Hi Everyone,  I am 44 years old and have been a collector of mechanical
music since 1988 and a member of MBSI since 1994.  I now also belong to
other groups dedicated to mechanical music.

I agree with Bea Robertson that there are many very nice musical items
that can be purchased for a few dollars.  There is a complete universe
for budgets under $100, $500, $1,000.  There are also orchestrions and
organs that can cost millions of dollars.  At every level of
affordability there are fantastic things to buy.

The problem I see is that our different societies do not know how to
promote themselves.  I only stumbled onto mechanical music because
a business friend is a collector.  He was turned onto mechanical music
only because Q. David Bowers was a close friend.  Our groups are
basically closed societies.

We need promotion and promoters to expand our group.  When Bowers was
active in mechanical music, he took unwanted musical instruments and
_created_ a hobby.  Yes, he was in a commercial venture (Hathaway and
Bowers), however Bowers imported the spectrum of musical devices,
employed people to fix them, and sold the musical novelty to the public.

Bowers organized the hobby by researching and writing the book,
"Encyclopedia of Automatic Musical Instruments".  It was published
32 years ago and it still is the foremost reference book today.  What
individual or group has stepped up to the plate since then?

The MBSI's membership peaked about seven years ago when Kevin Kline was
president.  Membership then was about 2900, today membership is around
2100.  Our groups are not doing their jobs.

On a closing note, I believe that younger people would join and collect
if they knew the hobby existed.  Also, we need to remember that these
musical items were made to be played.  Let your children or grandchildren
use them.  My children have turned on music boxes, automata, etc., since
they were three years old.  Nothing has ever been broken.  I encourage
them to play the music as they could become the next generation.

Mark Yaffe