[Harp-L] harmonica festivals




I don't see anything fruity cakey about the post. It's a legitimate attempt to explain how things are at festivals. Nothing for anyone to get excited about. I think we all need to take a day off and paint a room lolol

smo-joe


Subject: [Harp-L] volunteers and harmonica festivals

"Mark writes:

"All I keep seeing is volunteer, in capitals , in quotes, excuses  for
not doing much cause they volunteer, not being paid, etc.."

Excuse me - but this is a completely bogus statement. NOWHERE has anyone claimed whatsoever that volunteers 'make excuses for not doing much'!

Quite to the contrary, the volunteers for ANY harmonica convention - the eleven I've attended so far - SPAH, Buckeye, GSHC, have gone far beyond the call of duty any PAID worker would have gone - precisely because they're not being paid ... they do it out of a love for the instrument - and in furtherance of and promotion of that very love and caring.

I've watched these people work from early morning until late at night..practically out cold on their feet ...still pasting on smiles and helping 'newbies' to their conventions such as yourself. They don't get to enjoy much of anything of the convention...since they're stuck behind tables, or in a small, usually cold room for much of the night - handling 'details'.

You're completely misconstruing, misreading and/or deliberately altering what's being said about the volunteers.

You need to reread.

Elizabeth

PS: comparing harmonica playing to model railroad hobbyists is apples to oranges. Not at all the same thing. There are thousands of Railroad Hobbyists who spend huge amounts of money on their own home set ups and who make it a practice to take entire families on outings to these kinds of events. They stop by for an hour or so. I've done it myself. It simply isn't the same for a harmonica convention when a large percentage of the attendees are there by themselves and the numbers of the volunteers is miniscule in the harmonica world by comparison.

I couldn't agree more with Rob on this particular matter. No one involved with a SPAH or GSHC would be particularly comfortable with a convention growing to such a huge degree....in fact, I'd hazard a guess that even 1,000 people might be well beyond the reach of a volunteer staff, especially for a Banquet dinner (does your Railroad 'convention' include that, or performances by name players?) - given that most of the people who DO volunteer are people who either work part time, or are wives of harmonica players donating their time while their husbands play, or retirees. They are vastly underappreciated. I have no clue why they continue working as hard as they do with the obvious knowledge now that they are completely invisible to so many on this list who are perfectly content to benefit from their hard work.

IF you are far more comfortable with the kind of 'convention' which is set up and run with deep pockets then feel free to go to that kind of planned-ahead 'for profit' event. There are harmonica camps where everything is spelled out far in advance (easy enough when there's plenty of money). It'll cost you around $1,000 for 5 days - not including food and board, but you'll know in advance everything you'll be learning. No such thing as paying for one day only, afaik. You'll likely have to room with someone else and still have the travel costs, but you'll be happy since you'll have your 'schedule'. That's all that's really important.

Perhaps you have no knowledge that the Garden State Festival was given up on completely in 2008 - there was no festival that year. Val Redler and Phil Caltabellotta decided they could not allow their club's festival with its long history to die...so decided to do it all themselves for 2009...with a little help from their club. The previous year the club had forfeited a chunk of money on the hotel. That had to be accounted for..and the club's finances straightened out - with tons of work put in to turn it all around. Val's accomplished this in the briefest time imaginable, while still managing to put on an absolutely brilliant festival for 2009. AND get a 'schedule' out 4 weeks ahead of the Fest last year - something no other harmonica festival managed to do before.

The club had very few members who were able to do the kind of work involved - so she took it on by herself. I watched her kill herself for this Club and Festival.

To have someone like you complain repeatedly on harp-l 6 weeks in advance of what's going to be her 2nd most brilliantly run festival when she's working hard at this stage to still nail down performers and people to give seminars ....is beyond the pale, and getting quite silly. GIVE IT A REST! You've already been told you will be guaranteed to have a good time - but I'll retract that now. I'm quite sure you won't. I strongly suspect you're the kind of individual who'll manage to make a sow's ear out of a silk purse...and find fault with even the best of times.

Pah!







This archive was generated by a fusion of Pipermail 0.09 (Mailman edition) and MHonArc 2.6.8.