I have been very surprised that there has been almost no mention of the
MBSI meeting.

I would like to give a report of what a first timer thought. I joined
the national organization just so I could attend this meeting. That is
a poor rule to have in my opinion. I think if someone is willing to pay
the registration fee they should be allowed to attend. Who knows how
many future members the MBSI miss because of this rule. There many be
a very good reason for this rule and if so I'd be interested in hearing
about it. I was a little aggravated that I was not going to be allowed
to register until I paid the dues. I wanted to go so I paid the
conference fees AND THE NATIONAL DUES!

Anne and Preston came along, and this was our family vacation this
year. We arrived Wednesday and attended the First-Timers Reception. We
had the special privilege to be seated with Craig Brougher. Craig and
his wife as many of you know are wonderful people and Craig is
interested in helping us "younger" guys. I appreciate that. Craig made
Anne and I feel equal and welcome. There was no snubbing at all with
Craig.

After the Reception it was to the plaza for the Monkey Organ concert.
Believe it or not this was my first time seeing these instruments in
action.  I loved it and so did our 1 year old, Preston. He really liked
the "skating troll" Beatrice Robertson had.

Next day was the Included Tour of the Mint Museum of Art and the
Charlotte Museum of History. The best part of this was the concert by
Dean Shostak. He is great and very fun to watch. This was my first
opportunity to hear a Hurdy-Gurdy and a Glass Armonica [Harmonica ?] .

That evening was the presentation by Christian & Sharon Bailly. This
was a first class presentation. I learned a lot about bird boxes. The
only negative was that I could not understand Christian because of his
heavy accent.

Friday morning was "Workshop" time. This was one of my favorite times.
Here is a list of the workshops I attended and a few comments about a
few.

    1. "Secrets of a Modern Day Band Organist,"  Ron & Glynn Keister
    gave a wonderful talk about how they obtained and use the Ruth
    organ. I have always wanted to own and demonstrate and organ, but
    after this program I don't know if I would have the time. :-)

    2. "Eugene deKleist, The beginning of the Band Organ Industry in
    the US" this was Ron Bopp's workshop which was a terrific narrative
    of the Band Organ history in America. The slides were awesome and
    this was a world class presentation, but what else would you expect
    from Ron.

    3. "Invention Of The Talking Machine" by Daniel Choffnes was a real
    surprise. First of all, (and I say this will all due respect) most
    of the men I had seen giving workshops were somewhat older than
    myself. Daniel was possibly younger than I, but what a job he did.
    His presentation was very informative and really open my eyes to
    the fact that maybe Edison didn't come up with the phonograph idea
    first.

    4. "The Ampico Expression System" by Craig Brougher. (My favorite
    workshop) This was one of if not the most organized workshops I
    attended. The video was a great idea. I really thought there would
    be an Ampico there! Well, I didn't know what to expect, this WAS my
    first time. :-) If you ever had any ideas that a "properly"
    restored Ampico B could not play A rolls you should call and ask
    Craig for a copy of the video.

    5. "How to be a Presenter Using Multimedia and the Internet" by
    Tom and Ellie Toney. This workshop was great if you did not have
    any knowledge of what computers and the Internet could do. If you
    have a working knowledge of these topics you may not have learned
    very much during this hour. Nice job and very nice equipment.

    6. "Researching the History of a European Fair Organ" by Bob Conant.
    My second favorite workshop. Bob did a wonderful job explaining how
    he came to gather all the info about his organ, which has allowed
    him to trace it back to it's very beginning. He even had the slides
    which showed the organ in it's original location. He did a wonderful
    job at restoring this wonderful organ that had been butchered MORE
    THAN ONCE. This was also a first class presentation.

    7. "Restoring a Wurlitzer Harp" by Craig Smith. This was a great
    workshop if you wanted to see all that was involved with the
    restoration. I really enjoyed the interaction between Craig and
    Dave Ramey during the presentation. One thing is for sure Craig
    Smith is one meticulous dude!

Friday night was Mart night. Anne and I enjoyed walking around and
LOOKING at the items for sale. I was a little surprised that the mart
was not larger than what it was, but then again I don't have any
previous knowledge to base these ideas on. Maybe this mart was a large
one.

After walking through the mart we enjoyed the Banjo Orchestra. Again
I'm glad I had my video camera. I like the instrument and was able to
talk with Mr. Ramey and he too was a very nice man to talk with.

The banquet was very nice and Dick Hyman was unreal! No other comments
needed

Sunday was travel home day for us but, we had time to visit  3 open
houses.  We visited the LeRoy Plyer Collection, The John and Becky
Lowery Collection and the Ted and Irene Leverett Collection. This was
the best part of the meeting to me.

Overall the convention was very organized, as far as I know. I believe
there was a few problems the day of the workshops but things were
handled very well. The hosting chapter had everything under control
and things went very smooth.

I was asked the same question you are probably thinking, "Will you
attend another meeting." Well, I don't know. We enjoyed the meeting,
but I am really more interested in pneumatically controlled instrument
and at this MBSI meeting there was not even one player piano in the
whole place. I do however, realize that this is the MUSIC BOX society
and it is a society for mainly Music Boxes. At this time I do not plan
on renewing my national membership, nor do I plan on joining a local
chapter. I have also decided not to pursue starting an AMICA chapter
here in my area. I do plan on maintaining my AMICA membership and look
forward to attending an AMICA meeting sometime in the near future.

These are just my thoughts. The purpose of this posting is to let you
know what a first timer thought and the impressions he had.

Sam Harris - Greenville, North Carolina
sam@greenvillenc.com

Anne Harris
anne-harris@geocities.com

Player Piano Restorations Illustrated
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Ranch/9374

 [ Sam (and Anne ?)
 [
 [ Thanks much for taking the time to write about this convention.
 [ I bet there are others here who attended other workshops and
 [ might have more to add.  I'd encourage others who went to also
 [ share with us what they saw and did.     Thanks.     -- Jody