The Idle Pen - The Andrew Turnbull License Plate Gallery

7-24-2009: 2009 Erie Pa. ALPCA Convention, Part 5

Several events and happenings were on the planning ledger of the final day. After my roommates and I checked out of our hotel, I retrieved my car from the basement parking garage and spun back over to the convention hall once more. First in the itinerary was a complementary breakfast organized by the staff, in which I recall loading up on a multitude of bagels. With that over with, it was then time to get down to business.

The Annual Business Meeting isn't exactly the most exciting part of the convention, but it's nice to get down to nuts and bolts and see what the simmering issues are. A number of topics were raised; including the issue of fiscal organization and (as always) the touchy subject of whether fake plates could in some scenarios be condoned.

Display awards were the next ceremony to proceed. In previous years, awards for displays were divvied up on the basis of semi-arbitrary categories that they were hastily filed into: Passenger displays, non-passenger, ephemera, and so on. Most of this categorical subjugation (er, subdivision) was eliminated this year, however, so there was simply a fixed set of first place, second place, and "honorable mention" awards to go around to everyone in one bunch. The awards were very distinctive in appearance, as usual: First-place contestants received a blue porcelain enamel award in the style of Pennsylvania license plates of the early 20th century, while second-place contestants received plaques with actual 1954 Pennsylvania plates bolted to them. Both the 1954 plates and the "55" serial of the first-place awards tied into the fact that ALPCA was founded in 1954 and this year's Erie event was the 55th annual convention.

Last, but not least, were inductions into the club's Hall of Fame for outstanding contributions to the hobby. Two of the inductees this year had sadly deceased in the recent past, but veteran collector Verdon Rustine of Pennsylvania (#343) was able to accept his invitation and award.

With the meeting over, it was time to retreat back into the convention hall for a final day of finds, talk, and browsing. Although the hall wasn't scheduled to close for six hours, however, it seemed as if the convention center staff were getting a head start: Tables and chairs had already started to be stacked and piled away, starting in the corner of the room I was set up in! After hastily retrieving my traders from the now-bare floor and concluding that I wouldn't have gotten many sales or trades in on Saturday anyway, I carried my plates over to the opposite corner of the room, shoved them underneath Jon Upton's table for safekeeping, and went on my last trek around. There wasn't much to see...people were packing up and going home, and I had combed through what was left of the poop the day before. Even so, I made a few last-minute scores: A set of protective bags for my collection; as well as a couple nice things to add to it, both from Jon Upton: A natural 1977 Wisconsin passenger, and an Ontario "Keep it Beautiful" plate bearing a semi-uncommon natural 1983 sticker and an interesting serial combination (SYS-151).

Joe Sallmen went a bit crazy with crates of plates during the donation auction, as usual; however, this time I didn't stay to see the brunt of the aftermath. After exchanging myriad handshakes and goodbyes with my collector friends and various roommates of the four days before, I hit the road shortly after noon...budgeting my time so that I sailed into Wisconsin just in time to see Barenaked Ladies perform at Milwaukee's Summerfest that evening. A fun time.

Did I have an enjoyable time at the ALPCA convention? Definitely. Although improving my collection was the ostensible reason why I was there, the real treat of the event was the social aspect involved: It was great fun to meet and converse with other collectors with similar interests and preoccupations; some of whom I hadn't seen since Huntsville two years before, and some of whom (such as Manny Jacob, Jim Moini, and Jon Upton) I hadn't had the chance to see before at all.

Was the convention better than the Huntsville, Alabama event of 2007? It's hard to say. Lodging was no doubt better in Huntsville. Since it was my first convention, the Huntsville experience had a lot of positive novelty and intensity going on about it as well, which makes a fair comparison a bit difficult. Erie was a bit of a hit-and-miss city, with ritzy neighborhoods and shoreline developments bumping up uncomfortably against run-down industrial areas. That said, I'd take it over Huntsville; whose street action and overlying blandness resembled a ghost town. Erie also had the edge in climate, whose lake-induced atmosphere put Huntsville's landlocked hotness and humidity to shame. The essential plate-collecting experience, in any case, was comparable at both.