The Craft & Hobby Association is sponsoring a consumer show in Anaheim in January, but this is not the first time the industry promoted a consumer event in Anaheim. The first one, more than a quarter of a century ago, was one of the most significant events in the history of the industry, but not the way you might think. Here’s why:
The Hobby Industry Association, CHA’s predecessor, was launched almost 70 years ago by hobby manufacturers and retailers. They made and sold plastic model airplane kits, radio-controlled cars, model railroads, etc.
Eventually a few craft manufacturers such as Dave Ladd of Walnut Hollow, who didn’t have a trade association or show of their own, joined HIA. As the craft industry grew, so, too, did the craft membership in HIA.
But crafts were a completely different animal from hobbies. HIA was a male-dominated group selling to men and boys through its own set of distributors. There was little connection, if any, with craft manufacturers and retailers.
By the time I went to my first trade show in 1980, the craft folks were angry at HIA. The board of directors was composed entirely of hobby people, and the craft members felt they were being short-changed: All of the members’ dues money was going towards helping the hobby companies. Crafts were left out, or at least the members felt that way.
HIA’s executive director was a former hobby retailer; when he retired he was replaced with the son of a hobby retailer. There was a plea to change HIA’s name to the Craft & Hobby Association, but it fell on deaf ears.
The answer, of course was to get craft people on the board of directors. The way to do that was to attend the annual business meeting where the nominating committee that would choose new board members was elected. (Under the bylaws at the time, it was almost impossible to elect a board member who had not been chosen by the nominating committee.)
The craft people whined and complained, but never bothered to attend the business meeting. So each year more hobby people would be elected to the committee and, guess what? The committee chose hobby people for the board.
Then one year in the early 80′s the board decided to turn Sunday, the last day of the trade show, into a consumer show.
This outraged the craft people for three reasons: Sunday was always the busiest day of a trade show because the retailers’ stores – almost all independents – were closed on Sunday and the storeowners would drive to the show. Plus, almost all sales went through distributors, so vendors didn’t know which area stores carried their products, so they couldn’t refer consumers to them. Finally, the craft vendors had no experience with a consumer show.
How angry were they? At the time I was editor of the trade magazine, Profitable Craft Merchandising. I published six pages of irate letters to the editor complaining about the consumer show. Have you ever, anywhere, seen a publication with six pages of angry letters complaining about the same thing?
Many of the letters were repetitive, but I thought it was important to convey the volume and depth of the anger.
So, finally, after years of whining but no action, craft members attended the annual business meeting. By that time they were the majority and easily elected their colleagues to the nominating committee. Later they submitted craft names to the nominating committee and a year later they were on the board of directors.
The number of craft board members continued to grow until finally the board decided it was time to reevaluate the definition and purpose of the association. Various committees were appointed, met, and reported to the board. Eventually a consensus was reached: the Hobby Industry Association was a craft association.
When that happened, the hobby people left HIA and formed their own groups. Now HIA was all crafts.
HIA has been a “craft” association ever since, although the term has become an umbrella to encompass crafts, scrapbooking, stamping, needlework, art materials, and more.
And years later, when the HIA-ACCI merger task force met to combine forces and form a new association, the question was asked, “What should we name the new association?”
Jim Scatena (FloraCraft), Mike McCooey (Plaid), Ron LaRossa (Delta), independent retailers Emma Gebo and Jim Bremer, and I reached a unanimous decision in about 15 seconds: the Craft & Hobby Association.
It only took about 25 years, but that first consumer show was the galvanizing start of the process.
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