Annual Meeting... Well????

[John Dunkle]

OK - how did the annual meeting go? Any pictures?? Who won the raffle gun?? What was for dinner? Any great buys at the show? How was the silent auction? How did the display of "C" grades go? Who won the merit awards? Who traveled the furthest to attend? Who was best dressed? Who...???

Dang - so many questions - so few answers....

;)

John

[Harry Collins]

I thought it was next weekend!

[John Dunkle]

;)

Well, if you bought a ticket for the Annual Banquet - you could try to eBay it for next year???

;)

Best to you, Harry!

John

[Bruce Day]

Well what John? It was such a great meeting and so much happened and so many guns of significance and so many imporatnt decisions were made that the internet couldn't possibly hold it all.


Bruce Day while driving west from Louisville.

[Jeff Bonadurer]

2011 Top Secret annual meeting.

I'm gonna start saving now so I may attend the 2012 meeting.. :rolleyes:

What John D. asked + 1


Kind regards,

Jeff

[Bill Murphy]

I like Bruce's reply. Maybe we should go into the forum archives to see how the news of the Annual Meeting was disseminated in 2010. Times change.

[John Dunkle]

Well what John? It was such a great meeting and so much happened and so many guns of significance and so many imporatnt decisions were made that the internet couldn't possibly hold it all.


Bruce Day while driving west from Louisville.Hi ya' Bruce..!

I'm guessing that you took a lot of pictures - and others did as well..! I know today is a "travel day" for folks getting back home - so to those folks, travel safe, OK? We'll wait for the updates in the meantime.. ;)

Best to you,

John

[Bill Murphy]

I'm sure we will get news of the meeting, the auction, the raffle, the show, as time goes on. In years past, we haven't had to wait for the next issue of Parker Pages, and we shouldn't have to wait for the Parker Pages this year either. Get on those computers, guys.

[John Dunkle]

Bill,

Some folks who are on the Forums don't live in Louisville have to actually get home before they post. I know - unbelievable, huh? ;) The Annual Banquet happened last evening. I wasn't able to attend as I was in in airport waiting to get to Haiti the day before.

As you live in MD - I figured you would be there and could update the rest of us, given your proximity to KY.

Didn't happen, huh?

Nope - for me either ;)

My Best Always,

John

[Mark Ouellette]

Hi Parker Guys and Gals,

This was my first annual meeting and what I most enjoyed most was meeting my fellow PGCA members. Of our 1080 paid members approximately 68 attended our meeting and banquet.

Mark

PS: Click on the photo and it will open up to a larger size!

[Mark Ouellette]

These photos are of many of the entrys for C Grade Guns:

[Mark Ouellette]

And a few more...

[Mark Ouellette]

Other attendees will have to provide the details on these fine guns!

For any person unable to attend, please be patient with us for for the past few days have been very busy. Also, most persons are still reroute to their homes. Certainly they will post their photos and reports soon.

Mark

PS: You guys missed great camaraderie and an awesome gun show!

[John Dunkle]

Outstanding Pics, Mark!!!

My thanks for the share!!!

:cheers:

John

[John Davis]

Distinguished Service recognition was awarded to three most deserving individuals. Long over due. Charlie Herzog, Alan Swanson and John Dunkle. Congratulations fellows and thank you for all you've done and continue to do. John Davis

[Mike McKinney]

John,
I have already told Allan and Charlie "congratulations". Yours is very well deserved, indeed. Congratulations!!!!
Mike

[John Dunkle]

I'm reading your note, John...

I'm re-reading your note...

I'm humbled and I am speechless.... For Charlie and Al - they are what the PGCA is all about...

I'll reply as the other guy when I gather some thoughts..? But to say I'm honored would be an understatement... I had no idea until your post.

Thank you. From Jen & myself - simply - well.. Just simply, thank you....

John

[John Dunkle]

Thanks, Mike!

Umm - I still have no idea what to say - except thank you, Sir....!

I'm still humbled, overwhelmed and a little speechless...

Simply, thank you.

John

[Larry Frey]

Well after 14 hours on the road this will be a very short post. The annual meeting went great. As mentioned three most deserving individuals won the distinguished service award. John sincerely, congratulations for this much deserved award. You have no idea how much you mean to this organization and it's members. I hope that when Dean gets home he posts his speech/announcement of the awards as he did a wonderful job of describing what each of the three recipients means to the PGCA.

Knowing how few C grades were produced and how few 28 gauge guns were ever produced what are the odds of three of these beautiful guns being present in the same room at one time. The guns were fantastic and the talk that Bruce gave regarding the history and collectability of Parker C grade guns was great.

The facility and dinner were wonderful and Josh, Dave and everyone else who helped bring this all together are to be commended for their efforts in making this a memorable event.

[Dean Romig]

After 16.5 hours on the road I went straight to bed. Now I'm up and getting ready for work. I have not even located my cameras yet but will do so this evening and post some photos.

Re: the Distinguished Service Award recipients - They were elected by the general membership of the PGCA... the three awardees were chosen "by a committee of their peers", as the document says, and that says it all.

John, I'll get your DSA pin and document to you very soon. And I'll shake your hand as a representative of the membership in the congratulations you, Allan and Charlie so richly deserve.

Best, Dean

[Bruce Day]

Well after the teaser I posted while texting and driving John called and talked to Charlie and me for 2 hours while we drove back. We told him that Charlie and Allen were awarded Distinguished Service Awards and that there was some other d--------d also but nobody had heard of him and he didn't even show and he got it because he was some crony of somebody else . And John was saying what kind of ass.... gets an award like that and doesn't even show up, and we were stifling a laugh and it wasn't easy. We talked about all that was happening and several times about this jerk that didn't even show up.

Well we get finally back to Charlie's house and about then we get this call from John again who by this time has read John Davis's post and he finds out he is the third awardee and you should have heard the howls . We got him good. We thought for sure he would catch on, but that's our John:)
And we had three great Parker people who so deservedly were recognized and John couldn't make the meeting because he was trying to get back from Haiti and you know what he does down there.

So the initial post about John asking what happened at the annual meeting , I kind of thought if I posted something that teased but did not answer John's question, he might be interested in talking about by telephone and we just might be able to pull off a litlle trick on John and not tell him who got the third award and darned if it didn't work. Now the problem is that paybacks are hell but that's for another day with our friend John.

We sent John a bunch of photos he said he would post.

[Bill Murphy]

The recipients of the DSA are the most deserving of these awards. Thank you to the committee who worked so hard to process these awards. I recommend that the committee remain in their present positions as recognition of their work this year. Thanks.

[Richard Flanders]

Someday....

[John Dunkle]

Well - to be honest - I'm still a bit overwhelmed... To leave me speechless is no small feat. However, I will say that.. Actually - I have no idea what I could say to fully express my gratitude and appreciation..? Simply thank you...

As well - here are some photos of the dinner and presentation sent in by Charlie & Bruce. Please feel free to add others to this thread, OK? I think it's also appropriate to recognize the tremendous efforts of so many who pulled this together for the organization - Josh, Larry, Dean, John D. (Davis), Bill M. (Mullins), Dave, Ed - and a lot more folks who do so much for so many others. Our collective thanks...

Bill Mullins presents Allan Swanson an original painting of Allan's Brittany Spaniels - Meg & Bell
http://parkerguns.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=273&pictureid=2810

Allan's acceptance comments:
http://parkerguns.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=273&pictureid=2809

Meg and Bell
http://parkerguns.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=273&pictureid=2807

Bruce Day during his keynote presentation regarding "C" Grade Parkers:
http://parkerguns.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=273&pictureid=2806

Mary Bowes receives some well earned applause and recognition:
http://parkerguns.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=273&pictureid=2805

The Dinner buffet:
http://parkerguns.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=273&pictureid=2804

The Frazier History Museum, location of the show, banquet and this years PGCA event:
http://parkerguns.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=273&pictureid=2801

[Dave Suponski]

Congratulations to Charlie,Allan and John....:bowdown: You guy's are long overdue for this recognition. Thank You for all that have done and continue to do......

[Dean Romig]

Thanks Bill and Bruce and John.

For those who could not attend the Annual banquet at the Frazier Museum, you missed a very interesting and informative discussion by Bruce Day on the Grade 4 (C) Parkers. Bruce's presentation very nicely augmented the People's Choice display of some of the finest C's in existence.

[Bill Mullins]

Hello All--!!
First let me say CONGRATULATONS to three very deserving members for their DSP awards! John, Charlie and Allan give their all to the betterment of the PGCA! It was a great show, some fantastic Parkers ( I recall at least three A1S on display, several excellent displays----Gary Carmichael, Bob Faddis, Eric Eis, and Tom Bouwkamp. The People's Choice theme of C grades produced some 22 or so fantastic Parkers. Congratulations to Charlie Green and Gary Carmichael for their selection of the top three spots!
Also, I want to thank all the directors, staff, and speakers who gave and volunteered their time to making this year's meeting, banquet, and show a "Top Shelf" affair! We are already looking forward to 2012!!

Bill

[Dean Romig]

[QUOTE=John Dunkle;49869] I think it's also appropriate to recognize the tremendous efforts of so many who pulled this together for the organization - Josh, Larry, Dean, John D. (Davis), Bill M. (Mullins), Dave, Ed - and a lot more folks who do so much for so many others. Our collective thanks...


And deep thanks and appreciation from Josh, Larry and myself to the ladies, our ladies, Adina Loewensteiner, Deb Frey and Kathy Romig for their tireless work behind the scenes and at the reception desk making all of our jobs seem easy. :bowdown: Without their dedication we would certainly have struggled to get the work done. :clap:

[Bill Murphy]

Dean, thanks for the name clarifications.

[Eric Eis]

I've got a couple of shots of Gary's and mine displays, now I just have to find the camera.... I'll try and post them tomorrow.

[tom leshinsky]

Ok, now tell us who were not there who won the raffle gun and other important info.

[Josh Loewensteiner]

Great meeting! The banquet venue totally surpassed my expectations. We had 65 people at the banquet, had 19 tables all together at the gun show and with the PGCA Table cloths, we looked great! The gun show was a fun time with a lot of beautiful Parker guns on display- many for sale- really at all price points.

None of this stuff happens without the hard work and dedication of the Board and the Staff. The Board and staff would be powerless without supportive spouses/family members and I cant echo Dean's comments enough on how helpful it is to have our "better halves" really running the show behind the scenes.

It is my pleasure and honor to continue to serve the members of the PGCA on the board.

Now that it is behind me, I can say it was fun putting together the Annual Meeting and chairing the committee along with my co-chair Dave Suponski. Looking forward to doing it again!

[Bill Murphy]

Tom, it's alway like pulling teeth to find out who won the Raffle Gun. I just know that I got no late night phone call even though Linda used a month's food budget to buy tickets, as always.

[Dean Romig]

Bill, I didn't jot down the raffle winner's name but it was a name I didn't recognize. As I recall he was from a state somewhere west of the Mississippi and likely bought his ticket at Pheasant Fest. I suspect Ed Morgan has all the details and will (or already has) notified the winner.

[Mark Ouellette]

I remember that the winner was from Iowa.

[Dean Romig]

I remember that the winner was from Iowa.

Yup, Iowa's west of the Mississippi...

[Dave Noreen]

Don't know if we came the farthest or not (right about 2000 miles), but it was well worth the three-day drive from Newman Lake, Washington!! As always, the board and volunteers did a marvelous job, and deserve the heartfelt congratulations of all the membership for their hard work and dedication.

Dave

[william faulk]

Oh No..Guess I will now go to bed..been up all last night and all of today waiting for that phone call...Guess I'll buy a Lotto ticket...Bill

[Bruce Day]

More photos from mtg.

[Bruce Day]

Here's the PGCA trailer that holds the physical objects. Its kept in a shed and well protected from the weather. When a request is made to display objects from it, Charlie ( or me too if we are doing it together) haul the boxes out of the trailer, get what is wanted, load that stuff into the back of a truck or van and then reload the trailer. Then at the end of the show, we do the reverse. Now this time, the footlocker exhibit was requested and the Parker progressive shot shell loader was wanted. So we hauled that.

The loader is big and heavy and has the original glass powder and shot jars....it was used to load the factory paper shotshells. But there was no handy way to bolt it to a rental table and we didn't want the glass jars to get broken so that ended up being left in the box although some folks did look at it unmounted.

We are careful with these objects because a Parker small and rare item was stolen some years ago from a table at a PGCA meeting, so they are now kept under glass. We also have tablecloths and banners, and these get borrowed and not returned despite calls to send them back. And we can't just go down to Wal Mart and get replacements of these custom made logoed tabled cloths, and they are not cheap.

So here is the Black Hole of the PGCA, it looks like a simple white utility trailer to me, but what do I know? So we hauled stuff from it to the annual meeting and put it back in the trailer and will do so again when the next time rolls around that these things are requested. We have the Browning AH gun also, which will be shown again at the winter Pheasants Forever Pheasant Fest, then it goes back into the black hole gun safe again for a few months.

[Bruce Day]

Here is a C grade that was displayed.

[Bill Murphy]

That is a very nice C Grade top lever. Can we have some information about it? Thanks, Bruce, for the C Grade display.

[Bruce Day]

Well, as I discussed, there are 4 underlifter C Bernards, and the general collector knowledge is that one survives. There are 35 top lever C Bernards, 10 10ga and 25 12ga. This is one of a handful of known surviving 12's. High barrel and stock refinished condition, uncut, newer Jostam Hy Gun pad, great barrels. SN 36,491 , an early top lever, ca 1883. There is a better one of these, but they are rare.

We had a lot of rare guns. A new , maybe never shot 8 ga CH damascus, nothing but drag marks on standing breech, nothing case colored over. A new 1917 deep cut engraving 28ga Acme, nothing but ejector drag marks. So many outstanding C grades where there were 4 or 2 known and they were all there. Now who knows what is in some closet someplace but I think the instances of those finds are getting fewer.

I personally brought 3 guns, all almost unique for one reason or another, but there were so many fine guns there that a person could spend hours looking carefully at each gun. Dean brought his newly acquired Benard, an outstanding example of a standard Bernard 12, and one that he bought at a very good price while others sat on their hands and hoped the price would get lower still.

So people have asked me to do a PP's article on C's, something updating the TPS chapter and I suppose I will do that with what we now know . C's had great variety and that can be discussed at length. But as I talked Sat night, I saw one of the ladies start to doze off and so I thought I had better cut this thing short before more start to get chair whiplash, so I did, and could go on and on until everyone is asleep.

[Josh Loewensteiner]

Bruce- you gave a wonderful presentation on the Grade 4 guns. I thoroughly enjoyed it. To me, that really brings the People's Choice full circle. For those that might seek knowledge on the particular guns that are on display, we can have one of our resident experts discuss them. The People's Choice this year was something special, for sure.

Kudos to David Dwyer for making the phone calls, pleading, begging and doing the heavy lifting to get so many nice guns out of the closets. 3 C 28s in one place (all in nice condition to boot!) was really a treat.

[Eric Eis]

Well here are a couple of displays at the show. Let's see if I can do this right
The first picture is of DH damascus guns 8 ga through 28 ga. The second pic is of Gary's Hammer gun display (very very nice)

[Dean Romig]

A few more pictures...


1. Bill Mullins presenting Allan Swanson with a wonderful painting of Allan's Brittanies.

2. Adina Lowensteiner, Kathy Romig and Deb Frey at the Reception/Silent Auction Tabulation table. Thanks Ladies!!

3. A couple of tables of PGCA notables adjacent to the People's Choice of Grade 4 Parkers.

4. Browsing the Silent Auction items are Jeff Kuss, Jim Hall, Eric Eis, and Harold Lowensteiner. I can't make out the lady.

5. People's Choice display of Grade 4 Parkers. Nearest the photographer are Charlie Green's 10 bore built on a 6 frame with 38" barrels in near new condition. Next is Charlie Green's 28 bore on a 00 frame with 24" barrels also in near new condition. These two are 'benchmark' guns to be sure.


.


.

[Brad Bachelder]

This was the first annual meeting that we have had a chance to attend. It was nice to put faces with names and talk with people that share my same enthusiasm.
As an orginazation, we PGCA members are fortunate to be lead by a team of individuals with such expertise, professionalism and dedication.
The firearms displayed were nothing short of breath taking. A fine assortment of types and grades, nicely displayed.
Kudos to everyone involved.

Brad

[Bruce Day]

I know its a teaser, but there are some interesting developments that will take place in the Parker collecting community in the next years to come. Some announcements will be made by other organizations and individuals that will tie into Parkers and the PGCA and folks will have to sit on their hands until then, but suffice to say, there are good things happening. Collecting quality Parkers will continue to be a bright spot in this ickonomy and we have the best in people, guns and organization .

Well I know I'm preaching, but if members would build up other members, be protective of the guns, be publicly supportive of the PGCA so that outsiders think this would be a good group to join, and help out the PGCA, think of what could happen. There are other vintage collector groups, but what other is as good as we are with the PPs and the website? Its seems to me we are positioned to be even more a leader than we are if that is what we want.

[Dean Romig]

Brad, It was good meeting you and Laurie (?) too.

Best, Dean

[Bill Murphy]

Brad, if I knew you were going to be there, I would have found a way to attend. This is the first meeting I have missed in years. I have never missed a PGCA meeting for other than a family emergency. Both meetings I have missed meant that I had to unpack a truckload of great guns in order to stay home.

[Dean Romig]

Brad brought the Damascus barrels I had left with Mark Ouellette for restoration.
I've got to say they easily met my expectations. Thanks Brad!! Nice work!! :cheers:

[ED J, MORGAN]

The 2011 raffle was won by member Jack Strawhacker from Burlington, Iowa. I will have a picture for the Parker Pages. Liz and I got home Tues. PM.

[calvin humburg]

As Dean would say, "That is one nice Parker" Bruce.

[John Dunkle]

The 2011 raffle was won by member Jack Strawhacker from Burlington, Iowa. I will have a picture for the Parker Pages. Liz and I got home Tues. PM.

Welcome home Ed..!

Someone told me that you actually drove out of your way to deliver the Raffle Gun in person to Mr. Strawhacker, so as you could meet him in person and eclipse any delay in him receiving his prize? If so....

That's an amazing act of kindness, Ed..!!

You do an amazing job with the PGCA Raffle....

My best and my thanks always!!

John

[Mark Ouellette]

Ed,

Delivering the raffle prize gun to Mr. Strawhacker in person was one heck of a good deed!!!

Mark

[Dean Romig]

Ed, thank you for conducting, once again, a very successful raffle. "A job worth doing is worth doing well" and you have shown that you're the man for that job!!