Folks, The June/July edition of In The Groove is headed to the printers next week. I keep being amazed at the excellent work submitted by our contributors. In the mean time, below please find the President's Message from the upcoming issue:
President's Message "Have you explored the endless possibilities of running for elected office in the Michigan Antique Phonograph Society? I believe I see within you the makings of a GREAT magazine editor!" I recently exchanged E-Mails with a MAPS member using those very words. Other than being a little whimsical, there is both sincerity and opportunity in that statement. I believe in volunteering my time and energy to a cause that is worthwhile. Heck we all do or we wouldn't commit so much devotion to our passion of antique phonographs and recordings. My term as president of MAPS expires on December 31st, 2011. We will need a new president to continue on the tradition begun some 36 years ago. The August/September edition of In The Groove will start the ball rolling with a slate of MAPS officer candidates for 2012/2013. Election ballots will be printed in the October/November edition. I will be happy to assist as "one" of the editors of In The Groove, if elected. There is enormous opportunity for more involvement from MAPS members in our magazine. By changing ITG to a bi-monthly, employing a graphic designer, and planning our new web site to serve as an editorial assistant, we now have the luxury to divide up the duties of the magazine's editor into various departments or specific duties. No one person will have the responsibility to do it all. Joan Rolfs begins her new duties in this issue as our MAPS Chapter News editor. We have an immediate need for two more editors: "Upcoming Events" editor and "Swap Shop" editor. With this distinction comes the glory as you will be credited as an associate editor of one of your favorite magazines - In The Groove. Send me an E-Mail at presid...@maps-itg.org and we'll discuss your involvement. Union is just around the corner. If you haven't heard, the dinner meeting following Friday's early buyer show will feature presentations by three very prevalent North American antique phonograph societies: The California Antique Phonograph Society, The Canadian Antique Phonograph Society, and our very our Michigan Antique Phonograph Society. Personally, I'd like to see more interaction between our groups. We share the same interests and show up at the same events. I wonder what we could accomplish if we pooled our talents and cooperated on a joint project. With enough voices and petitions, would it be possible to encourage a major university to create a study program in antique phonographs and recordings? How nice it would be to offer museums and archival libraries graduate students that have been immersed in a curriculum of historic audio. I have high hopes that someday there will be well-funded and properly managed non-profit museums of antique phonographs and recordings with the justifiable expectation of outliving us all. Someplace that will accept museum quality phonographs and actually display them and even play them to researchers and the public at large. Places where museum volunteers won't point to an Edison Amberola model 30 and tell their tour group, "This particular phonograph was manufactured in 1877." (sorry, I had a bitter experience last month while on vacation) Antique phonograph enthusiasts are some of the best people on Earth. I will forever enjoy your company as together we enjoy our passion of historic audio. Enthusiastically Yours, Tim McCormick _______________________________________________ Phono-L mailing list http://phono-l.oldcrank.org