Posted by Rick Denney on March 23, 2001 at 16:00:06:
In Reply to: Re: Re: FED UP!!! posted by Joe S. on March 23, 2001 at 14:31:06:
Joe, I agree with what you say. I'm not quite old enough to to have been a member in the 70's, and was unaware that regional conferences were once held.
Yes, this forum provides a huge resource. But you make the best point as to why it doesn't replace such get-togethers: We can only talk. Conversation is limited, and we cannot demonstrate what we describe in words. I made better friendships in three days of TUSAB than in a year of corresponding with those same individuals.
This forum and TubaEuph could be a great means of organizing such get-togethers. It need not be a formal conference. It could be as simple as inviting the area members to someone's house, with horns, to read music, play for each other, and eat pizza. If you do that under the auspices of ITEA, then you will build support for that organization beyond academia. But the real value to this forum is that pros and amateurs can talk together on an equal footing. Having such social events renders the footing less equal, because the playing will do the talking. But the pros likely to show up in the first place probably already understand that.
In fact, such events are more likely to appeal to amateurs than pros, because pros live with the tuba every day as a job and may want or need a break from it when they are on their own time. That said, I miss the strong local engineering chapter that I belong to in Texas since my move to Virginia. Those conferences were always a blast, and they were mostly on our own time. Everyone in my business around here is too much of a beltway bandit to have that much fun.
You are right that no brotherhood will get jobs, and I hope nobody has ever expected TUBA to be a real source for employment information. But that is a concern of pros, and I ain't one. I was focused on what it might take to encourage more non-pros to participate in the organization. Let's face it, there are more amateurs than pros, and that's where the real growth potential rests.
Rick "happy to have avoided flames so far" Denney