Cindy has been a devoted Oz reader since childhood. Since joining the Club two decades ago she has written for The Baum Bugle, helped with conventions, joined committees, contributed to Club projects, helped with the management of Club operations, and served on the Club’s Board of Directors. There is no Club member today who is more enthusiastic about sharing knowledge of Oz and its creators, helping collectors, and supporting the many activities of the Club.
Some of her specific contributions include:
- Judging the Oz art and writing competitions.
- Helping with Club’s web page management and online commerce store.
- Contributing to Bibliographia Baumania, a comprehensive bibliography of Baum’s non-Oz works, published by the Club in 2017.
- Helping produce educational YouTube videos on identifying first edition books in the Oz series.
- Managing the dealers’ rooms at the Winkie and national conventions.
- Sponsoring and funding tote bags for multiple Oz conventions.
- With the retirement of longtime Club auctioneer Bill Thompson, helping select items for the auctions, painstakingly going through the database of about 2,300 stored items.
- Staffing an information booth at the 53rd California International Antiquarian Book Fair, which featured an Oz theme.
- Participating in an online Rare Books Café discussion to show and tell about the variety of opportunities for collectors in the world of Oz books and ephemera.
Beginning in 2020, Cindy volunteered to lead the Oz Club Oral History Project to interview Club officials for the historical record, which now has recorded more than two dozen videos.
Roycroft publications often featured hand illumination, an art form where individuals carefully applied paint and gilding to embellish letters. Cindy ensured that attendees at Oz the National Convention 2022 could try it themselves using individual letters drawn by Oz illustrator W.W. Denslow.
Cindy’s interest in Oz illustrator and co-creator W. W. Denslow led her to co-edit a special Baum Bugle issue on Denslow in 2015. She then chaired Oz the National Convention 2022 at the Roycroft campus in East Aurora, New York, where Denslow worked with the Roycrofters artists and craftspeople. Postponed twice due to Covid 19, Cindy used her three years of planning to line up an impressive roster of presenters, tours, and hands-on activities for attendees. Through her leadership, attendees were able to take art classes from John R. Neill’s granddaughters, enjoy a live piano concert of obscure Oz music, and tour an extensive exhibit of Denslow’s work during his Roycroft years, and much more. A highlight of that convention was the installation of a Denslow memorial stone marker on the campus.
In addition to her profession, Cindy is the proprietor of Wonderful Books of Oz, which specializes in vintage Oz books and ephemera. She generously uses her store to promote the Club.
Cindy received the Winkie Award in 2024.
Cindy has served two terms as a Club director-at-large beginning in 2015 and was first elected in 2023 as Club Vice President; she was reelected for a second term this year.
On July 25, 2026 the Oz Club, proudly presented the 66th Annual L. Frank Baum Memorial Award to Cindy Ragni.