CPCC Members, At our Saturday May 23rd meeting at the 8to8 Cigar Shop, we had 25 regular members in attendance. We didn't have any guests or new members sign up at this meeting. MEETING SCHEDULE: June 27th: Regular meeting at 8to8 Cigar Shop 6:30-10:00 P.M. July 18th: Regular meeting at 8to8 Cigar Shop 6:30-10:00 P.M. August 15th: Regular meeting at 8to8 Cigar Shop 6:30-10:00 P.M. OLD BUSINESS: None Stated NEW BUSINESS: Club officers will be elected/retained at the June 27th meeting!! Please try to attend... Leftover open tins of Cornell & Diehl tobacco that were generously donated by Chris Tarler to the club, were given out to all members in attendance. It was a great chance to try out and take home some tobacco that you may not have had the chance to smoke before. A BIG THANK YOU goes out to Chris!!! William Nelson of Pipes and Tobaccos Magazine donated tote bags from past RTDA/IPCPR shows to the club, and these were handed out at the meeting. For those of you who couldn't attend the May meeting, I still have some left over from Saturday night and will bring them with me to our next get together. See me if you want one... UNITED PIPE CLUBS of AMERICA: Has 5 new blends that I introduced at the annual UPCA meeting on the Friday afternoon of the show. Mike McNiel of McClelland Tobacco and I started working on this endeavor over a year ago, and things finally came to fruition in time for the show!! These blends benefit the UPCA much as the other McClelland "Club Blends" do for CPCC, GKCPC, and the Seattle club, with a portion of the proceeds going to UPCA. The extra funds that UPCA receives will be used to provide high quality pipes for the National Smoking Contest held each year at our show. This year, there were 105 entrants!!! The pipes were provided by Viprati, THANK YOU LUIGI !!!! The new UPCA blends should be hitting the shelves of retailers such as Iwan Ries, PipesandCigars.com, and Smokingpipes.com in the next few weeks. The blends are: CALUMET: Subtle, Mellow Virginia Ribbon MAPLE SUPREME: Virginia and Black Cavendish with Sweet Maple Flavor ( the maple flavor flashes off quickly so you can taste the tobacco, but has a great room note ) PANACHE: Black Cavendish and Virginia, Fragrant with Rich Vanilla Flavor ( I find it similar to Lane's 1Q) TRAVELER: Cool Latakia, Fragrant Turkish, Sweet Virginia and Rich Cavendish (unsweetened) VENTURE FORTH: Virginia Ribbon Seasoned Liberally with Latakia, Oriental and Perique Please try some or all of these new blends, and if you like them, purchase a lot of tins. The proceeds go to a worthy cause! THE BIG SHOW: This year's show was the best that CPCC has ever produced in our 20 year history, and it was fitting for our 20th anniversary!!! First of all, we gained 25 new members to the CPCC family, and we welcome more of you to join our "Merry Band". At the Friday night free dinner, we had to add eight tables, seating 10 per table to accommodate all of our guests, another first. We had 160 more attendees than last year which brought our "walk-in traffic" up to 750 people. All of our exhibitor tables were sold out by March 1st, and as of right now, we already have 160 tables reserved for 2016. Bottom line, if your even thinking of getting a table(s) for next year, DON"T WAIT!!! Contact Craig Cobine NOW at porshcigar@aol.com. All of the glass display cases have been reserved for next year's show, and we have all of our guest seminar speakers lined up (more on the topics in a later newsletter). So, as you can see, things are progressing VERY quickly...we could almost have another show in August at this rate (I wish)!!! SEMINARS: The 2016 "Pipe Making Seminar", in addition to the "Basic Seminar", will include an "Advanced Class" in which students will be boring/drilling a "raw block" of briar and fashioning their own bit/stem from a length of vulcanite rod. We plan on having 12 students in the advanced class, and if you've already attended the basic class, you're eligible for the advanced class. The price of the advanced class has not yet been determined. If your interested, contact Craig Cobine at the email above right after the first of the year... TENATIVE: We are also working closely with one of the major tobacco companies on the topic of creating your own tobacco blends. This seminar would take place on Thursday in the tent starting at 9 A.M. and ending about 4 P.M. that afternoon, with about an hour lunch break. The company representative would first explain the characteristics/types of the various tobaccos (and also cuts) in the morning, with the actual blending taking place in the afternoon. Five NEW clay pipes would be supplied so that you could get an accurate idea of how your blend will taste. Now, before you get your shorts all bunched up in a wad, remember THIS SEMINAR IS TENTATIVE!!! Like you, we hope that we can get everything worked out in time for the 2016 show. More information as it becomes available in upcoming newsletters... CIGAR EVENT: To those of you who purchased a cigar(s) at the event-thank you... TENT DAMAGE: Sometime late Sunday night-early Monday morning, some UNSCRUPULOUS SWINE(S) set off a fire extinguisher at the east side of our smoking tent!!! This heinous act of STUPIDITY not only damaged the walls and floor of the tent, it also cost the club a lot of money to clean and repair the tent. If you either witnessed this happen, or heard of the names of the SLOBS who did this, contact Craig Cobine at porshcigar@aol.com . Don't worry, you WILL remain anonymous!!! OTHER TENT PROBLEMS: Unfortunately, the prom goers this year decided to TRASH the restrooms in the Mega Center!! So in 2016, we are planning to have port-a-potties (4 of them) set up right outside of the smoking tent. This should also help out those who don't want to have to hike a half a mile for some relief... We were also made aware that some of our patrons were "watering" the cars/trucks in the parking lot, the trees, fences, dumpsters and everything else that was in sight. Hey, if you have to go THAT BAD, go more often!!! I'd like to think that our patrons are more sophisticated than acting like a bunch of drunks at a sports event... A BIG PROBLEM: Was the fact that this year we were prohibited from smoking in the hotel rooms. If you haven't heard, here's the reason why... Way back in 2008, our then Governor, Rod Blah -Goya-bich,(now a convicted FELON serving 14 years in prison), decided to make just about EVERYWHERE in Illinois "Smoke Free". That's how our smoking tent came about-but that's a whole 'nother story. Anyway, at that time, Pheasant Run was privately owned, and the family that had control, for the most part, looked the other way-they were grateful to have us there!!! Then, (another long story), the resort went into receivership and was basically owned by a bank. They didn't much care if we smoked in the rooms either, it was just another piece of property to be sold as far as they were concerned... So, when you get right down to it, we WERE breaking the law-but hey, we're Chicago Guys. We're like the people in Washington D.C.--the laws don't apply to us!!! This year, about a week before the show, we were made aware that some investment Group from Miami, FL. had bought the resort. We figured no big deal, things would still be the same as they ever were. Even the Pheasant Run staff believed this to be true. This firm knew that there was a HUGE pipe show coming up, and that we drop a TON of money on the place, so all was good--until they figured out that the show was about SMOKING PIPES, not SEWER PIPES!!!! TOBACCO PIPES??? SMOKING TOBACCO??? They FREAKED!!! A few days before the show opened, Craig got called in for a meeting at Pheasant Run, to talk with some representative from this investment firm whom stated that smoking, in ANY of the guest rooms, was STRICTLY FORBIDDEN!!!! No ifs, ands or butts (pardon the pun) about it---PERIOD!!! Now, Craig, and the rest of the CPCC officers were caught in between a ROCK AND A ROCK----HARD ONES!! We were informed that ANYONE caught smoking in their room(s) would be facing a $250.00 fine, (which we eventually got down to $150.00), but that Pheasant Run would also provide some form of shelter (small tents), to smoke in placed around the grounds outside. Little consolation when it's 30 degrees outside with frost forming on the ground at night. It was then decided by ALL of the CPCC officers, DAMN THE TORPEDOES, (Miami Guys), THE SHOW MUST GO ON!!! Also by this time, many of our exhibitor's products had already shown up, (pallets full), and were being stored for the opening of the show. What were we to do? Tell all these exhibitors that because of the NO-SMOKING rule, that there wasn't going to be a show, because a lot of people cancelled for not being able to smoke in their rooms? And don't bother coming, because we have to ship all of your stuff back--at your expense!! As I said, it was decided to go on with the show anyway... Now, some individuals had A COW, A HORSE AND 3 CHICKENS, (read hissy fit), because they were not allowed to smoke in their room(s). And those that did, got fined 150 bucks for doing so. Hey, you were warned when you checked in, that there would be consequences for doing so. Plus the fact that there were places all around the resort where you COULD enjoy you're cigar, cigarette, or pipe. It wasn't our FAULT...we tried to do everything we could to keep things the way they were before!!! Hell, I DIDN'T even smoke in MY room... I also find it interesting that these same individuals, who were having a major meltdown, were among the first to make reservations for the 2016 show--go figure!!! Aside from the shows that are being held in casinos this year, (Kansas City and Las Vegas, possibly New Orleans), you are not allowed to smoke in any of the other hotel rooms either. Look at what happened to Columbus this year, the Crowne Plaza hotel is now "smoke free" also!!! Bottom line, if not being able to smoke in your room caused YOU some inconvenience, it absolutely DEVASTATED the CPCC officers and club members!! The "ANTI'S" had invaded OUR "SACRED SANCTUARY", that is the Chicago Pipe Show, and there was NOTHING that we could do about it... THIS WAS NOT OUR IDEA...So I hope you can accept this explanation... ROOM RESERVATIONS: Here is another "monkey in the wrench" that we're up against!! It is planned by the Miami Investment Group that at sometime in the near future, ALL of the "Courtyard Rooms" will cease to exist, meaning that they are slated to meet a date with a bulldozer. I had heard that the reason for this is that the rooms/wing didn't meet code standards, (handicapped accessible). The resort would have to install elevators, 40 inch wide doors, and also have to install ramps because all of the rooms on the ground/lower level of the wing, are 3 inches above the main floor level. It would cost Pheasant Run tens of thousands of dollars to make these improvements--and they would STILL have rooms that were built in the early 1960's. So from a financial aspect, this makes sense... However, this also means that we are LOSING 175+ rooms that WILL NOT be rebuilt!!! This year, Pheasant Run had over 1,200 room nights sold at our show, (another first for CPCC), and for next year, the elimination of 175 rooms is going to be a big problem!! So, for 2016 we will have to make rooms available in "satellite" hotels in the Pheasant Run area. Guess what guys? You won't be able to smoke in these rooms either!! The one consolation prize out of all of this is that for the weekend (Friday and Saturday), of the show, Pheasant Run will ONLY be booking rooms for the show attendees. No other people will be allowed to register... A word to the wise, if you want to stay at the Pheasant Run resort, BOOK YOUR ROOMS NOW!!!!!!!! We are at this time, trying to work out a shuttle bus service for the satellite hotels to and from Pheasant Run. OTHER THINGS: In talking with Brian Levine at the pre-show Friday morning, I found out that the "Pipe Cruise" that was supposed to take place later this summer has been cancelled. It seems that Brian only had 8-10 people that were interested in going (he needed at least 30), and things just weren't working out. The Greater Kansas City Pipe Club Show is coming up June 19th-21st. If you can, please try to attend the show!! Contact info at www.gkcpipeclub.com ... Mark Ryan's (Daughters & Ryan Tobacco) Perique fields bus tour at the New Orleans show is sold out. This is NOLA'S first show, and I urge as many of you who can to attend-It should be a GREAT time So, that's it for this time around... Best to ALL, Tom Dinelli CPCC Club Secretary CPCC Associate Show Officer