Miniature ship collecting acquired such a great following in Europe that it was naturally here, mainly in the larger German cities, that the first collecting clubs were organized. In the 1990's European collectors began meeting every other year at Kassel, the geographic center of the newly reunited Germany, and from that time on, the Kassel "Sammlertreffen" became the main event for small ship collectors the world over.
Collectors meetings in the United States began with an informal gathering at Paul Jacobs' house in Saratoga, CA in 2003. The following year (May, 2004), Tom Haughton organized the first East Coast Collectors Meeting at his alma mater, the State University of New York's Maritime College at Fort Schuyler, NY. Participants stayed overnight in the cadet dorms and met for a day of programs, lectures and discussions followed by another day of model sales, exhibits and socializing by collectors, many of whom were meeting each other face to face for the first time. Tours of the Fort Schuyler museum, visits to Manhattan, Fleet Week activities, a banquet and lots of socializing filled out the weekend.
The East Coast 2004 meeting set the pattern for the next two meetings held in 2005 and 2006 at SUNY Maritime. In 2007, Paul Jacobs and Chris Daley secured the Liberty Ship Jeremiah O'Brien at San Francisco as a venue for the first public West Coast meeting. The fourth East Coast meeting in May, 2008, was the last held at SUNY Maritime. Tom Haughton's passing the following year ended our "alumnus connection" with the school and opened the door to future East Coast meetings in other locations, alternating with West Coast meetings in Kassel years. The next West Coast meeting was accordingly scheduled for April, 2009, at the Monterey Maritime Museum, and here the SMSC held its first annual meeting. In May, 2010, collectors met at the USS Constitution Museum and the Constitution Inn for the fifth East Coast meeting, the first outside SUNY Maritime.
Future U.S. collectors meetings will depend largely on the organization of local and regional SMSC chapters and their willingness to assume the task of sponsoring these events. Information on upcoming collectors meetings and photos of previous meetings can be accessed on the pull-out sub menus.
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