
committee led by Ruth Hammett and Yvonne Dobson visited various
facilities, including the Astrohall and the downtown Albert Thomas
Convention Center. The Albert Thomas was accepted as the next show
venue. The Board then agreed to have 55 dealers, 12 of whom would be
wholesale.
The selection of the Albert
Thomas was a wonderful choice because it was a professional convention
facility. The shows immediately started being set up in our now
familiar configuration, with separate booths for each of the sections
(including the new Youth Section), Swap Area, exhibit cases, food
court, and an info booth at the front door. However, the steady
increase in number of dealers meant that the old style of having a
reserve list and then selecting which dealers to accept into the show
was now out the window. The Dealer Selection Committee now was only a
formality, adhered to because it was written into the policies of the
club. In actual fact, the Dealer Chairman and Assistant Dealer Chairman
were in an all-out search to find enough dealers to satisfy our dealer
numbers. This was not a problem as long as we could attract 6,000 or
more people to the show, because the target customer-to-dealer ratio of
100 means that we could have 60 dealers and still provide them with
enough income to make our show worthwhile.
However, storm clouds were
gathering on the horizon. The local economy was in a steady decline
mimicking the fortunes of the oil industry. In addition, Herb Duke
announced a second show in 1983, to be held in November. While this was
not in direct conflict with our show, it represented a steady sapping
of the dollars available for gem and mineral purchases. And on another
front, Ron Carman had arranged for another of Dick Zingula’s Uniform
Rules Seminars to be held in July. This seminar had to be cancelled
because not enough people had signed up. Thus ended an unbroken string
of seminars that had acted to progressively educate our members on the
fine art of competitive exhibiting.
There was also disturbing news
on the leadership front. Jim Botsford had just finished a two-year term
as Director when he accepted a nomination as Secretary in 1983. It
didn’t appear he did a very good job, because at the end of the year
President Ruth Hammett (who was a professional secretary as was Frances
Harris before her) had to reconstruct many of the minutes from her own
personal notes. Apparently ignoring this warning sign, the club allowed
him to be Show Chairman for 1984 because he had been Assistant Show
Chairman in 1983, where presumably he did a better job than he did as
Secretary. He served in this capacity until somewhere around February,
when he just disappeared. This left Assistant Show Chairman Tom Wright
to pick up the pieces and put on the best show he could. Then, when it
came time to choose a Chairman for the 1985 show, the Board made it
official policy that an Assistant Show Chairman would be chosen at the
same time as the Show Chairman, and that this position was a training
ground for the Assistant to take the Show Chairman position the
following year. In 1985, Ron Carman went through the official procedure
of adding this language to the HGMS by-laws.
The 1984 show went off well,
with the new hall receiving good reviews. Attendance was at a similar
level as the previous year (just above 6,000), but this in itself was
not bad news since it was the first year at a new locality. The
increase in dealers to 55 meant that profit increased substantially to
$18,464 while the customer-to-dealer ratio was still a healthy 108.
1985—Houston, we have a clubhouse:
All other events of 1985 were overshadowed by the purchase of a
building at 10805 Brooklet. The building was found by Yvonne Dobson and
presented to the Board in July. A special Board meeting was convened on
July 23 to consider its purchase. It looked like a good clubhouse,
having 4750 sq. ft. and only requiring $40,000 down, but it would need
considerable modification for use as a clubhouse, and it was located
quite some distance out of town (by the standards of that time).
However, the Board approved and gave Bill Cox authority to negotiate
with the owner. Bill did so, and in August agreed to purchase terms of
$138,000 with $35,000 down and a mortgage of $103,000 for 15 years at
10%. (Note: At some point this agreement was changed to 10 years with a
balloon payment).
Starting on September 28 and
lasting through the fall, the club came together to help renovate the
new clubhouse. Electricity and air conditioning had to be modified,
walls torn down and new ones framed, plumbing run, sheetrock hung and
plastered. It was a tremendous amount of work, but this was OUR
clubhouse, and by God, we were going to make sure it got done. A large
number of volunteers donated their time and talent to pull this off,
and my compliments go out to each and every one who helped to make our
clubhouse what it is today.
Although the new clubhouse
took center stage, we actually did have a show that year, although it
was held in late August because the Albert Thomas management bumped us
off of our normal date in early September. Interestingly, Bob Cross was
the Show Chairman with Jerry Foster as his assistant. Attendance was a
bit less than the previous year, but profit was way down. This was due
to rapidly increasing publicity costs and also an unexpectedly high
electricity bill ($3,000 higher than the previous year). This
understandably caused much concern among the Board, who went back to
the electrical contractor to find out if the bill was correct. It was.
Because of this problem, the Board voted to add restrictions on
electrical usage to the dealer contracts. (These restrictions exist to
this day). This change to dealer contracts succeeded in bringing
electricity usage down to a reasonable level in 1986.
1986-1989—Change in Mindset: With a
new clubhouse came a new attitude. This attitude did not just
materialize out of thin air, but was the result of realities on the
ground. Namely, we now had a clubhouse that needed funds for survival.
We had a note to pay, utility bills, insurance, and clubhouse
modifications that continued for many years.
So what was this new mindset?
Simply to “maximize profit.” While today we might not think this was
such a big deal, remember that this was a club that previously had
almost no expenses to cover and no goals to work for. They simply
existed to have fun, learn new lapidary techniques, broaden their
existing knowledge of minerals, fossils, and jewelry making, and to
exhibit their work. Bill Cox expended a lot of effort trying to change
this lack of foresight. Now it was a reality.
Of course, the clubhouse
attracted the lion’s share of attention in this period. In January,
President Tom Wright gave the club the choice of meeting at the new
clubhouse (for the General meeting) or the Garden Center, and they
chose to continue meeting at the Garden Center (the Sections by then
were all meeting at the clubhouse). The General Meeting began meeting
at the clubhouse in early 1987.
Also on their minds was the
fact that the mortgage agreement called for a balloon payment at the
end of the 10-year note. Several were concerned about this, including
long-time treasurer Derry Gartig and Director (and assistant Dealer
Chairman) Doug Troeder. These two proposed starting a building
endowment fund that would be tax exempt. The fund would be used in 1995
to pay off the balloon payment.
The show was run by Ron Carman and
Stan Madsen in both 1986 and 1987. Ed Raines and Doug Troeder were the
Dealer Chairmen, with Doug being the Dealer Chairman in 1987. The
primary difference with this show from the 1985 show was the issue of
expenses. The concern over high electricity and publicity expenses in
1985 caused Ron to slash expenses anywhere he could. The primary victim
of this slashing was publicity. Debbie Cox (Director and BBG Editor)
handled publicity with the assistance of Ben Noble. Ron gave her a
budget of $5,500 (substantially less than in 1985), but she only spent
$2,700. Part of the problem was that all the ticket stubs from 1985
were accidentally thrown into the trash, so our mail-out database was a
bit scant.
The result was a show that
slashed expenses by about $9,400 over 1985 levels. This reduction in
expenses went straight to the bottom line: Profit increased by about
$10,400 (helped substantially by an increase in dealer fees).
Unfortunately, the public did not cooperate—attendance dropped by 1500
over 1985, which had already dropped from 1984. The reasons for this
are many-fold: Publicity was scant, the weather was bad with lots of
rain, and oil prices crashed to $12/barrel in March from a high of
$33/barrel in September of 1985, resulting in the loss of 175,000
oil-related jobs in Texas. This event is known among the oil industry
as “the crash of 1986.” Layoffs were in the thousands, even tens of
thousands in the larger oil companies, throughout the spring and
summer. I hardly think a substantial portion of our core audience was
thinking about spending money on minerals, fossils, or jewelry in early
September.
1987: The primary item of business
in 1987 was to find a new show location. The Albert Thomas Convention
Center was slated to close as a show venue because the near-by George
R. Brown Convention Center was nearing completion. The Board searched
for alternate venues, eliminated the Astrohall once again due to price,
and finally settled on the George R. Brown in the summer. President
Dalton Prince handled the negotiations with the City of Houston, and
arrived at a very favorable rate due to the fact that we are a
nonprofit organization.
Also important was the fact
that Yvonne Dobson once again became the publicity chairman and
proceeded to arrange a large amount of exposure for the club. She and
Show Chairman Stan Madsen went before the Board in June requesting an
additional $3,000 to spend on a series of spots with Channel 13 (ABC
affiliate). The Board agreed, and Yvonne received a total of 21 spots
for her efforts. In addition, she got spots on Channel 2 (NBC
affiliate), radio station KPRC, Houston Home and Garden magazine, and
several public libraries. Total cost for her publicity: $12,600, almost
$10,000 more than the year previous and $4,000 more than 1985.
The result of this fantastic publicity
effort: An attendance that was almost double that of the
previous year (6,458), which in turn resulted in a profit figure that
was only $3,000 less than the artificially high 1985 level. This is
actually more critical than it might first appear because not only does
the club need to make an adequate amount of profit, but each of the 60
dealers in our show also needs to be kept happy. And they will be kept
happy as long as the customer-to-dealer ratio is at an acceptable level
(100+), which it was due to the increase in attendance (108).
1988-1989—New Venue (again): As the
year started out, the club was continuing to think of ways to make
money because it had its eye on the 1995 balloon payment for the
clubhouse. The Building Endowment Fund was being promoted as a way to
build up a reserve cash supply. In addition, the club decided that what
it really needed was another National Show just like its last one.
Thus, the Board voted in January to make a bid for the next one (one
was being hosted this year by the SCFMS in Shreveport, LA). So Bill Cox
was approached to talk to the AFMS and see if we could put in a bid.
The AFMS agreed, and the bid was accepted at the SCFMS show in August.
And the year was convenient also: 1994 was just one year prior to the
due date of our balloon payment.
As an added benefit, our move
to the George R Brown enabled us to add even more dealers to the show
(read: make more money). Dealer Chairman Ruth Hammett had 77 dealers in
1988 and 83 dealers in 1989. But as I have discussed before, basic
economic principles dictate that a rise in number of dealers
necessarily means that more attendees are required in order to keep the
customer-to-dealer ratio at optimal levels. Thus, Publicity Chairman
Yvonne Dobson needed to work her usual wonders. The Board approved
giving her $13,000, slightly more than she used in 1987, with which to
work these wonders. She did not disappoint either: Show attendance was
increased by 1,600 over 1987, totaling 8,061. These attendance figures
were back to the great numbers seen in the 1970s. The difference was
that with 77 dealers, the customer-to-dealer ratio was at an optimal
105, unlike in the 1970s when it was 300–600.
The other major show-related
event of 1988 was the reinstatement of the Swap Area. It had been
killed by the Board, over the protests of the Mineral Section, in late
1986 because of a variety of complaints from dealers as well as club
members. But in February Tim Smith presented the Board with a revised
set of rules governing Swap Area use and volunteered to be the Swap
Area Chairman. All the usual complaints were aired at this meeting and
were rebutted by Tim using a document prepared by the Mineral Section.
Complaints were centered on a perceived competition with dealers,
perceived exclusive use by the Mineral Section, the location within the
show interfering with dealers, and a lack of effective leadership to
run the booth.
Tim’s rebuttal stated that the
Swap Area is in competition with dealers, but the money gets recycled
back to the dealers’ pockets because all purchases must be made in swap
dollars which, in turn, can only be spent with dealers. Exclusive use
by the Mineral Section stems from the prohibition of selling finished
jewelry. (The reason given had something to do with tax liability,
which I am still unclear about). But regardless, faceted or rough
stones, polished or unpolished cut material, and fossils can all be
sold in the Swap Area. Location was a problem at various times in the
past, but became a non-issue because the George R. Brown had so much
space that it could be located in the back well away from dealers. With
Tim’s assurances of effective leadership by himself, the Board somewhat
reluctantly agreed to reinstate the Swap Area for the 1988 show.
The other potential issue
beginning to surface was that the show was now becoming so complex and
such a large effort that nobody wanted to take leadership positions on
the Show Committee. (Sound familiar? It should because the situation
has not changed to this day.) Ron Carman was the only person who would
volunteer, as he had for the past two years (along with Stan Madsen),
and thus he got stuck with the job in both 1988 and 1989. And he did it
by himself—nobody would even volunteer to be Co-chairman (sound
familiar?), although they managed to get Ben Noble to volunteer to help
with the Assistant position in 1989 with the proviso that he would not
be required to take the Chairman position the following year (again,
sound familiar?).
So, the 1989 show was almost a
carbon copy of the 1988 show, which is not a bad thing: Attendance of
8,100 with 83 dealers, producing a customer-to-dealer ratio of a
picture-perfect 98, profit of $30,000 and a profit margin of 74%.
There’s not an organization in the world that would hesitate even a
second before proclaiming this an enviously successful show.
But the issues facing our club
needed to be addressed because they would not simply vanish into thin
air: Attendance was not very good at the General Meetings now being
held at the new clubhouse in 1987 after 24 years at the Garden Center.
Ron Carman was not the “Show Committee Chairman for life,” so other
volunteer leaders would need to step forward. There was still a balloon
payment due in 1995 that the club was not making much progress toward
meeting despite their much touted Building Endowment Fund. In addition,
Yvonne Dobson’s valuable experience in the publicity field was
effectively lost following the 1989 show because of disagreements on
how to handle the show mailing list (in those days computers were still
a novelty, and Microsoft database managers were not as ubiquitous as
they are now).
And to cap it all off, Herb
Duke brought a third Intergem show into the Houston market in 1989. His
shows were now in January, May, and November. While this was still not
directly interfering with the run-up to our show, it nevertheless was
definitely taking a progressively larger share of the dollars available
for jewelry sales. Plus it was becoming even more difficult for the
public to tell the two shows apart; a problem that would only grow
worse in the coming decade.
Epilog: In looking at this decade,
it is an undisputable fact that the two most important events in the
life of our club, even to this day, occurred. First, we held our first
National Show in 1982. Because of the vision and financial wisdom of
Bill Cox, this show was outrageously successful and earned us national
accolades. It didn’t hurt that Bill was then a sitting officer on the
AFMS (the nationwide American Federation) Board. Conversely, I’m sure
the success of that show didn’t hurt his reputation, which would
culminate as AFMS President in 1984. The success of that show was such
that it produced a profit that was about four times our normal show
profit. In addition, this profit would represent a little less than
half of the total financial holdings of the club at the time we
purchased our clubhouse.
Which brings us to the second
most important event in the life of our club—the purchase of a
clubhouse in 1985. To this day, there are only three clubs in Texas
that have their own clubhouse (Arlington, Austin, and us), so I cannot
emphasize enough the importance of this. It allows us to have a
building of our own that houses a meeting room, shop, classroom,
library, kitchen, offices, and storage. Imagine how difficult our job
would be as a club if we didn’t have our clubhouse. Only after you
fully visualize not having a clubhouse can you appreciate how much we
can, and are, doing because we have a clubhouse.
Despite the various problems
and headaches involved in putting on a large and complex show such as
had evolved by that time (by a volunteer club, I might add), the shows
produced during this era were “by the book” as far as show economics
were concerned. The entire goal in producing a show is to put on the
best show the organization is capable of, so as to attract the maximum
number of attendees, and then stock the show with however many retail
vendors that can be kept happy by the number of attendees. That dealer
number is easy to calculate—the target customer-to-dealer ratio is
approximately 100. This approximate C/D ratio was held throughout most
of the decade.
In general, the club at this
time did the best it could with the resources it had available to it,
and the results were quite impressive.
Acknowledgements: Numerous current and former club members
contributed to this article. I thank the following individuals for
their extensive help: Art Smith, Ron Carman, Yvonne Dobson, Bill Cox,
Derry Gartig, Tom Wright, Steve Blyskal, Irene Offeman, Tom DeHart,
Anne Frank, and Tim Smith. Even though I did not speak to them
personally, I am indebted to the contributions of JoAnn Gartig for her
compilation of attendance records through the 1980s and Frances Harris
for her immaculate minutes of Board meetings from 1977–1980 and 1982,
and her similarly immaculate records of all National Show Committee
meetings in 1981 and 1982.
