JAVS Fall 2006

FROM THE PRESIDENT

BRATS program. I have heard from several presidents of our regional chapters who arc planning BRAT days events and we shall even have an enti re day ar our next viola con gress dedicated co the BRATS pro gram! We hope it will be the start of a national foste ring of little BRATS! The AV is working hard ro earn your membership and working hard to be the resource that you need. Please tell your friends and students! Irs rime ro rally together and join us! f

officially by January 1st 2007. This is a long range investment for us and we arc in the ea rly stages of establishing the fou ndation- ir will rake some time ro develop ro irs fu ll potential. Bur with the help of busi nesses and donations (we arc look ing currendy fo r any instruments in any condition to add ro rhe collec tion) the program hould be avail able for our members by next year. If you have any information about an instrument or would like to con tribu te, please contact me direcrly. This is an important step for us at the AV and has taken much time and energy from eve1yone involved. Bur we all believe in the program and ir is in direct response to our members needs. Tf you have any other ideas abou t ways in which the AVS can help, please write directly to me at hcal lus@music.ucsb.edu and we shall review and consider each request. We want ro hear your ideas! We have several other projects being established and as they come to fruition , l will alert you to their existence. We do wish ro reach our to a more diverse membershi p and want to be able ro offer programs for our orchestral professionals as wel l as university professors and performers and those on the com munity level. The emphasis has returned to the work of chapters and is important to us. Ir is one of the reasons we developed the

It has been an exciting time at rhe AVS this past summer! Our annual membership drive is in full swing and rhcrc i some great news to report. Together with Sandra Robbins (creator) and Robertson Violins in Albuquerque (hosr venue) we have been able ro put in place the foundation of our new VlOLA B.ANK! The Viola Bank is a pro gram designed to meet the needs of our members whose students are nor able to either buy or rent an instru mcnr by providing an instrument to use for free. We hope co serve both beginning students and advanced college or professional players over time and have already started to amass instruments of all sizes and values. For more about this exciting new program please visit the web site: http://www.americanviolasociety.org/ violabank/violabank.htm l There is an in troductory letter from andy and other important links co sponsoring businesses and we hope ro be able to launch the program

Yours,

Helen Cal lus President The American Viola ociety

Y LUME 22 NUMBER 2 3