International Costumers' Guild
President's Message
January 28, 2001
Hello, everyone --
I hope that you all had a great holiday season and have
settled in to the 21st century. In my first President's Message of
this millennium, there are just a few things I want to talk about.
ICG Annual Dues
On January 3, after extended discussion, the Board of
Directors voted to amend Standing Rule 3 to increase the ICG's
annual membership dues from $1.00 U.S. per year to $4.00 U.S.
per year. The Board did do because it had become clear that,
even with stringent controls on expenditures, revenues were
unable to keep up with our costs.
This is the first raise in membership dues in our history.
The ICG dues of $1.00 U.S. per year was set 17 years ago, in
1983. The increase will help to meet the increased costs over the
past 17 years of such essentials as postage and supplies. It also
will help put the Corporation in a stronger position to serve its
members and chapters better.
One of the principal reasons the ICG exists is to provide
services to local costuming guilds that have affiliated themselves
as ICG chapters. We provide a tax-exempt umbrella for chapters
in the U.S. that wish to make use of it. We discussed and agreed
on the Guidelines for International-Level Masquerades and
Competitions to aid masquerade directors and costumers
interested in competition. The new ICG Annual is another
example of a central service the ICG provides. A committee is
working on model masquerade forms that directors of costume
competitions will be able to adopt and to adapt to their special
circumstances. A major central service is the Patrick M. Kennedy
Memorial Archive, one of the finest collections of photos and
videotapes of costumes and competitions in North America. We
are digitizing the collection in order to make it available on CD
-ROMs and plan to distribute copies to chapters.
Beyond that, the new dues level will give the ICG a bit
of flexibility -- not a lot -- to meet new needs identified by chapters.
We look forward to doing so.
Costumer's Quarterly Subscription Rate
The Board also voted on January 3 to amend Standing
Rule 23 to increase the subscription rate to The Costumer's
Quarterly from $8.00 U.S. to $18.00 U.S., for members with U.S.
mailing addresses. The new rates went into effect for new and
renewal subscriptions on and after January 7, 2001. Members
outside the U.S. will continue to pay subscription rates set by the
Australian Costumers' Guild, Costume Guild UK, or the Western
Canadian Costumers' Guild, respectively. The Board's action did
not affect those subscriptions.
The Costumer's Quarterly has been one of the most
important services the ICG provides. Yes, publication has been
spotty over the years. However, it is not the only journal published
by volunteer members of a not-for-profit organization for which that
is true. The new subscription rate means that we will be able to
publish regularly. The old price per U.S. member, $8.00 per year,
came nowhere near the cost of printing and mailing. The ICG
cannot afford to subsidize that cost from dues revenues; the
Quarterly must be self-sufficient. The new subscription rate,
$18.00 per year, will permit it to meet its direct costs. Fortunately,
we do not have to pay for articles, editorial services, or equipment,
or the price would have to be much higher.
The Costumer's Quarterly is the only non-commercial
journal devoted exclusively to costuming. In line with the current
interests of members and chapters, issues will continue to contain
a mix of articles about costume and costuming, news of the ICG
and the chapters and the Guild as a whole, and notices of coming
events and attractions. Recently, it was suggested that we
publish classified ads for members. We are determined to publish
the Quarterly regularly, four times a year, if members and chapters
submit articles for publication. You may recall that my last
message included a list of more than a dozen articles that
members had agreed to write. I trust that they're working on them
actively and that we will see the fruits of their efforts over the
course of the next year or so. I hope you will subscribe.
Chapter Obligations
One of the few obligations that chapters have to the
ICG is to send us their lists of officers and members annually, with
quarterly updates.
Chapter Reports. Please remember that the Standing
Rules provide that each chapter must annually send the
Corporation Treasurer its list of officers' names, addresses and,
where available, telephone numbers and e-mail addresses,
together with the complete list of its members in good standing
(including name, address, telephone number where available, and
whether or not the member subscribes to the Quarterly). Each
quarter, each chapter must send the names, etc., of new members
and any updates to the list of officers or to members' addresses
and phone numbers.
At the same time as the annual report, each chapter
must remit ICG dues. Please make checks payable to
International Costumers' Guild.
The due dates for these reports each year are: January
7, April 6, July 6, and October 6. Chapters' annual lists and dues
payments were due on January 7. I have asked our Treasurer,
Sharon Trembley, to send receipt to chapters when their reports
arrive and to send reminders early next month to the presidents
and treasurers of delinquent chapters. If you have not yet
complied, please send your chapter's annual list of members and
officers and your dues to:
Sharon Trembley, Treasurer
International Costumers' Guild, Inc.
398 Prospect Street
South Amboy, NJ 08879-1942 USA
The format that we need chapters to use in sending Sharon the
information is posted on the ICG web site: www.costume.org
"Guido," our Chapter Liaison, will be in contact with
chapters that have not met their obligation.
The next report date for chapters is April 6, when
chapters should send Sharon an update report on changes in
members' addresses and the names and addresses of new
members.
ICG-T. As an additional avenue of communication for
chapter treasurers and the ICG Treasurer, JohnO has set up a
new discussion list on which they may discuss their mutual
concerns. The list is known as ICG-T. A number of chapter
treasurers have already joined it. I encourage other treasurers to
join. Chapter treasurers may do so by contacting John at
icg@costume.org or by sending a blank message to ICG-T
-subscribe@egroups.com and then sending a message with their
name and local chapter to John at
ICG-T-owner@egroups.com
Members may reach me by e-mail either at
bconnell@mail.nysed.gov (work) or at
BP.Connell@worldnet.att.net (home), or by regular post at 50
Dove Street, Albany, NY 12210-1811 USA.
Sincerely,
Byron P. Connell, President
International Costumers' Guild