The scores of bottle clubs around the country have disparate sizes and strengths. While there are many venerable clubs with strong memberships and higher levels of activity, there is, unfortunately, a number of smaller clubs struggling to maintain membership levels and viability.

Since there aren’t many opportunities for those in the stronger clubs to pass along tips to the smaller clubs, Steve Charing, President of the 33-year-old Baltimore Antique Bottle Club, proposed to FOHBC President Ralph VanBrocklin that prior to the National Show in Louisville a forum on bottle clubs take place. He envisioned an informal gathering where a free and open discussion would take place among club representatives.

A panel would lead the forum and would cover specific topics with an eye towards sharing the best practices of the stronger clubs mixed in with an exchange of ideas. Its purpose was to discuss what works, what doesn’t and why with the ultimate goal of having all bottle clubs thriving.

Ralph enthusiastically supported the idea and asked Alan DeMaison, President of the Ohio Bottle Club and Reggie Lynch, President of the Southeastern Bottle Club to join Steve Charing on the panel. Each member covered several topics.

After Steve provided introductory remarks, Reggie Lynch kicked things off by explaining the purpose of a bottle club. Among other things, he discussed that clubs are important as a means of collectors coming together to share knowledge and camaraderie. Promotion of the hobby and planning and implementation of shows were also discussed by him as significant purposes for clubs to exist.

Alan DeMaison followed with his ideas on what makes a bottle club strong. Foremost among these was the encouragement of participation, which he indicated promotes interest in the clubs activities and helps build a sense of camaraderie amongst the clubs members. When responsibilities are spread out it gives everyone a sense of personal stake in the success of the club and it helps prepare for a smooth
transition of duties in any given area from one individual to another.

The development and presentation of strong educational programs and an excellent newsletter focus interest and help keep the club healthy.

Reggie, who helped revitalize the Raleigh Club as well as founding the Southeast Bottle Club, discussed recruitment strategies. Among the ideas mentioned were utilizing all public service announcement possibilities open to the club (newspaper, television, radio) and offering memberships through forums such as EBay. A club web page, which either the Federation or Reggie can assist our clubs in establishing, is a great way to draw collectors from within a given locale to the club. Encouraging members to bring friends who are not members with them to meetings has proven useful in certain clubs, particularly in clubs with strong programs. The provision of free bottles to member’s children who attend the meetings and all children who attend the shows was discussed as a means to interest a new generation of members.

Steve discussed the importance of attracting more members to meetings while recognizing the fact that geography plays a key role in meeting attendance. The focus should be on bottles but club unity, and member interaction should be encouraged. An important element in
attracting members to the meetings is to publicize the meeting dates, times and location well in advance. Meetings should be designed to maximize interest, which should include educational and/or entertaining programs with a balance of membership participation and speaker
presentations.

Members should be encouraged to bring lots of bottles to sell or display, and part of a member’s collection can be highlighted either in a showcase or on a table.

Participation can be broadened through the use of Show & Tell segments, theme bottles (relating to historical events in a particular month) or other categories. Raffle and badge bottle drawings should be part of each meeting so members may have a fun opportunity to add to their
collections.

An important suggestion was to keep the "business" segment of the meeting brief. Steve pointed out that with his club, most of the business discussions and decisions are handled by the club’s Board of Directors. This removes the mundane nuts and bolts matters from the meeting leaving the more entertaining and informative components.

The meetings should start promptly and at a consistent time. Refreshments should be provided and sufficient time should be set aside for socializing, bottle browsing and networking.

To generate additional interest, where possible, meeting participants should be photographed and included in the next month’s newsletter. Finally, special theme meetings like a holiday party or club anniversary party should be held on occasion.

Alan Demaison offered tips on how to organize special events/trips. Of paramount importance is accurately assessing the interests of the members, which the Ohio Bottle Club does by throwing out a variety of ideas of activities and narrowing them down to those that seem to have broad appeal. They have begun to hold "mini" bottle shows in communities that once had shows or active clubs that no longer exist. These are inexpensive to hold and help bring dormant collectors back into the hobby and re-introduce the hobby into areas in which it is faltering.

Steve discussed one of the most important activities of a club: how to run a successful show. He acknowledged that not all shows are the same with respect to size, location, time of year, etc., but emphasized that before anything else, the club needs to have a competent, reliable show chairperson. Consistency of date and location is also critical in establishing a tradition. The show’s venue must meet the needs of the club, such as budget and space requirements.

A plan should be developed complete with timetables to keep the show preparations organized and timely. The club must recruit enthusiastic, dependable volunteers for the show’s myriad logistics.

You can never have too much publicity. Advertise on two fronts: the bottle collecting community and the local population. This can be accomplished by advertising in the major bottle magazines, such as Bottles and Extras, as well as local newspapers. Send press releases to all local media outlets two weeks before each show. Make widespread use of fliers and posters, and don’t hesitate to allow the Internet help spread the word about your show. If your club has a website, use it for that purpose. Send announcements to newsgroups in the bottle and antique collecting communities. This maximizes exposure and minimizes costs. If feasible, send post cards to previous attendees to remind them of the show. A database of names and addresses would need to be developed, but this is a very effective tool in encouraging the public to attend.

Steve explained his club’s policy of treating all dealers and members of the public like the valued customers they are and not to take any customer for granted. Offer a bottle appraisal service to the public to attract non-collectors and encourage educational displays to make it a show as well as a sale. The club should welcome and evaluate feedback although it is impossible to please everybody. Finally, the club should submit show reports to the bottle media to stoke further interest.

Steve then identified what he perceived to be some weaknesses of bottle clubs. No matter how strong a club is, there are always issues that need to be addressed. One of the problems is the "me-first" culture whereby certain members are in the club to suit their personal needs but don't view the club as a priority. Others don't want to take up the mantle of responsibility leaving the work to be done by a few. This causes a lack of interest to become officers in the club, and the resulting burnout by the few who do the work has led to some clubs' demise.

Ralph Van Brocklin concluded the forum by discussing the role of the FOHBC in the success of bottle clubs. His main comments centered around the fact that the Federation wanted its member clubs to understand that there is a willingness to assist them when they identify
specific problems that require attention. The use of the Federation website as a link to club websites, the use of the Federation to help clubs set up their own webpage, referrals to specific clubs when inquiries are made of the Federation about how to collect and collecting clubs in the inquirees locale are all areas the Federation is capable and willing to help the clubs in. Promotion of the member clubs shows on the website and in the magazine are avenues currently available to our clubs.

Ralph concluded by indicating that he hoped over the next couple of years the Federation would be in a better position to help new clubs get off the ground and to provide ideas of what works and does not work at the club level. He indicated that this forum was an initial step in that process.

"Although the attendance was disappointing, the forum was a good beginning and perhaps, with additional publicity, a similar forum can take