2013 Convention Report

by Bill Gowen, PF-706

(Click here to download this article as a PDF file.)

(Originally published in the May-June 2013 issue of Newsboy)

Near-perfect weather greeted Particular Friends as they descended on the Indianapolis area for "Race to Indy," the 49th Horatio Alger Society convention, May 2-5, 2013. Convention hosts Bob and Wendy Sipes chose the Holiday Inn Express in Greenwood, Indiana, as the location for the convention.

Longtime members will recall that Greenwood also where Partic'lar Friends met in 1991 for in the 27th convention, hosted by Bernie and Marcy Biberdorf. Then, as today, the booming suburb of Greenwood proved the ideal location — just minutes from downtown, and a short drive from Indianapolis International Airport.

The Holiday Inn Express also was ideal for our group, with a first-floor conference room that served as our meeting, auction and hospitality room, just across the hall from the hotel lobby and a dining area/lounge that offered generous complimentary breakfast selections daily. This lounge, with its big-screen TV, had plenty of room for us to relax and socialize around the clock. The hotel also featured an indoor swimming pool and exercise area.

Early arrivals included your editor, along with H.A.S. President Barry Schoenborn and Lynda Straus, who checked into the hotel on Wednesday afternoon. This intrepid threesome took advantage of the hotel's 15 percent discount at the nearby Fireside Brewhouse, which offered a menu featuring American, Italian, Southwestern and seafood entrees.

Thursday, May 2

Thursday morning was a time to relax and see the city, as Barry and Lynda were hosted on a quick tour of Indianapolis' historic sites by his colleagues from Wiley Publishing (producers of the "Books for Dummies" series, of which Barry has co-authored several titles).

At about 1 p.m., hosts Bob and Wendy Sipes arrived at the hotel to set up the hospitality area, with two tables soon full of registration materials and refreshments. As the afternoon progressed, attendees steadily arrived, many bringing books for the auction. A most pleasant surprise came when Chris and Doug DeHaan arrived from Michigan, bringing with them Carol and Milt Ehlert, along with Milt's large collection of dust-jacketed Algers as a donation for Friday's auction.

The annual Board of Directors meeting was held late Thursday afternoon, with items of business including the Treasurer's report, Executive Director's report, Newsboy Editor's report, and the nominating committee's report on candidates for three incoming directors. Also, future convention sites were discussed, and director Richard Hoffman of Washington, D.C., volunteered to host the 2014 convention in Annapolis, Maryland, which the directors accepted and forwarded to a vote of the membership at Friday's business meeting.

Thursday evening is traditionally "dinner on your own," and the group headed to various area restaurants, a list provided at the convention registration table.

Following dinner, it was time for preparing the auction materials. The two large collections, from Bernie Biberdorf (PF-524) and Alvin Funderburg (PF-1025), had already been entered into his computer by Bob Sipes, and the many boxes of books were opened and the books set up on tables in the conference room, along with 14 donated auction lots by Florence Ridderhof of Virginia, made available to the Society by Jack Bales (PF-258). Including the more than 100 additional auction lots brought by members to the convention, the consignment/donation auction consisted of some 325 lots.

Friday, May 3

Friday is traditionally the convention's busiest day. Following our free breakfast in the hotel lounge (the Board of Directors assembled for their traditional group breakfast), the attendees walked across the hall to the conference room and started to examine the auction materials, carefully arranged on tables circling the room.

Shortly before 9 a.m., host Bob Sipes made his welcoming remarks, followed by President Barry Schoenborn, the pair briefly outlining the day's activities. Meanwhile, the room was set up with a projector and screen for the morning presentations.

The first presentation, with PowerPoint slides, was by Bill Gowen, titled "Sarah Elizabeth Morrison and the Chilhowee Boys," which detailed the only youth series written by Indiana-born author Morrison, who spent most of her life in Philadelphia. The four-volume series, published in the 1890s by Thomas Y. Crowell of Boston, detailed the lives of two North Carolina families who made a 400-mile overland trek to Tennessee, settling in what became known as the Chilhowee region on the Little Tennessee River south of Knoxvile and west of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The books follow the growth of the sons of the Parson Craig and Baird families, through their teen-age years (inluding the War of 1912, for which they were too young to participate), followed by challenges faced while in college and entering their chosen professions of medicine and the ministry.

The second PowerPoint presentation was an overview and discussion of the "Books for Dummies" series, by Wiley Publishing. Arranged by Barry Schoenborn, the featured author for several "Dummies" books, the main presenter was Mary Bednarek, executive acquisitions director for Wiley's Professional/Trade Group, which has offices in Indianapolis, her talk titled "My Digital Transformation." She was joined at the conference by "Books for Dummies" editor Erin Calligan Mooney.

Bednarek's presentation covered a worldwide publishing phenomenon, which has seen Wiley's thousands of "Dummies" titles grow from 10 million books in print in 1994 to today's more than 250 million-plus in the United States alone. And, "Books for Dummies" also are sold worldwide in many foreign languages. With more than 1,800 currently active titles, "Dummies" books lay claim as "the world's best-selling reference brand today."

The third presentation was by Anthony Zurcher of Hermosa Beach, California, editor of Creators Syndicate, which is currently involved with an Alger audio book project. Founded in 1987, Creators Syndicate is the third- largest newspaper syndicate in the United States, providing feature and graphics content to its clients. Zurcher gave the audience a recorded sample of its in-progress audio presentation of Alger's Andy Grant's Pluck, with one of the book's chapters dramatically read by an accomplished young actor.

The group took a brief coffee break after the presentations, and following additional glances at the auction books, it was time for the annual business meeting. Called to order by President Barry Schoenborn at 11:24 a.m., the main items of business were a recap and approval of actions from the previous day's board of directors meeting, including the annual reports by the executive director, treasurer and Newsboy editor.

The slate of three new directors was placed in nomination and seconded: Jack Bales (PF-258), Robert D. Eastlack (PF-557) and Lynda Straus (PF-1120), to serve three-year terms to expire in 2016. They were elected by voice vote, and President Schoenborn then thanked outgoing directors Carol Nackenoff, Bart J. Nyberg and Michael Morley for their three years' service.

Richard Hoffman's proposed hosting of the 2014 convention in Annapolis, Maryland, was moved for a vote by Bob Sipes and seconded by Juanita Durkin, then voted "aye" by the membership. The proposed dates for the convention are May 1-4, 2014. Hoffman noted that the first weekend in May (the Society's traditional weekend) is ideal for Annapolis because it avoids conflict with both the U.S. Naval Academy graduation and annual Annapolis boat show.

More on the 50th convention will be forthcoming in future issues of Newsboy and on the H.A.S. website. President Schoenborn adjourned the meeting shortly before noon, at which time the membership went into the hotel lounge for a box lunch, catered by Jimmy John's Gourmet Sandwiches.

Following lunch, it was auction time, with Bob Huber doing yeoman work as the lone auctioneer. Auctioneer extraordinaire Ed Mattson (PF-067) had originally planned to attend the convention, but could not due to back surgery scheduled for that weekend. He says he'll see us next year in Annapolis, a short drive from his Baltimore home.

Huber moved the auction along swiftly. He decided to raise minimum opening bids to two dollars from the traditional one dollar, and that seemed to stimulate the bidding. The more than 300 lots were sold in about four hours (including a couple of short breaks), with the top-selling item a John Lovell/Rugby Series copy of Number 91, won by Barry Schoenborn for $390 in a spirited bidding contest with Bob Sipes. The auction's final bids totaled $4,160, with $1,876 going to the Horatio Alger Society, including $1,306 in donations and $570 in consignment commissions.

Following a brief period to refresh ourselves, we organized car pools for Friday's buffet-style Italian dinner at Manzarotti's Restaurant in the historic Hamilton House in Shelbyville. Our hostess gave a brief verbal history of the historic Victorian-style mansion, inviting us to tour its various period-furnished rooms.

Upon our return to Greenwood, members stayed up late socializing in the hotel lounge.

Saturday, May 4

Following another complimentary breakfast, the traditional H. A.S. book sale began at 9 a.m. in the conference/hospitality room. The sale wrapping up at around 10:45 a.m., we had the remainder of the day on our own, either to visit downtown Indianapolis or go hunting for books. Several of us headed a half hour down Interstate 65 to the Exit 76 Antique Mall, which among its 600 dealers has at least 10 dedicated booksellers. The pickings were slim, but some items were found. Your editor found a Berkeley Series edition of From Canal Boy to President for a very reasonable eight dollars.

Of course, the main event of every convention is the annual H. A.S. banquet, this year held at Jonathan Byrd's Cafeteria in Greenwood, the same location of our 1991 convention banquet.

Following dinner came the annual awards, the most important being the Strive and Succeed Award, to a deserving area high school student. This year's recipient, introduced by convention host Bob Sipes, was Tiffany Frazier of Apostolic Christian School in Shelbyville, the award including a certificate, a check for $1,000 and copies of Alger's Strive and Succeed and Strong and Steady.

For the annual H.A.S. awards, 2012 recipient Lynda Straus presented the Richard Seddon Award to Ann Chase, who has faithfully attended nearly every convention over the past three-plus decades with her husband, Brad (the Chases also hosted the 1980 convention, "The Connecticut Conclave"). This award annually goes to the person who best personifies the friendship and comradeship of Dick Seddon, a pioneer member of the Society from Massachusetts, who died in the early 1980s.

The Carl Hartmann Luck and Pluck Award, traditionally going to the previous year's convention host, was presented in absentia to Lynne Thomas, curator of rare books and special collections at Northern Illinois University, host of "Dash to DeKalb III" in 2012.

The Newsboy Award, usually given to the member who makes his mark with the printed word, was presented to Brad Chase for his 2012 book, Thomas D. Hurst and his Publication of Horatio Alger Books. Chase's series of books on Alger publishers dates back to the early 1980s, so this makes him a multiple Newsboy Award winner.

The President's Award was presented by Barry Schoenborn to Ed Mattson (PF-067), "... on behalf of his 50 years of dedicated service to the Horatio Alger Society." As noted earlier, Mattson was undergoing back surgery during convention weekend and was unable to attend.

The annual Alger trivia quiz is a tradition begun by the late Ralph Gardner in the early days of the Society. This year's quiz, written by Bob Sipes, was won by Rob Kasper, the prize a pair of scarce green-binding "Skyline" Coates editions of The Young Adventurer and The Young Explorer, presented by Sipes.

Following the quiz, Friday's Wiley Publishing guest Mary Bednarek hosted a door-prize drawing, with numerous "Dummies" books-related souvenirs going to lucky winners.

It was time for the keynote speaker, and John Luther took the floor in his re-enactment of the legendary Edgar Allan Poe in his presentation "Poe Alive." Luther's dramatic presentation took immediate flight with a powerful rendering of "The Tell-Tale Heart" and moved on to such classic readings as "Annabel Lee" and "The Raven." It was a tour de force performance, and Luther received a standing ovation following his wide-ranging presentation.

Host Bob Sipes thanked Luther and all the guests in attendance at the banquet, then we headed back to the hotel to discuss Horatio Alger and book collecting deep into the night.

Sunday, May 5

It was time to say our good-byes at the annual farewell breakfast, well attended this year due to the wonderful complimentary food and beverages available in the hotel lounge. The good word spread quickly: let's meet again in Annapolis in 2014!

Bill Gowen
Newsboy Editor
Horatio Alger Society