[Harp-L] SPAH COnvention

[Owen P. Evans]

Counting Down The Days

Dear SPAH members and friends,
As you might imagine, the planning for the celebration of the 60th Annual SPAH Convention is coming to a conclusion. With less than 90 days until we meet, I wanted to provide you an update, and some reminders, on Convention progress, opportunities and content. 

Registration to Attend Online is Now Open
First, you should know that SPAH has, as planned, opened registration for Online Convention attendance, featuring five days of streamed concerts, and daily recording of all seminars. Recordings of all scheduled presentations at the Convention (between 9 a.m. and 10:30 p.m.) from Wednesday through Saturday will be made available to Online attendees, as well as to those of us registered to attend in-person in St Louis. If you have watched any recordings from the 2020 and 2021 SPAH Week events, or from our 2022 Convention in Tulsa, you already know that these recordings are a wonderful part of the Preservation of Harmonica music and the unlimited creativity of SPAH artists and seminar presenters! Check out online registration here <https://spah.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6ebb059ecb9e9315d7d46c074&id=e7fd087ee4&e=560f98f902>.

Register NOW to Attend in Person
Second, if you have not yet registered, you would be wise to do so soon. We are seeing strong hotel and convention registration, with well over half of our allocated hotel rooms already booked for peak nights. And, the cost to attend is only discounted until June. The SPAH hotel rate is a really good deal, so book and register now <https://spah.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6ebb059ecb9e9315d7d46c074&id=285b544df8&e=560f98f902>!
In case you forgot, we have some cool opportunities for all registrants to consider once you have purchased your registration package:
Tours: The local Gateway Harmonica Club in St Louis has organized two excellent tours <https://spah.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6ebb059ecb9e9315d7d46c074&id=8d137cd915&e=560f98f902>, scheduled for Thursday and Friday mornings. Space is limited, so you’ll have to find something else to do once they are full!  Check them out here <https://spah.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6ebb059ecb9e9315d7d46c074&id=5324bd009a&e=560f98f902>. Maybe your spouse or companion would like to attend…?
Companion’s Breakfast: Each year, SPAH sponsors a complimentary breakfast for companions of our registered attendees. So, whether you have a friend or spouse joining you in St Louis, please remember to sign them up for the Companion’s Breakfast, held Saturday at 8:30 a.m. There will be live musical entertainment, prizes and surprises! Sign up here <https://spah.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6ebb059ecb9e9315d7d46c074&id=dd1b33a965&e=560f98f902> now. Space is limited.
 
In Memoriam
And, for all of you, please remember that we need you to send in the names and a little detail about those from our community who have passed in the past 10 years. SPAH will remember them in a special video program to be shown at the Saturday Banquet. 
 
As of now, we have the following names submitted:
Gene Hansen, Mel Green, Mike Caldwell, Jack A Nebo, Michael Polesky, Tony W Turner and Gene Preston. 
Please help us remember those who have passed. You can submit a name and a brief write-up, ideally with a photograph here <https://spah.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6ebb059ecb9e9315d7d46c074&id=deba320bd4&e=560f98f902>.  We need your information by July 1 so we can prepare the video presentation.
 
Nominate your favorites for SPAH Awards now
All SPAH members in good standing can submit nominations for 3 annual SPAH Awards to be presented at the Awards Banquet on Saturday night. The Awards Committee can only select winners from your nominees, so please visit this page <https://spah.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6ebb059ecb9e9315d7d46c074&id=9deba8662d&e=560f98f902>, see who has won SPAH Awards in prior years, and send us your nominations. Nominating is as simple as sending in an email to spahawards at xxxxx <mailto:spahawards at xxxxx>  The deadline is less than 60 days away, so please don’t delay.
 
Schedule of Performances and Seminars 
Lastly, you can see the preliminary schedule of performances here <https://spah.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6ebb059ecb9e9315d7d46c074&id=95741937c7&e=560f98f902>, and SPAH will publish the preliminary schedule of 45-plus seminars on that page very soon. Watch that web page for any further details! 
 
We will both see you in St Louis.  
Michael D’Eath & Jerry Deall
Owen P. Evans
3777 Riverside Drive E. #707E
Windsor, Ontario.  N8Y 4W6

519-984-4376-C
519-974-2885-H

opevans at xxxxx