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

[Michelle LeFree <mlefree@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

 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