I felt I had to respond to Justin and his statement that the Southern
California chapter of AMICA has lost 20 or more sites for organ
rallies.  We haven't had 20 sites in total, and the main ones we did
have -- Fullerton Arboretum and Descanso Gardens -- we didn't lose
because we couldn't play music that was requested.

We lost both of those sites because of management change.  Fullerton
Arboretum cancelled it's Arborfest completely, feeling that they made
more money with less problem by conducting plant sales.  Descanso
Gardens, too, changed management and the reason we were finally told
for not having us was we brought in _too many_ people when we had
the rally there, and they felt it was hard on the plants.  (We had
a tremendous following at Descanso Gardens, and still get requests for
dates when we'll be there again.)

Many of the parks in Southern California will not allow us to hold
rallies, or, as in the case of Griffith Park, they want to charge huge
amounts for us to do so.  We do the rallies on a volunteer basis, being
people who love to play the organs for the public, not for money, but
at the same time we don't pay to play.

Shirley Nix
Woodland Hills, Calif.