Many of you know a wonderfully creative person by the name of Rey O'Day. For many years Rey was involved with running the concessions department at the Los Angeles County Fair. During that time she worked together with the concessionaires to improve their businesses. They formed buying groups which allowed everyone, regardless of the size of the company, to purchase product at a more competitive price, which gave them the ability to reduce the cost to the public and at the same time increase their bottom line. They also produced in-depth training courses to establish 'best practices' in the day-to-day operation of a typical concession business. The experience was a positive one for everyone involved and they found that by working together they were able to establish stronger businesses individually. Several months ago Rey faced a difficult decision. As a result of that decision Rey left the L. A. County Fair to return to her roots in the entertainment industry and is now the producer of a very successful theater company in Riverside, California, producing live performances of smash hits like 'Dream Girls.'

After Rey's departure from the fair industry, a number of the concessionaires that had been part of the working group at the LA County Fair, recognizing the value of what they were developing, desired to continue the development and to share it with other concessionaires up and down the west coast. This core group came to Rey and asked if she would be involved in forming a west coast not-for-profit organization that would focus on the needs of concessionaires. She agreed and a series of meetings took place during which they painstakingly went over point by point what they wanted the organization to look like. As the framework for the organization began to form, the result started to look a lot like NICA. NICA has quite a number of members on the west coast, however there has been a common perception among west coast concessionaires that NICA is an east coast organization and in fact NICA's strength in membership lies east of the Rockies.

Recognizing the common ground, Rey flew to Tampa and had a meeting with NICA Executive Director Dave Schlabach, to explain the situation and explore how NICA and the proposed new organization could come together to form an even stronger NICA. After that initial meeting, the NICA Board of Directors sent Dave to California to meet with the core group to explore the possibilities and see if this would be a good fit for NICA. After lengthy discussions with the group, Dave reported to the Board that he found it to be a situation worth pursuing. It seemed clear the west coast concessionaires would benefit from NICA's established credibility and member benefits and NICA would benefit from increased membership and the influx of members who had already proven their creativity in developing programs which support and improve our industry.

The NICA Board of Directors formed a committee to examine the possibilities and develop a structure for forming NICA West. The committee, after several meetings, produced a resolution which was presented to the NICA Board of Directors and the west coast group. The resolution, which the NICA Board ultimately adopted, named the six west coast states of Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Washington as a membership development zone called NICA West.

The kick-off for NICA West was at the Western Fairs Association Convention which was held in January in Reno, Nevada. The excitement and enthusiasm was amazing. The NICA trade show booth was constantly jammed with people. The crowd was so strong that the west coast volunteers were forced to use clip-boards in the isles to sign up new members. By the end of the two day trade show NICA had added 50 new members to its ranks. Fantastic!