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"Fame and Fortune in Fredericksburg"

By William R. Gowen, PF-706

The return by the Horatio Alger Society to Fredericksburg, Virginia, resulted in another memorable weekend, despite its much later than usual schedule. The weather was perfect and old friends got to renew acquaintances over the weekend of June 23-26, 2022.

Of course, the late June weekend resulted in several Partic'lar Friends having conflicts with long-standing personal schedules, and we hope to have them back with us when we return to Fredericksburg for a third time on May 4-7, 2023.

After circumstances beyond his control the past two years (the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021 and lack of hotel availability this year), host Jack Bales is happy to report that next year we will be going back to our longtime first weekend of May, a tradition that dates back many decades. He has already named next year's convention "Forging Ahead in Fredericksburg," continuing his alliterative titles of the last two years.

The only bad weather encountered took place on Wednesday evening, when a line of thunderstorms and high wind moved through the area, causing a pair of brief power outages at Jack's home during his reception for early arrivals, the unofficial curtain-raiser for the weekend.

"Fame and Fortune in Fredericksburg" officially got underway at 1 p.m. Thursday, June 23, with the opening of registration in the Spotsylvania Room on the lower level of the Hampton Inn and Suites. This room (as in the previous year) served as our hospitality/meeting room as well as the location of the annual banquet.

The first official event of the weekend was the annual Board of Directors meeting in the nearby Washington Room. Following the meeting, the annual ritual of organizing the fund-raising auction took place in the meeting room, which involved sorting and logging the various bid lots onto Bob's computer. While other members enjoyed dinner on their own at area restaurants, Bob and this writer took advantage of take-out Chick fil-A chicken sandwiches from a recently established location across the street from the hotel. By late in the evening, most of the approximately 160 auction lots had been recorded.

Friday, June 24

The Hampton Inn has an excellent self-service hot breakfast, and most of our members took advantage. Although the breakfast room was open the previous year, the self-service function was curtailed due to the pandemic, with the hotel passing our orders through a "socially distanced" window. Only the coffee and tea remained self-service, but we all survived the inconvenience. It was nice to be back to "near normal" in 2022!

Following breakfast, registration remained open for late arrivals, with the first session of the conference starting at 9 a.m. with welcoming remarks by H.A.S. President James King and convention host Jack Bales. Following immediately were the three presentations, with Jeff Looney opening with a talk titled "’But I wrote it:’ Some Revelations from Autographed Books." Bales followed with "No Shrinking Violet: Violet Popovich and the Chicago Cub Shot for Love," a PowerPoint talk on the historic event described in his book on the subject, published last year. Bill Gowen wrapped up the session with "James A. Braden — A Son of Ohio," the story of the Akron author of juvenile books about Native Americans living in his region of the Midwest, plus a more traditional boys' series, The Auto Boys. All were published by Saalfield of Akron.

Following a short break, King brought annual H.A.S. business meeting to order at 10:45 a.m. Major subjects covered included:

• Two items of unfinished business from the previous day's board meeting, i.e., the vote of honoraria of $100 each to the Executive Director, Newsboy Editor and Webmaster; and a proposition to maintain the current $1,000 stipend for the Strive and Succeed Award recipient, all carried by voice vote.

• Clarification by Executive Director Bob Sipes concerning the $5,000 stipend from the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans, Inc., recognizing several H.A.S. members' contributions to the new full-color Horatio Alger Association biography booklet. Since this transaction occurred very late in the previous fiscal year, it was posted in the current board-approved Treasurer's Report, published in the May-June 2022 Newsboy listed as "H.A.A. consulting fee."

• Editor Bill Gowen reported that the financial situation of Newsboy remains stable, but due to continuing declining enrollment, the print run for each issue will immediately be reduced from 125 to 120 copies.

• Sipes reported that in the past year, the Society gained two new members and lost eight members, and our current membership list of 100 includes 10 libraries. Most of the decline from 137 members from 10 years ago to 2022 is due to deceased members.

• Next year's convention will go back to its early May dates, and host Jack Bales reported he told the board on Thursday that he would be happy to host again in 2023, and he has already secured the same $89 per night rate from the Hampton Inn of the past two years for the dates of May 4-7,2023. A vote on returning to Fredericksburg in May 2023 was passed by voice vote, and Bales added that from his experience the past two years, he plans to update the "guidelines for future convention hosts" in order to help smooth the way for future hosts.

• The slate of members was presented to fill current officers' and directors' slots, with Carol Nackenoff agreeing to fill the vacant Vice President opening (through 2023) and Keith Thompson and Liane Houghtalin were put forward as nominees for the two upcoming vacancies on the board, three-year terms ending in 2025. No other nominations were made from the floor, and the slate was carried by voice vote.

President King adjourned the meeting at 11:15 a.m., to allow for an early start to the annual auction prior to our noon box lunch provided by Sodexo Catering Services of the University of Mary Washington. During the break before the start of the auction, the annual H.A.S. President's Award was made by King and Bales to the Hampton Inn's Director of Marketing Chris Jones for his "above and beyond" contributions to the success of our 2021 and 2022 conventions.

The auction resumed while lunch was being served, and auctioneers James King and Jeff Looney helped the Society net an impressive total of $1,722.20 for their efforts.

After a short break, attendees left by car pools for Castiglia's Italian Restaurant for a buffet dinner including lasagna, chicken with pasta and pesto sauce, along with a vegetable salad. Following dinner, the hospitality room remained open for further conversation among attendees.

Saturday, June 25

Following breakfast, the meeting room was set up for the annual book sale, which began at about 8:30 a.m., with coffee and refreshments available.

At about 11 a.m., the attendees dispersed for lunch on their own and made arrangements for car transportation for the 1 p.m. tour at Belmont, the home and studio of famed artist Gari Melchers in nearly Falmouth, Virginia. By late afternoon, the meeting room was being set up by the Hampton Inn staff for the annual H.A.S. awards banquet, which kicked off at 6 p.m. The annual awards presentations were led off by the presentation of the Strive and Succeed Award, this year's honor going to Michael "Mikey" Harper, who attended with his mother, Christine. The presentation included a certificate, a check for $1,000 and a copy of Alger's Strive and Succeed, all presented by convention host Jack Bales. The annual Horatio Alger Society awards followed, with Bales a double winner — the Carl Hartmann Luck and Pluck Award (going to the previous year's convention host), and the Richard R. Seddon Award, which is given to the Partic'lar Friend who personifies the comradeship of the late Waltham, Massachusetts, member Richard Seddon. Newsboy editor Bill Gowen presented the Newsboy Award to one of the Society's newest members, Terry Booth, whose debut article, "Hugh McAlister's 'Worth While Books' Series," was an impressive achievement — and he has another article coming up at the end of the year!

Banquet keynote speaker Scott H. Harris, executive director of the University of Mary Washington's museums, including the President James Monroe Museum, made an encore presentation from his 2021 talk, this time comparing the lives of Gari Melchers, the artist whose home and studio we visited earlier in the day, with Horatio Alger's Chester Rand (also an artist). Harris's PowerPoint presentation demonstrated how a real-life career and that of a fictional Alger hero can often intersect. Again this year, Partic'lar Friend Liane Houghtalin prepared a gift basket of Fredericksburg-area food and beverage items. Last year, the winner of the drawing was new member Melissa Givey; this year the lucky name drawn was that of Scott Chase.

Now, it's on to "Forging Ahead in Fredericksburg," and remember the dates: May 4 to 7, 2023.