BULLETIN #12

GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING SEPTEMBER 21 AND “MAKERS CHOICE” COMPETITION

You missed to good one!! We had a very productive general member meeting, followed by a pizza outing for lunch, and then we all participated in a “Makers Choice” competition.

GENERAL MEMBER MEETING NOTES

The main thrust of the meeting focused on how we can make the organization relevant to its current members. The consensus was toward creating more events for makers to reach players and retailers on a personal basis. We talked about having an event that would be held in Atlanta area at a hotel or other such venue, and use our contacts with supply houses and local shops to get the word out, plus local advertising. The idea of pursuing grants to help with such an event was brought up. With that in mind, we broke for lunch and our Makers Choice event.

MAKERS’ CHOICE EVENT

This informal event turned out to be a lot of fun. We had nearly a dozen instruments to choose from. Each participant was asked to rate all instruments but their own. We awarded 1st through 3rd place in each - workmanship and tone. Pablo Alfaro played the same classical piece on each instrument for us, and then Russell Hopper gave us a second opportunity with a series of Irish Fiddle tunes. Both were excellent players and gave us a real opportunity to hear these instruments in different styles of play.

Best overall went to Joe Thrift, placing First in Workmanship and Second for Tone, and the highest total points. Another interesting note – Kate Rickenbacker made a last moment decision to attend , bringing her only available instrument - a corner-less violin that received a second place for Workmanship.

Here were the awards:

Violins

Tone

• First for Violin Tone - YOUNG KIM
• Second for Violin Tone – JOE THRIFT
• Third for Violin Tone – PABLO ALFARO

Workmanship

• First for Violin Workmanship - JOE THRIFT
• Second for Violin Workmanship - KATE RICKBACKER
• Third for Violin Workmanship - PABLO ALFARO

Viola

• First for Viola Tone – PABLO ALFARO
• First for Viola Workmanship - PABLO ALFARO

Russell Hopper gives us some Irish Fiddle Tunes

L to R: Joe Thrift (behind post), Russell Hopper, Kate Rickenbacker, Pablo Alfaro, and Young Kim inspect instrument

OUR NEXT MEETING – MAY 25, 2014, A SUNDAY

Many makers, shop owners, and repairmen that I spoke with in the Atlanta area before and after the meeting, indicated that it was really inconvenient to get away from their shops on a Saturday, so this next meeting we’ve scheduled for a Sunday. We’ll begin at 11am, have our business meeting, break for lunch, and then meet again for another Makers Choice event.

• Huthmaker’s Violin Shop, on Main St, Duluth, GA (downstairs)
• Another Makers Choice Event in the afternoon
  • Any violin family instrument or bow may participate
    •  Awards only if there are 3 or more like instruments in the competition
    • Only one of each type instrument entered by each maker
    • No repeat instruments from this past year
• Vote for new Board Members (positions available – let us know if interested)
• New Business -- Here are three ideas we can discuss at the meeting –

1. Nov 2014 -- GMTA/MTNA (Georgia Music Teachers Association/Music Teachers National Association) annual competitions/meetings in November 2014, Clayton State University, Morrow, GA (south of Atlanta about 20 miles). My hope is we’ll be invited to set up an exhibition of our instruments there at the conference facility, and hopefully make some great contacts and perhaps some sales. The MTNA event ends Feb 6 and GMTA registration for their conference is the same day, same venue, so we would be there for both, perhaps a 2 day opportunity. Initial reaction was that they were excited to include us, but because of their annual meeting going on right now, won’t have time to discuss this till later this month.
2. Feb 2015 – GMEA - Georgia Music Educators Association Annual In-Service Conference and TRADE SHOW in Savannah, Georgia held in the Savannah International Trade and Conference Center. My hope would be to rent a space which costs $400 for the two day event, and have 20-30 instruments from our members represented, but it also requires someone at the booth throughout the event, so we would need to have 3-4 participants, and participating makers pay their per-instrument share of the cost. This is an annual event that has several instrument shops represented, as well as Chinese instrument importers. The following year will be in Athens, Georgia. This looks to be a great trade show, and if anyone has a chance to get over to Savannah and check out their Feb 2014 event, and scout that out, I’d be grateful.
3. 2015 – American Makers Showcase Event. One thought was the creation of a “showcase” event that would be held in the Atlanta metropolitan area, where most of our participants live and work. We need at least a year to build up to such an event, with goals to achieve like finding a venue, getting participants to commit, marketing. Preliminary estimate would be about $3000 or more for just a one-day event, would require 20-30 makers to commit to participate, and unless we find additional funding would cost at least $100 each.

FUNDING --

Although this last event seems like it would create the greatest amount of exposure, presupposing we do a great job of getting the timing, location, and advertising. The more I think about this type event, the more I worry we won’t get the needed participants. So, my next thought is to approach this from the angle of writing grant proposals to see if we can get a grant to host a showcase from a Federal or State Agency that promotes the arts and crafts. I’m researching this now, and with a $5000 grant (or greater), this would permit the greatest number of makers to participate without spending a lot out of pocket. Most agencies require the organization have a 3 year record of budgeting. We’ve only existed for two years now, and we have not been working with a budget, so we would be looking at some time in 2015 for such an event. I think it’s the best approach, but we need to be methodical about this and secure the grant before lining up dates and locations.

Meanwhile, let’s look for cooperative ventures where we can participate with little out of pocket expenses, while we search for outside funding for a really spectacular event. I’m open to your ideas.

HOWARD CORE VISIT

October 2013 Another successful and fun visit this October 6th. Hosted by General Manager David Luce. A good turn out, and great opportunity to pick up some excellent buys, and some super bargains. I’ll try to schedule another visit in 2014 sometime and let everyone know in the bulletin.

THE CHIMNEY’S WORKSHOP COMING TO VIRGINIA

William Mason Violin Shop in Fredericksburg, VA will be the venue for a Chimney’s Workshop sponsored East Coast Violin Making Workshop. Dates are still up in the air, depending on response. They might hold an event early next year (likely late April/Early May 2014). We’ll be certain to post this in future bulletins as we hear how this develops. This will be a two week program modeled after the Chimneys Workshops that took place in Arizona. Both weeks will focus on what each attended wants to learn. More information will be posted on their website at www.wmmasonviolinshop.com. William Mason has committed to provide a $25 discount on presentation of your Southern Violin Association membership card. You can also get more information by calling them at 540-645-7499.

HUTHMAKER’S VIOLINS TO HOST ITALIAN EXHIBITION 2014

Huthmaker’s Violins of Duluth, Georgia, will be hosting an Italian violin exhibit from the Consort in Cremona for 2014. Huthmaker’s will be the only shop in the country to host the exhibit. There is not a confirmed date yet that we can announce but we will keep you posted.

VIOLIN MAKER’S SCHOOL IN NORTH CAROLINA

Joseph A. Thrift, of Dobson, North Carolina, has announced that he is establishing a violin makers school here in North Carolina, and is taking reservations for his first course.

Joseph is a member of the Violin Society of America, and a graduate of the Newark School of ViolinMaking in England. He’s also participated in the Oberlin Violin making workshops. Joseph had his own violin shop in Winston-Salem from 1980-1984, and has worked alongside Roger Hargrave periodically for the past 7 years.

You can reach Joseph at 336-352-4471, or write him at PO Box 593, Dobson, NC 27017, or email violins@surry.net

HAPPY VALLEY -- MAKERS MEET PLAYERS EVENT AUGUST 31

I attended this event this year, and had a lot of fun. The weather got a little damp later in the day but did not dampen the spirit of the event. So next year, keep it in mind, because we’ll be invited again. This is a day-long “Makers Meet Players” event at the annual HAPPY VALLEY OLD TIME FIDDLER’S CONVENTION held every year late August, near Lenoir, NC. This event attracts hundreds of fiddlers of all ages and abilities, and thousands of attendees. They set up a large tent of about 60’ long just for instrument makers to set tables (which they provide) and display their instruments. Usually there are 5 or 6 violin/fiddle makers, plus a few mandolin makers, and a few guitar makers, etc. This is particularly a great event for novice makers to get together and compare notes and instruments, and sometimes even make a sale. Most of the time there is an ongoing jam session in the middle of the tent, while just a few hundred feet away the competitions are held in an even larger tent that seats 300 plus. If you want to be a part of this event, then contact Bob Kogut at fiddlemaker@charter.net . He’ll reserve a spot with table and chairs. I’ll be there!! See ya! I’ll continue to post this info in every bulletin.

I’ve attended at least four of these now, and it really is a lot of fun. It’s held on the Dula farm, at the resting place of Laura Foster, immortalized in the ballad “Tom Dooley” and just a short distance from Daniel Boone’s home in the 1750s. Its really a beautiful valley, and a wonderful venue. Just the drive in the last 20 miles is gorgeous countryside.

HOWARD CORE FIELDTRIP – October 4

This past month a contingent of our members were able to tour of the Howard Core facility at Anniston, Alabama (about 2 hours West of Atlanta). If you missed the tour, you would have been amazed, as we were, at the scope of this operation which employs more than 40 persons on a full time basis. The facility is located on the old Fort McClellan Army Base, in a series of brick warehouses that date from the 1930s. In one warehouse, you can see racks of violins holding as many as 3,000 plus violins all in one place. Mr. David Luce provided a BBQ Lunch while we held our general membership meeting. Following that, we were welcome to shop in the parts department which was about 2000 sq ft of violin wood, tools, varnishes, accessories, every kind of item you could ever need for making violin-family instruments. We were additionally given a 10% discount off their usual wholesale prices, covering some of our travel expenses.

THINKING OF JOINING?

Membership is open to ANYONE that has an interest. If you’d like to join, you can send $60 made out to Southern Violin Association (annual membership), along with your contact information to Dustin Williams, SVA Treasurer, at 1218 17th Ave S., Nashville, TN 37212 (email dustin@williamsfineviolins.com). OR, you can just show up at our meetings, and pay the fee there.

We are a not-for-profit organization.

All the best,

Dave Chandler, President Southern Violin Association david@ccvn.com