2022 ANNUAL CONVENTION REPORT
By Lewis Brittain
The 2022 Annual Convention was HVRA’s premier event for the year. It was a two and a half day event held at the Houston Marriott North, as it has been held for several previous years. Generally the service has been excellent, and they certainly didn’t let us down this year. There were a total of 77 attended convention registrations, with 462 lots spread over two days of auctions. There was an excellent presentation of the development of the Atwater-Kent company by Jeff Heller, some awesome displays in the Old Equipment Contest organized by Tom Taylor, and a fine banquet featuring guest speaker Ted Oberg of Channel 13, attended by 62 members and guests. The event was concluded with a Sunday morning swap meet. The auction went exceptionally well thanks to the efforts of Joe Gernand and handlers Ron Carroll, John Derry, John Given, Logan Hardy, Gilbert Hedge, Kayden Hedge, Wayne Jones, John Schmitt, Mike Slovan, Jimmie Stewart, and Pat Zapalac. Steve Scheel devoted a tremendous amount of effort, both mentally and physically, to getting the estate items to the auction. Despite recent health concerns President Bill Werzner was able to move through the great number of lots with his usual finesse, with occasional relief provided by myself. At the auction table were Treasurer Brett Martin, Ron Soyland, and Carolyn Given recording the proceedings. Special thanks to Gail Sirkin, Lois Janssen, and Fatima Brittain for their help at the registration table and their assistance with improving my organization skills. And extra special thanks for Jerry Sirkin who served as my mentor and motivator throughout the process. A big thanks to Steven Pena for taking photos of this event, including individual contest photos. And so many others contributed who may have not received mention by name. Unfortunately prices were quite low this year and there were very few high value items in the auction. The low prices were offset by a high volume of donated items. Overall auction sales were $12,462. In addition to the auction net there were the registration fees and banquet tickets, and a few other small income items like swap meet table rentals and sales, raffle tickets, and hat sales, for a net income of $7185. Overall expenses were $8367, for a net loss of $1182.
CONVENTION CONTEST UPDATE:
OLD EQUIPMENT CONTEST CHAIRMAN TOM TAYLOR
I want to extend a word of THANKS to the many that turned out as exhibitors in the Vintage Radio Contest of our annual HVRA Convention. Your participation went a long way towards reestablishing a long overdue ‘normal’ for our club and for those in attendance. The recent two years of our lives saw many changes, few of which were welcomed. However, with 33 exhibits filling all categories, but two, there was much to enjoy and consider. Perhaps we will remember this time as a mark to exceed. Perhaps we will just remember it as a look towards what we can do to reaffirm and maintain our new normal. Thanks to the volunteer judges: John Schmitt, Gilbert Hedge, Steve Scheel, and Jeff Heller. And finally a special thanks to those that brought more than one exhibit. I sincerely hope others learned from his rewards. Below. And throughout this GL are some photos of winners.
