WHERE MEMORIES WILL BE MADE, FRIENDSHIPS RENEWED, and BUILDINGS SWAPPED, BOUGHT, andAUCTIONED!
Items from the Bob Kneisel Collection will be for sale and auction, including highlights from his MICROCOSMS trove.
There is still time to register for SBCS 202ONE !
Health and Safety:
Many SBCS members have voiced health safety concerns about the upcoming convention. The SBCS Executive Committee has made the decision to go forward with the convention with some sensible health safety protocols in place. Hopefully these guidelines will give comfort to all attendees.
We expect ALL attendees to be fully vaccinated. We will ask for your proof of vaccination at check in. Make sure to bring it with you. No proof of vaccination – no entry to any convention events.
A Covid PCR test will be available on site if interested. Registrants can receive further information regarding this.
ALL attendees must wear masks during the Friday bus tour and at all inside events. At outside events and with indoor informal contacts – please social distance at least 3’ – use good judgment and wear or have masks available at all times.
Our hope is that these safety protocols will help us feel safe while enjoying each other’s company during the convention. We will continue to monitor the health situation and these guidelines are subject to modification if necessary.
Our hosts have planned a full schedule. Buildings, Buildings, Buildings will be the focus.
Thursday October 7:
5pm – 7pm Convention check in. Hotel lobby.
Friday October 8:
10am – 12pm Convention check in. Hotel lobby
1pm – 5pm bus tour of Downtown and guided tour of the Capitol building (Bus will leave from hotel)
6:30pm – 9pm Dinner and Show & Tell at our host’s home
Saturday October 9:
9am – 10am Business meeting in hotel
10:15am – 12pm Swap Meet in hotel
1pm – 3:30pm walking tour/museum tours
6pm – 10pm Dinner/Raffle/Auction at local restaurant near hotel
Ridgeland, MS is in Madison County, which has a higher vaccination rate than the rest of the State. We respectfully ask that all attendees be fully vaccinated. For everyone’s safety, we will encourage all to wear masks for indoor events. Here is a link to COVID safety at Hilton: Hilton.com/en/corporate/cleanstay/
Our hosts have planned a full schedule. Buildings, Buildings, Buildings will be the focus.
Thursday October 7th from 5-7pm Convention check in. Hotel lobby.
Friday October 8th from 10am -12pm Convention check in
1-5pm bus tour of Downtown and guided tour of the Capitol building.
Bus will leave from hotel
6:30-9pm Dinner and Show & Tell at our host’s home
Saturday October 9th from 9-10am Business meeting in hotel
10:15am – 12pm Swap Meet in hotel
1-3:30pm walking tour/museum tours
6-10pm Dinner/Raffle/Auction at local restaurant near hotel
We look forward to catching up with old friends and welcoming new ones. This will be a terrific opportunity to buy and sell little buildings. Hope to see you there.
Celebrate Valentine’s Day, Sunday, February 14, 2021. SBCS’s first Zoom meeting of the year features a very special guest, Paul Goldberger, Contributing Editor at Vanity Fair, former Architecture Critic for the New Yorker, recipient of the Pulitizer Prize for Distinguished Criticism, and souvenir building collector. Learn more about Paul here https://www.paulgoldberger.com/biography/
Congratulations to Mark Fine, SBCS Zoom Ringmaster, for starting the 2021 ZOOM Calendar with this distinguished guest. Mark’s stewardship of the Zoom gatherings that were established to bridge the loss of 2020 activities has morphed into a well-received benefit of membership in the Souvenir Building Collectors Society. The 2021 Zoom meetings are scheduled bimonthly on the 2nd Sunday at 2PM Eastern Time. The 2021 Calendar is below.
The first Zoom meetings in 2020 were based in our classic Show & Tell format from the annual meetings. Participants shared stories about their new finds and long held treasures. In October Mark interviewed Jon Merwine soon after his publication of Replica Buildings – A Visual History was published. Then in December Anton Tremblay, long-time member and founder of Microcosms was featured.
These interactive Zoom meetings are only open to current members of the Souvenir Building Collectors Society. All current members are sent an email a few days before the event. Registration is by reply to the email. The emails contain instructions for registration and for accessing Zoom. Memberships are now due for 2021.
The 2020 Annual SBCS Convention scheduled for October 23-25 in Jackson, MS has been postponed until October 2021, exact dates TBD (to be determined).
Stay tuned for further information regarding the Convention and what plans are brewing to keep SBCS Members engaged with each other. Fun events using new technology are in the works.
In the meantime there are the FaceBook Follies over on the SBCS Facebook page to keep us entertained. They started with the ABCs and before the group got to Z(ed) the National Building Museum followed suit with an A-Z Tour of the David Weingarten Collection of 20th Century Buildings. When it seemed the ABCs were exhausted new categories for sharing sprung up: Real buildings that look funny, Multiples, Masked Statues (Right On!), Postcards paired with their miniature buildings.
Take a trip over to Facebook and feast your jealous eyes on those “look but don’t touch” gems.
It has been three years since the SBCS was willed the Bob Kneisel Collection.As in every other aspect of Life, Time marches on.The Kneisel Committee, an ad-hoc group designated by the SBCS Leadership in 2016, was organized.The Committee started a series of meetings to determine how to best use Bob’s Legacy for the benefit of both the SBCS and the Souvenir Building Community.
Kneisel Bequest 2016
Initially, the goal was to donate the entire Collection to an Organization that would curate, and display all or part of the Collection in a public setting.This would allow both SBCS Members and the public at large access to the comprehensive Collection and provide a fitting Memorial to Bob.
There were several interested candidate Organizations.Most were non-profit and required that SBCS include an ongoing endowment for curating and managing the Collection, something SBCS is not in a financial position to support.Other interested Organizations wanted to market the items as a fundraising plan for their own organization thus splitting up the Collection.
School Children at the Architecture Museum in Lahore, Pakistan
One Institution that did receive the benefit of a donation of buildings from the Kneisel Collection was the Cultural Foundation of Pakistan, Museum of Architecture.The Museum used the souvenir buildings as part of a larger display of world architecture aimed toward school age children.This was a rewarding donation for SBCS, but was not a venue available to the North American public or SBCS Members.
In 2018, the National Building Museum announced the pending acquisition of a Souvenir/Miniature Building Collection like Bob Kneisel’s Collection.This event changed the focus of the Kneisel Committee.With the other Collection becoming available in a National Museum at a national level, the Committee looked to other ways to utilize the Collection.
Discussion at both the 2017 Chicago and 2019 Kansas City SBCS Conventions revealed that many Members in attendance wanted a chance to obtain pieces from the Kneisel Collection.The Committee then looked for ways to honor this request.
Bob’s Collection had over 4000 pieces and was very eclectic.At each SBCS Convention since 2015 a selection of items was presented and distributed to SBCS Convention Members through auction, sale or raffle.For these events items selected from the Collection were themed toward the Convention location.
SBCS 2017 Convention in Chicago
These distributions only benefited the small percentage of SBCS Members who attend the SBCS Conventions.The Committee wanted other ways to start the distribution of the Collection to benefit as many SBCS Members as possible.
The Committee started offering Category and Flash Sales to all qualified Members.Initial offerings were specific categories in the Collection including certain levels of souvenir building quality and/or other types of Collectibles categories such as human and animal figurines, snow globes, charms, stadiums and crested porcelain.
FLASH SALES! And Bob’s Better Buildings Sales
Grouping of Stadiums
These sales allow for an expanded group of SBCS Members to participate, but do not meet the desire of the SBCS Organization to distribute the remaining Collection into the hands of more SBCS Members or the Collecting Community at large.
Moving Forward in 2020
As the Flash Sales end in Spring 2020, we will be moving to the next and final phases of distributing the Kneisel Collection.It will happen in two phases that will start concurrently.
Phase 1 will be the offering an expanded selection of items from the Collection at the October 2020 SBCS Convention in Jackson MS. This selection of items will be offered in the traditional way items have been offered at past Conventions including a Swap Meet,a silent or live Auction item or as raffle items.
Phase 2 will be the offering of the entire remaining Collection through an Auction House.The actual scheduling of this event is still in the planning stages, so it may or may not happen in conjunction with Phase 1. One Auction House under consideration utilizes Live Auctions allowing a greater number of souvenir building Collectors (and SBCS Members) to have access to the auctions without having to travel to the auction site.
Through these two Phases, SBCS Members will reap the benefits of the Kneisel Collection
SBCS Management and the Committee will be holding one part of the Collection as a legacy SBCS Collection.The SBCS Convention Souvenir Buildings from 1999 through the 2019 Kansas City Convention will be held by the Society for historical purposes.Bob Kneisel had collected all of the Commemoratives through 2015, and the Kneisel Committee has added each year’s Commemorative since.
All fees charged to date, and all future fees charged from remaining Flash Sales and the profits from the two final Phases are used to defray costs for distributing the Collection and support other SBCS activities.
This is no ordinary offer! Last year’s Bob Kneisel Committee’s Box Metal Pot Luck offer was a tremendous success.This time they are offering items from Bob Kneisel’s Collection that are NOT BUILDINGS.This offering will be souvenir statues, busts, animals, transportation items and other non-building items.Here’s the link to ALL the information.
CLICK YOUR HEELS AND FOLLOW THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD TO THE SBCCA AND SBCS 2019 COLLECTORS CONVENTION IN KANSAS
The 2019 SBCS Convention in Olathe, Kansas is getting closer: June 4 to 8. If you haven’t made your arrangements yet, head over to the Convention Page for all the details.
THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES and AN EASY WAY TO FIND THEM
Researching the 25 years of the SBCS Journal newsletter is made so much easier by the Indexes supplied by member Tom DiNapoli. There are three: Authors, Articles and Featured, and Topics. Tom has modernized for the most recent set. Take a trip over to the Newsletters page and check them out.
Iconic Kansas Souvenir Buildings: Eisenhower Chapel courtesy of Steven Chevalier
OLATHE, KANSAS
In June of 2019 collectors on the trail of souvenir buildings and collectors of still banks will converge in Olathe, Kansas, where once The Oregon Trail, The California Trail, and The Santa Fe Trail overlapped.
Have YOU mapped out your route yet to the 25TH ANNIVERSARY CONVENTION of the Souvenir Building Collectors Society?
Here are some milestones you’ll need to consider to along the way:
The Still Bank Collectors Club (SBCCA) are hosting the event. To participate in ALL activities you will need to join the SBCCA (fee is $45.00). Here is a link to their website.
Convention Registration is through the SBCCA. The registration fee is $175 and is inclusive of all events. New members of SBCCA are entitled to a $45 reduction in the registration fee, thereby making Registration and Membership total $175. There are no separate fees for SBCS attendees.
Accommodations are at the EMBASSY SUITES, Olathe. Convention rates are for the dates June 3 – June 8,2019. Use the code SBC
The Convention Commemorative is a building shaped still or coin bank and is included in the registration fee.An SBCS Silver Anniversary Commemorative will be offered later in this year AND to all members in good standing at the time of the subscription.
Pick and Pack your Souvenir Buildings for sale or exchange during the convention. The process is a little different this year. SBCCA tradition is “Room Hopping” a practice which goes on for the duration of the convention.SBCS members will be able to participate in this exercise.SBCCA and SBCS will hold separate Auctions at each end of Saturday.As an attendee you will be able to participate in both auctions.
Conviviality was a big feature of the 2018 SBCS Convention in Worcester, Mass.Billed as a Boston / Brimfield / Building Bash, the Convention delivered on all accounts.The fields of Brimfield, the local (or nearly local) antique malls and shops, the Convention Swap Meet, Raffle, and Auction all contributed to the friendly competition among attendees.Here’s a look at SBCS Boston 2018.
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Members contributing photos to the slide show: Carolyn C, Tarrun V, Joe K, Wynn W, Jerry I-H, Steven C.
facebook
Our facebook page has been quite active in recent weeks covering all sorts of souvenir building topics and all sorts of souvenir buildings – with lots of pictures.
Collectors are riffing on plastic, ceramic, and wood buildings, Apple Park, Ukranian Churches, James Dean, Fallingwater.New members are posting pictures of their collections.Joe K. has a discussion question up for Boston attendees about the use of the Antiques and Collectibles guide that was available. Check it out here: Souvenir Building Collectors
KNEISEL COLLECTION
The next Journal of The Souvenir Building Collectors Society will contain an article and an offer from the Kneisel Committee.The offer of 5 Kneisel Collection buildings for a mailing and packing fee of $25 will be open to all who are current (paid-up) SBCS members as of September 30, 2018.Specific details will appear here on the SBCS website soon and in the SBCS Journal.“Watch this space” and be sure your membership is up-to-date.
Monuments, Mountains, Banks, Carillon………. Bring an empty bag to the 2018 SBCS Boston Convention! Take a look at these additional pieces from the Kneisel Collection that will be available for purchase through the Swap Meet and the Auction on Saturday, July 14. Don’t miss out! Click here for Registration Information!
SBCS 