ASSOCIATION • Association BUZZ From the Desk of the President Greg Chiecko, OABA President I


t’s hard to believe we are writing the end-of-the-year review already. The season at times seemed like it was dragging on but here we are at the end of another


season. It has been a good year for the OABA. The season had its share of weather challenges. Spring was


very rainy on the East Coast. Some reported they had rain for twelve consecutive Saturdays. The heat was intense across most of the nation in the summer. However, when the weath- er was right, people came out and spent money. There were pockets of reports where attendance was light, possibly be- cause some were afraid of immigration officials showing up at fairs or events. The trend of higher prices continues to erode our net despite our best efforts to minimize expenses. Our year started in February in Tampa where we welcomed


Blake Huston as our new Chair. We had a very successful Top Golf event and a heavily attended Annual Meeting. We welcomed Debbie Powers and Danny Huston to our Hall of Fame family. James Junkins was inducted into the Pioneer Award group. We celebrated with our Manufacturers and


Suppliers Partners Program. We were back in alignment with the Gibtown Trade Show. All fell under the umbrella of OABA’s 60th Anniversary. The Spring Board Meeting in April was held in Charlestown,


SC and the Strategic Planning Committee met to set the ob- jective for the year. We continued the structure laid out by Past Chair Ben Pickett, scheduling all our committee meet- ings for the year in advance. All of the committees have been active and we are close to completing our objectives for the year. We held our Summer Zoom Board Meeting, and we look forward to meeting in person in Denver in conjunction with the IAFE Convention. One of our major undertakings this year continues in order


FebRUARY 10- 13,2026


to find a permanent solution to our foreign guest worker la- bor visas. We determined last year that we need to create a labor category that would solve carnival and concessions labor issues. We found that with minor modifications our industry would fit in the “P Visa” category. We had 73 co-sponsors in the last Congress and must have them co-sponsor again in the new Congress. We continue to build our relationship with the IAFE and NICA members that the carnivals were an important aspect of the fair industry, and we could not achieve our goals without them. Leadership at the IAFE, both at the professional and governance level, fully understood the importance of the issues and lent their full-fledged support. We had a small group at our Spring Fly-in to Washington DC that focused on the ap- propriations bill in the House. We had to postpone our October Fly-in to DC because of the government shutdown. As of the time of this writing, we expect to be in DC in early December. In closing, I wish to thank Blake Huston, and all the NAME


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family, for their support of the OABA. Blake took his leader- ship role seriously and head on. We look forward to the first volume of our new OABA History Book and releasing our new logo. These are just two of the projects Blake placed before us in the past year. The board of directors is a group of in- dividuals who devote their time, talent and treasury to our organization. Remember they are volunteers who make our organization successful while still running their businesses so that our industry will benefit. Also, I wish to thank Tim, Sue and our newest staff member Dawn, for all their dedication to you, our members. Finally, I can express my gratitude to you, our members, for all your ideas, dedication and support. Let’s hope and pray that 2026 brings us a safe and pros- perous season.


Sincerely Greg Chiecko


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Annual Meeting


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