Re: [Harp-L] SPAH convention (long reply)



Mick Zaklan observes:
    I don't have any hard evidence for this other than my eyeballs.  But this
appears to be at least the 2nd straight year where the people hosting and
doing most of the grunt work were 70 or 80 years of age.  I don't know that
we can continually depend upon senior citizens to staff these things.  In
the future, I can't see 90 or 100 year-olds throwing conventions for us.

Mick Zaklan

Well, Roger and Nancy Bale aren't senior citizens yet, but I know of many a convention that wouldn't have gone off without them. However, if they keep working the way they do, they ~will~ be old before their time. :-) (Thanks for all you guys do...)


Your point is very well taken, though Mick. The SPAH convention constraint to appear only in cities with large and active harmonica clubs is a severe one. Almost without exception, the clubs themselves are populated and run by... chromatic players. And the majority of chromatic players in these clubs, at least according to my observation, are getting a tad "long in the tooth." For whatever reason, there are two categories of harpers who don't seem to participate in local harmonica clubs. One is the professionals, the other blues guys (diatonic'ers mostly).

I can sort of see why pro's don't choose to participate in local harmonica clubs. They play enough harp that they probably want to do something else in their spare time, plus it must be somewhat frustrating for a high-level player to surround him/herself with lesser-capable harmonicists. I do know some high-level players who love to teach, but they are used to getting paid for it. I'm not sure why blues players don't seem to want to gather at the local club's meetings. The ones I know usually think they know all they need to know and apparently don't have much time or inclination to share their knowledge and experience. (There are notable exceptions of course so I don't want to paint with too broad a brush; I know for example that our own Mojo Red is both active and eager to share at local club meetings.)

So, just as the membership of harmonica clubs seems to be aging, so do the clubs themselves. I wonder how much longer clubs large and active enough to host a SPAH convention will be around. I don't pretend to know how to enlist more participation and membership in local clubs, but it's pretty clear they are the life-blood of the SPAH meetings. So increasing membership in local clubs is of obvious importance. I don't know what SPAH does to support local clubs, but helping to recruit new membership would be a good way to shore up its foundation (ads in local newspapers, etc.?)

The toll on an entirely volunteer local organization of organizing a SPAH meeting is high. I know that the 2006 meeting in Denver exacted a very heavy price on the Mile High Harmonica Club membership. They were burned out to the extent that they have been unable in years since to host a regional convention, let alone another national one. (I know from similar endeavors that one has no idea whatever how much work is involved in organizing an event like a SPAH meeting until you try it. And many who have tried it now "know better than to try it again.")

Each year the SPAH board seems to have more difficulty finding a suitable host club. This makes planning very difficult. I know that many conventions are planned ~years~ in advance by teams of professional event planners. Having less than a year now to the next meeting with no city chosen for the year after only further confounds the job of the SPAH board and whatever city's club that ends up being chosen.

What is the answer? It seems that SPAH may need to change its way of thinking about putting on conventions. I can think of a few possibilities such as enrolling the services of a professional event planner or hiring someone in-house full-time at SPAH to do the work. Another idea might be to use just one or two cities, alternate years, and pay the local clubs either to do the legwork or hire the work out locally. Selecting the cities would be a painful process and having only two locations would cause logistic problems for many people (I've noticed in my limited experience that a good fraction of attendees is made of local people). Also, I think it is really nice to meet in different locales as I enjoy discovering new places (I was very pleasantly surprised at how cool a place Minneapolis is). A final and even less potable solution would be to restrict meetings to every other year. No one wants that sort of cutback.

The more appealing of these solutions would clearly cost a significant amount of change. And that kind of money won't come from $45 annual fees for what, 1,000 members, or $200 attendance fees with 400 people attending. In looking into my crystal ball, I see a a drastic increase in annual and convention attendance fees no matter how it goes.

One thing we do have going for us is the growing popularity of our instrument. The high-profile TV exposure with the talent contest shows, Memphis Charlie playing so well backing Cindy Lauper on national TV, and the B-Radical getting so much good press and TV exposure. Blues music in general is enjoying a resurgence in popularity, and of course the harmonica is an integral part of that. Like it or not, "Cadillac Records" did much to bring the harmonica into society's consciousness. I wonder how SPAH might somehow piggyback on that? An advertising agency? A full-time marketing position?

So get ready to see the last of the SPAH meetings in the not-too-distant future or a pretty drastic change in the way the organization does business.

At least that's the way I see it. :-)

And thanks for pointing out the dilemma, Mick.

Michelle





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