Notice of the disbanding of ACCCI

DEDICATED TO PRESERVING THE PAST TO ENJOY THE FUTURE BY THE COLLECTION AND STUDY OF HAIR ORNAMENTS SUMMARY Perhaps we’ve been too busy to notice, but it has been over a year since we received a combers newsletter. It has been even longer since we got a membership dues notice. To be candid, the AC3 has ceased to function as a viable Club that provides member benefits. After carefully considering the following factors, your acting Board of Directors have reluctantly concluded that the time has come to disband the Antique Comb Collectors Club International. Dear Fellow AC 3 Members: The Antique Comb Collectors Club International traces its origins to the late 1950s when Betty Miller fell in love with and started collecting combs. In 1981 the Miller Comb Museum was opened to the public in Homer, Alaska. In 1984 Betty met Doris (Eff) Dreyer Hedge, a Tucson, Arizona based comb collector. Each knew a few other comb enthusiasts. In 1985 Betty and Doris started a newsletter that attracted other collectors. After a year or so Florida based Belva Green took over producing the newsletter. Belva’s research, editorial, and computer capabilities resulted in major improvements in the newsletter. Betty and Belva organized the first Combers Convention in January 1993 in Tarpon Springs, Florida. Thirty-four people attended that meeting which featured knowledgeable speakers and exhibits of private comb collections. The best part of the convention was the opportunity to associate with like-minded people who shared a common interest in combs. The attendees were so enthused with having found each other that they asked for a follow-up convention. The Antique Comb Collectors Club International was immediately created in order to organize that meeting. The following officers were elected. President, Betty Miller; Vice-President, Glenn Beall; Secretary/Treasurer, Mary Bachman, International Coordinator, Jen Cruse; Newsletter Editor, Belva Green. All five of these people are still serving on the AC3 acting Board of Directors. Twenty-Six members attended the second convention in 1995 held at the National Plastics Center & Museum (NPCM) in Leominster, Massachusetts, which is also the ancestral home of the combmaking industry in America. Subsequent conventions were held in 1997 at Chicago, Illinois with 45 in attendance, 1998 at the Miller Comb Museum in Homer, Alaska, with 37, 1999 in Allentown, Pennsylvania with 31; 2001 Grand Rapids, Michigan with 33; and 2003 Cincinnati, Ohio with 29. A 2005 convention in Atlanta, Georgia got caught in a deepening recession and had to be canceled for lack of attendance. The Club held seven successful conventions that were