September 20, 2012 – An era in the history of the Central States Numismatic Society will be coming to a close at the conclusion of its 74th Anniversary Convention, to be held April 24-27, 2013 at the Renaissance Hotel and Convention Center, located at 1551 North Thoreau Drive in Schaumburg, IL, a northwest Chicago suburb, close to O’Hare Airport. CSNS Governor Patti Finner, a Past President and Chairman of its Convention Committee, has announced that Jerry Lebo, Bourse Chairman since 1998, will be retiring from that position at the conclusion of the 2013 convention. He will be succeeded by Patricia Foley, a Milwaukee attorney, who also serves as General Chairman of the Professional Currency Dealers Association sponsored National Coin and Currency Convention.
Patricia Foley.
Finner said, “CSNS is extremely fortunate to have found a successor of such unquestionable convention management credentials as Patricia Foley to succeed Bourse Chairman Lebo. In addition to knowing her long enough to have almost watched her grow up and mature into a confident and energetic young woman, I’ve been privileged to work with Patricia Foley in the context of the progressively responsible positions she has already held as a staff member of our CSNS events.”
She continued, “When CSNS matured to a professional management model of conducting our anniversary conventions, Jerry Lebo was our first Bourse Chairman. Over the years he has rendered exceptional service. We all owe him a debt for that loyal service. In Patricia Foley, we’ve been fortunate to have found a person who literally has coin shows in her DNA. Our General Chairman, Kevin Foley, who served as President of CSNS from 1994-1996, has managed more major numismatic conventions than anyone in the history of American numismatics, roughly 150. In fact, so many that even he isn’t certain of the exact count. Patricia Foley was raised in the convention management business. She has been a staff member of the New York International Numismatic Convention since 2003 and was recently promoted by the Professional Currency Dealers Association to chair their own annual convention, now in its 27th year and known as the National Coin and Currency Convention. In the coin business there is a saying about someone who displays special talent as a coin dealer – ‘He has the eye’. Patricia Foley ‘Has the vision’, about what it takes to design and manage an exceptional numismatic convention, something that is an event and not just a show. I’ve worked with her on a succession of CSNS conventions in my dual capacities as Chairman of our Convention Committee and as Deputy Convention Chairman. From the moment she first walked in the door I could sense that ‘She had the vision’. We couldn’t have made a better choice for the important position of Bourse Chairman. I know that she has a long career ahead of her and that she is representative of the future, of a changing of the guard.”
Ms. Foley currently holds the office of Deputy Bourse Chairman for CSNS and will continue in that capacity through the conclusion of the 2013 convention, becoming responsible for booth sales for the 2014 CSNS convention, scheduled for April 23-26 at the Schaumburg Renaissance Hotel and Convention Center.
She said of her promotion, “2014 will mark the 75th Anniversary Convention of the Central States Numismatic Society. I consider it to be a considerable honor to be privileged to serve as Bourse Chairman for that event. Illinois is the home state of the Central States Numismatic Society. In the Schaumburg Renaissance Hotel and Convention Center we have what I expect will soon be acclaimed within the wider numismatic community as the finest site to host any numismatic event anywhere in this country. As a child I grew up with my younger sister Andrea playing “coin show” at home, never dreaming that I would one day be the Bourse Chairman for the Central States Numismatic Society Anniversary Conventions, let alone the 75th Anniversary Convention. This is a real honor and a real challenge. An exceptional convention experience for our attendees is very much a partnership – a partnership between our bourse dealers, our long time official auction company Heritage, as well as our convention staff and officers. As Bourse Chairman I’ll view myself as being, together with the General Chairman, at the center of that partnership. I’m excited and energized to have been selected by our Board for this important responsibility.”
A graduate of St. Thomas More High School, the University of Wisconsin and the University of Dayton School of Law, Foley maintains her legal practice in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with an office at 131 West Layton Avenue. She can be reached via e-mail.
She concluded by saying, “I hope that everyone who participates in our CSNS conventions will always feel that they can and should share their ideas about our event with me, even if they think they have things to say that we don’t want to hear. That’s how we grow and improve, by hearing the difficult things that people are sometimes reluctant to share with us. I don’t want anyone to feel that way with me. Ronald Horstman, a Past President of the Society of Paper Money Collectors, once said to me ‘You’ll learn more by listening than by talking’. I’ve never forgotten that. I’m ready to listen”.
You will find all information on the 75th anniversary convention here.