On an absolutely gorgeous Halloween day, twenty-five Desert Steiners and their guests gathered at Ron and Judy Heiligenstein’s home in the Catalina Foothills in Tucson, Arizona. Their dining room table was filled with some really terrific steins, many being member’s recent purchases from the SCI Convention Auction in Las Vegas.

Shortly after noon, lunch was taken on the patio, consisting of Nürnberger style bratwurst specially made and brought from Wisconsin, German style potato salad, coleslaw and chocolate cake. After lunch, President (for life) Spencer Wessling started our business meeting by asking our Treasurer (for life) Don Scheer if we had any money in the bank. Don said we did, so we then moved on to the next bit of business which was presenting Don with a recognition for his continuing efforts as (also) our newsletter editor, which was awarded at the SCI Convention in Las Vegas and brought to the meeting by Pam Peters, who was our chapter representative at the L.V. Convention.

President Wessling announced it was time for a most important annual event for our chapter, the drawing for the Attendance Prize Stein. The winner was John Piet, who won a beautiful Mettlach PUG stein. What luck!

Next, the issues of membership and conventions were thoroughly discussed. Special efforts must be made not only nationally, but also by chapters if SCI is to continue to exist. Convention attendance is also down from past years. There was some agreement that perhaps two or three mini-conventions each year might be the way of the future. The next item of business was deciding on a date and place for our January meeting. The decision was January 9th, 2010 at 10:30AM-11:00AM in Mesa, Arizona at Monti Vista where we’ve often met before. An official announcement and directions will be mailed/emailed the middle of December. Our speaker will be Joe Heater who will be talking on character steins.

Being Halloween, everyone had been asked to bring their scariest stein for a show and tell. Although one 17th Hussar “death head” regimental stein was shown, perhaps the scariest steins were several heavily damaged and poorly repaired pieces that were exhibited. They were pretty scary! After this was some additional show and tell with Spencer Wessling, Joe Heater, John Piet, Al Pabst and Ron Heiligenstein showing and telling about their steins, most which had been recently acquired in Las Vegas.

Next, Desert Steiner member Gary Kirsner gave a talk “What’s Been Going on with Stein Prices in Recent Years”. His talk was most informative and it provoked many questions from our members – too many to detail here. But one thing we know is certain: regardless of your area of interest, steins must be acquired for your personal enjoyment, not for an investment, even though in many instances certain steins have turned out to be decent investments. If there was one message that Gary wanted to get across to us, that was it. Our chapter is certainly most fortunate to have someone with Gary’s experience and knowledge as a member. It really makes attending our meetings worth-while!