52 Plus Joker - Conventions

OUR ANNUAL

MEMBERS' CONVENTIONS

2008 CONVENTION

Our 2008 Convention will be held in Las Vegas, Nevada from October 15 - 18, 2008. The venue is theTuscany Suites and Casino [see website http://www.tuscanylv.com/ ] and we have managed to arrange a terrific rate [$75 Sunday thru Thursday and $125 for Friday & Saturday] at a comfortable and well furnished hotel with large [625 square feet] suites. The complex is on a well-landscaped property of 27 acres and has excellent amenities including a large outdoor pool. It has a great dining room, a less formal restaurant, a café and a sports lounge and bar which has full food menu. Finally, for those who like a bit of action, there is a small, but spacious, casino. More information will be posted here as we get closer to the event.

2007 CONVENTION

Our 2007 convention was held in Westborough, Massachusetts. It was well attended and enjoyed by all. The host hotel was a great venue with the Doubletree staff going out of their way to oblige all of us with our multitude of requests. The bedrooms were roomy and clean and the meeting rooms more than sufficient. Steve Bowling, our President, made arrangements from San Francisco, and it is amazing that he managed to have everything running so smoothly considering the distance between the two places.

Trading, buying and selling was a significant part of the proceedings and most left happy with their new acquisitions. There were two live auctions which were hugely successful as well as two silent auctions. The two silent auctions saw the usual fun bidding, both in the day and at the banquet. Settlement of the silent auctions is between the seller and the buyer with the seller contributing a percent to the club on the honor system. Our live auctions were an amazing success this year because the minimums were low and the items on the whole interesting. The Club facilitates the process and makes a modest commission to help with expenses. The members gain the opportunity to dispose of duplicates and items that no longer fit into their collections and other members are delighted to get something that fits into theirs. This is a true Win/Win situation!

We had wonderful speakers this year and the audience participation was great. Gejus Van Diggele gave a presentation on secondary uses of playing cards which was especially enjoyed. He has an amazing collection and also drew on cards from other sources. Tom Dawson filled in at the last minute and gave a speech on early Bordeaux playing cards which he had presented last year in France - an intriguing subject. The fascination of early playing card ephemera was the subject of a slide presentation by Judy Dawson. We were also fortunate to have Jim Madden, this year’s Master, talk about The Worshipful Company of the Makers of Playing Cards.

The wrap-up banquet was, as usual, a great event and this year there was a contest which consisted of ten unique and wonderful decks created and executed by students from the graphic arts department at Milwaukee’s Mount Mary College. After the prize presentations, the decks were auctioned off and there was much spirited bidding among our collectors for the right to own one, with the winning deck being exclusively next years club deck.

Click on the link to view some pictures taken during the Convention .

2006 CONVENTION

52 Plus Joker hosts an annual convention, with members coming from many different countries to attend. Our 2006 Convention was held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada from October 18 to 21 and a full report on activities is included in the Convention Report in pdf format.