April 9, 2016 Meeting of the NJ/NY Costumers’ Guild (aka, the Sick Pups)

Meeting held at Diane’s house, Kendall Park, NJ

Meeting Minutes presented by Tina Connell

Attendees: Diane Kovalcin (hosting), Byron & Tina, Kathy, Rich & Stephanie, Marcy, and Faith.

Meeting was called to (dis)order at 3:30 pm., following the smocking workshop, which was led by Diane. Tina, Faith, Kathy, and Rich participated.

Official Stuph:

Minutes: The minutes were approved as written.

President’s Report: Kathy will be representing the Pups at the annual ICG meeting. She reminded us about proxies for those who can’t attend, and gave a copy of the proxy form to Faith.

Treasurer: We finally have a checking account. $470.29 has been deposited in the account. Marcy held back $100 so she could send it to the ICG for dues. Regarding the GEL: she said that the IRS had the wrong EIN number for us. She has talked to Bruce at the ICG. Once she’s sure that the error has been straightened out she will file the 990-N.

Byron reported that the Masquerade Runners Special Interest Group (Hey Everyone, Let’s Put on a Show [HELPS]) has been approved by the ICG. Its purpose is to improve the art and science of running masquerades and other stage events. The group is in the process of creating By-Laws, etc. There will be a program item about the new SIG at CC 34, on Saturday at noon.

Faith told us that a leather store in Manhattan is going out of business, and is having a sale. Aaron Gross Leather Co., at 154 W. 27^th St. There’s a link on her FB page.

Tina passed around two new books on fiber arts that she had gotten from Carole Parker. She also showed off the new metallic flame-pattern fabric she recently found.

Kathy showed us a new Dr. Who coloring book, and an orchid made of seed beads. She also showed us some photos of an 1873 wedding dress and dresses from the ‘50s, which are part of the collection of the Huntington [LI] Historical Society. There will be an exhibit of ‘Wedding Days and Wedding Nights’ in May. Volunteers are trying to catalogue their collection, but it’s a bit difficult, since pieces were indexed using different methods and catalog numbers over the years.

Diane and Kathy will be going to see ‘Richard II’ with David Tennant performing.

Recent Cons:

Lunacon (3/18 - 20): Byron said that the last number he heard was that they had 410 on-site, plus other memberships who didn’t attend. He ran the at-the-con part of the Masquerade. There were 13 entries. Syd Weinstein did the video. Syd also helped to provide music for contestants who didn’t have sound. Danielle, Heidi, Joni and Susan were judges, and Mike Ventrella was MC. Debi Chowdhury was recruited at the last minute to serve as Green Room Manager; Tina as usual ran the repair table. Tina commented that a couple of the contestants didn’t show up until minutes before the masquerade started. The ballroom was filled for the show. The ‘Best in Show - Workmanship’ award for ‘Furiosa’ went to a Novice.

Diane said that the con put her on tons of panels and two workshops, on Friday and Saturday.

Rich commented that Lunacon was in direct competition this year with a Dr. Who event at Hunt Valley.

Byron said it looks like there will be another Lunacon next year.

LI Geek Con (4/2 - 3), Holtsville, NY. Kathy said it was a small con, around 300 attendees. She didn’t go last year. Gil Gerard (Buck Rogers), Greg Grunberg (Heroes and SW: The Force Awakens) were among the featured guests. She said that there were several tracks of programming. It’s run by the same people as LI Who.

Byron commented on a few upcoming museum exhibitions. There’s a large Vigee Le Brun exhibit at the Met, running through May 15^th. She was essentially a court painter. The exhibit has paintings not only from the French royal court, but also other European courts and the Russian Imperial Court. Tina commented that she did amazing things with sheer and opulent fabrics – one could practically feel the rich velvets and laces in her paintings.

There are exhibits running at the Philadelphia Museum of Art featuring Modern African Fashion, African costume, and textiles. End dates are varied, between September ’16 and January ’17.

FIT will have an exhibit based on the idea of the uniform ‘Uniformity’ open from 5/20 to 11/19/16.

Costume-Con 34 (5/5 - 9) in Madison, WI. Kathy, Byron & Tina, and Lisa will be going. Rich said that the Hudson Valley Comic Con @ Gold’s Gym, LaGrange, NY is the same weekend.

Balticon 50 (5/27 - 30) This is their 50^th anniversary. The main hotel is sold out. Apparently overflow capacity is a problem due to a big convention at the convention center. Faith said that is the ICNA - the Islamic Circle of North America.

AnimeNext (6/10 - 12), Atlantic City, NJ: Diane said that Laura is one of their guests (Jojo Posing School).

Shore Leave (7/15 - 17) Hunt Valley, MD

MidAmeriCon II (WorldCon) (8/17 - 21), Kansas City, MO. Byron & Tina are driving to the con.

DragonCon (9/2 - 9/5, Labor Day weekend), Atlanta, GA: Diane is going. Faith would like to go, if possible. Diane said that there were 48,000 people there last year, and that one should skip the dealers’ room because it’s so crowded it’s impossible to move. They’ve got at least 6 hotels, expanding to 7 or 8, with shuttle buses.

Cloisters Medieval Festival (9/18) Fort Tryon Park, New York, NY Tina asked about crowds. Diane said if you get there early it’s pretty good.

Diane said that she thinks there will be a 50^th Anniversary of Star Trek event in NYC sometime in the fall.

Tina talked briefly about her trial of Library Thing. She was able to transfer the 410 books in her Readerware database without difficulty.

Faith talked about the ‘Join Me’ app, which can be used as well as Skype to have distant members ‘attend’ meetings. She said that the GCFCG uses it for meetings. ‘Join Me’ can also dial in to phones as well as computers. She said we should ask Judy Mitchell.

Byron said that when it’s convenient for Susan, we should ask her to move ‘active’ members (on our website) who no longer are, over to ‘inactive’ or vice-versa for inactive members who become active again.

7/9/16: Byron & Tina will host, probably at the usual Whippany, NJ location

8/27/16: Diane will host, Kendall Park, NJ

10/8/16: Diane said she thinks she’ll be able to host

12/3/16: Byron & Tina will host, location TBD

Meeting was adjourned (relapse into chaos) at 5:34 pm.