NICA NEWS UPDATE………...……
..by Frank Parnell, Interim Executive Director, NICA I was invited to speak at the Florida Federation of Fairs conven-
tion on this topic on Saturday, May 16th by Lisa Hinton. Thank you very much for the opportunity. I always like to take advantage of every opportunity to promote NICA and its goals. This topic cov- ers a wide range of possibilities, so what will I talk about? What should I tell them about NICA? Should I talk about member bene- fits, should I talk about new programs we are working on or should I talk about the recent difficulties we have experienced? Many people know that we have had some problems in the past few months because people were stopping me in the hallways and asking me ‘what’s going on in NICA.’ Now how should I ap- proach this? In this day and age everyone wants to put a spin on things, to make themselves look as good as possible in a difficult situation, so what should I do? Then a novel idea came to me, ‘why not tell them the truth?’ This my friend is the absolute truth, you can count on it to dispel all the rumors and innuendo.
Our problems began when our president resigned. The NICA
board sought me out to fill the position until such time as a perma- nent replacement could be found. Shortly after I took over I went to Houston for the Mid-West Fairs Association meeting and the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. I no sooner got there when my cell phone rang and I found out that one of our directors had resigned. I was sorry to hear that, but these things happen, right? A few minutes later my phone rang again, and another director had resigned, ‘my goodness, what’s going on here?’ I was begin- ning to have some serious concerns when it happened a third time. Now I’m looking at our Chairman of the Board and thinking we may become an army of only two but surely this would be the last one. Not! My phone rang again and number four bit the dust and I’m looking for the best place to ditch this phone, because we can’t take much more of this. A few minutes passed with nothing
happening and I began to think we had weathered the storm, when that phone went off as shrill as an air raid warning. Feeling much like a punch-drunk fighter staggering out to answer the bell I answered the phone. Yes number five, at this point we had lost half of our board.
Thankfully, mercifully, that was the last one. I thought to myself
why did this happen? In my lifetime I have seen many churches split when the pastor leaves and part or the congregation goes with him, I have seen many Democrats and Republicans have differences of opinion but yet want the very best for our country, they just have different ideas how to attain them. These were good people who left us, they were my friends then and they are my friends now. I will not say anything bad about them only that we will miss them. So what to do now? We were left with a core group of people who were all of one mind, who were committed to moving NICA forward. We made some appointments, strength- ened our resolve and began to move forward. In truth what we experienced was a cleansing, not of people but of ideas and phi- losophies that we felt were not in NICA’s best interest.
I can honestly tell you that as of this report we are in the best
financial condition we have ever been and, our level of commit- ment is greater than ever. Our office staff is second to none and our list of candidates for election to the NICA board of directors is longer than it has ever been, at this point in time, in short my friends, NICA is healthier than it has ever been in its eighteen year history. And that is the absolute truth, and it is a truth that we at NICA feel proud to stand on. We would like to thank the Florida Federation of Fairs, the OABA and the IAFE for all their support during these difficult times and we pledge our support in return. Good Day.
WELCOME NEW ASSOCIATE MEMBERS….……………...………….………………….
North Pole Productions Tammy Peters, President 104 JOHNSON ST, NORTH ADAMS, MA 01247 Phone: 518-862-9100 Cell: 518-441-3509 E-mail:
nppshows@gmail.com Website:
www.northpoleproductions.net Category: Attractions/Entertainment Business: We produce the Barnyard Cackle Review and off season holiday light parks to increase your revenue
Ryan's Concessions Della Ryan, Owner 13630 SR 33, GROVELAND, FL 34736 Phone: 352-408-3184 Cell: 352-459-3972 E-mail:
chrisrcorp@yahoo.com Category: Concessions/Food-Beverages Business: Book our unique giant ice cream cone - quality - cleanliness – friendliness
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Southeastern Seating Jerry Freeman, Owner 903 E. 17TH AVE, TAMPA, FL 33605 Phone: 813-273-9858 Fax: 813-275-9196 Phone cell or alt: 813-445-2529 Website:
www.seseating.com Category: Supplies/Services Business: We are a bleacher, grandstand manufacturing company with bleacher rentals
Stunt Dog Productions Chris Perondi, Owner 782
S.BRIGHT RD, FRENCH CAMP, CA 95231 Phone: 877-788-6836 Cell: 209-401-6059 E-mail:
chris@stuntdog.com Website:
www.stuntdog.com Category: Attractions/Entertainment Business: America’s favorite celebrity stunt dogs soar, spin, jump, and fly!
The OneManBand, Marc Dobson Marc Dobson 383 CHESTER DR , COCOA, FLORIDA 32926 Phone: 407-399-7673 E-mail:
marc@marcdobson.com Website:
http://www.marcdobson.com Category: Attractions/Entertainment Business: Real Live OneManBand: Vocal, Guitar, Harmonica and BackPack Drum Kit.
Ultimate Air Dogs Milt Wilcox PO BOX 14210, JACKSONVILLE, FL 32238 Phone: 248-217-0614 E-mail:
milt@ultimateairdogs.com Website:
www.ultimateairdogs.net Category: Attractions/Entertainment Business: Dogs doing dock jumping into large swimming pool.
See more new members on page 38
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