Happy New Year to everyone. Sorry to start the New Year on a controversial note, but has anyone else noted how quiet it has become on the QL2004 front? As far as I know there has been no mention of it anywhere other than in QL Today for over 4 months. Nothing at all from QUANTA whom we assumed would organise it. I have even heard hints that the QUANTA AGM would be designated QL2004. (Those who remember the controversy over this last Summer can probably hear my quiet sniggers!)
If QUANTA was serious about organising QL2004 we should have known details of the date and venue by now. People living outside the UK need this information at least 6 months in advance. If QUANTA are organising QL2004 can they please reply to this mailing very quickly, because, if they are not, some of us want to revive the idea of a (non-QUANTA) international QL2004 show in Eindhoven. This is in line with Jochen's suggestion in the last QL Today. Basically Jochen and I were thinking of a show late October/early November to avoid a clash with a possible Berchtesgaden event. We have yet to sound out Sin-QL-Air about the feasibility of this, but this will happen very shortly. We assume that the St. Joris college will be available, but we should bear in mind that Sin-QL-Air has a low membership so there is a limit to what we can ask of them and we would need a lot of support from outside the Netherlands. We would also want the show to be a themed show with an activity program. I wonder whether people who are still successful in running shows with such a program, i.e. Italy and North America, could give advice or, even better, send a contingent to organise part of the activities. Another idea I had was for a QL Today theme with as many of the regular QL Today contributors present as possible. This could be a "meet the QL Today writers" day with possibly a forum to discuss the future of the QL. Any other ideas would be gratefully received. We also need to know what the traders' interest would be with firm promises to attend. (I shall probably be emailing traders separately.) In particular it would be nice to see people like D & D systems at their first continental, sorry international, show. So please some reaction, but please do not just say "good idea", and then do f*ck all. We need concrete ideas, concrete offers of help and we need them urgently. It will not be easy to organise a show from a distance, so we need all the help we can get. By the end of January, and preferably earlier, we need to have a date and an indication whether or not such a show is feasible. Finally another plea to QUANTA. Please tell us what your plans, if any, are for QL2004. I have written and said many hard things about QUANTA in the last 12 months and after January I shall no longer be a QUANTA member. However, from my side (and I think yours), I hope any future contact between us will not be acrimonious. Geoff Wicks.
