International Concertina Association

[Alan Day]

It would be rather nice for someone to give an update on the ICA ,

The current situation,

Membership

Secretary, (still Pauline de Snoo?), Treasurer, Archive Controller. Etc.

Many thanks

Al (A lapsed member)

[John Wild]

Hello Alan

 

this page on the ICA website gives you the current contacts. Pauline is newsletter editor. Colin Whyles is now secretary. Paul Mccann is treasurer. That is assuming all were reelected at the recent AGM.

http://www.concertina.org/contact/

 

The home page is http://www.concertina.org

 

this (I hope) is a link to the ICA Facebook page:-

https://www.facebook.com/International-Concertina-Association-125708020862930/

 

Hope this helps.

 

regards

 

John.

[Alan Day]

Thanks John.

As there are new players of the concertina Worldwide ,some of whome are members here, or new joining members, it would be in ICA interest to update their information here to those new members and endeavor to entice us older members back into the association.

Al

[John Wild]

There are ICA representatives as members of these forums. Perhaps they will read this.

[pauline de snoo]

Indeed the International Concertina Association is quite active but not so much on this website. There is the magazine which is sent out 4 times a year and regular as clockwork with lots of interesting interviews and sometimes extra supplements. Have a look a the website www.concertina.org for indexes of previous magazines. Then there is the facebook page of the International Concertina Association and the Youtube channel. All can be accessed by using the links on the website. As well as twitter and soundcloud.

However the most informative outside the website are the magazine and the facebook page.

The magazine has contents that is not published or limited on the internet. At least later so that members who have a subscription have the advantage of reading items first. In my view gradually over time the magazine has changed from Newsletter to Magazine.

Last issues have contained a story by Douglas Rogers and an interview with Vic Gammon. Items that you read nowhere else.

I have been so busy with the magazine and the other publication channels we use that I have not spent much time here. However have a look at the website and discover more. I will try to publish some more info here in the future. And Alan Day you are more then welcome to send in one of your stories as you have done in the past. Look forward to that.

If anyone of you wants your events published do mail me at editorCW@concertina.org

 

The magazine is published in RILM (Répertoire International de Littérature Musicale

The Graduate Center of The City University of New York,) which makes it accessible to Universities and Libraries and others that are interested all over the world.

Edited May 5, 2017 by pauline de snoo

[Alan Day]

Thank you Pauline for your posting and very nice update.

There are still members (I am one of them) that remember the old meetings in London,where members who attended could play their party piece in front of many of the UK's greatest players. Jim Harvey was the Secretary when first attended .There was a yearly competition for the various cups and beginners were welcomed , helped and encouraged. Some of the playing was included in Anglo and English Internationals. The last meeting I attended was at the Horticultural Hall nr Victoria Station.

Al

[John Wild]

As I recall, these meetings and competitions were discontinued because they mainly appealed to those members in or near London, who were becoming a minority of the membership. If memory serves me well, the last competitive festival was in 1993. The membership base really is more international now.

 

- John.

[Alan Day]

It was suggested (by me )that members could enter a yearly competition by sending in recordings and the winner (s) getting a diploma, but sadly it never took off. I still think it was a good idea.Competitons can improve the general standard of playing and give players yearly targets to aim for.

Al

[pauline de snoo]

Indeed as John says, things have changed tremendously. The International Concertina Association is no longer a London based group of concertina players with regular meetings.

The ICA has become an organisation with members all over the world (20 - 25%) and the rest widespread over the UK. It's editor even based outside the UK as well as the webmaster. So very international that since many years the Internet and the magazine are the most important reason for people to be a member of the ICA. There are no longer local meetings. We still organise an AGM but that has been under discussion to change to a postal vote or email vote. The last AGM only held recently on 22 April with about 27 members present. That is only a tiny part of the membership and is s good number but committee members have been considering changes to the constitution because of the changed status of the ICA.

In the mean time it is certainly my personal aim to provide for all these members so far and wide a magazine with interesting information which they might not read otherwise. After all reading longer articles and interviews or technical issues on a computer or tablet is not always really pleasant and a magazine can also be saved for many years so that it is easy to go back to much later in time. I still prefer a real book to an E-book.

The International Concertina Association would like to be an umbrella type of organisation where all concertina groups in whatever size or location, wherever in the world can be assisted in some way by the ICA and In whatever form the ICA thinks appropriate,.

[pauline de snoo]

It was suggested (by me )that members could enter a yearly competition by sending in recordings and the winner (s) getting a diploma, but sadly it never took off. I still think it was a good idea.Competitons can improve the general standard of playing and give players yearly targets to aim for.

Al

Lots of talk and thoughts on the subject but alas sofar quite difficult to realise. There are however the basics for gradings which I made for the Victoria College of Music. But that has proven difficult to access for a few members who were interested. They have however published the first books for the lower level of grading exams. Will write about it in the magazine later this year.