You will have received in this issue or a recent back issue an application form for membership in the International Double Reed Society. The Society asks that each current IDRS member or recipient of this newsletter make a goal of bringing in at least one new member to the IDRS for 1977!
The reasons for this request are important and simple: (1) We have always grown in membership size, each year since the inception of the Society--but at the present time we are leveling off at just the time when new memberships mean the difference between maintaining the Society or perhaps falling into a long-to-be-regretted decline and possible demise. (2) Our treasury is absolutely EMPTY as of early November, 1976. The fantastic costs of printing our publications and the crushing postal rates--the decline in number of contributing members (from 9 in 1973 to one or two in 1976)--the high costs of our Toronto Annual Meeting this August (caused in part by bringing two international artists to North America from Europe, Dame Evelyn Barbirolli and Maurice Allard, and also brought about by the requirement that we pay rental fees for halls and accommodations--even with a $20 conference fee from each attending member, the Society was unable to meet all the expenses--some were paid privately.)----all of these factors plus the lack of healthy incoming membership applications have depleted our always-small financial reserve.
But the solution to this pressing problem lies simply in the effective completion of our request for new members. Certainly all of our members who have students could assist these younger musicians by taking out one year gift memberships in the IDRS (cost $5.00). A fundamental aim of the Society is to communicate with students, assist them in the myriad problems of double reed playing, inform them of the fascinating world of oboe and bassoon playing. The $5 student membership fee, even in the year of the Society's inception, never covered the cost of printing and mailing three newsletters and a Journal in a given year. These costs were absorbed by the income from regular memberships ($10 each) which are a few dollars more than our print and mailing costs. But from this you can see that a system of this type can only break even if there is a large and growing number of student and regular memberships.
Professional performers, present student members, members who represent the musical trades: instrument makers, repairers, reed makers, music publishers, all supporters of the aims of IDRS--please encourage at least one other double reed player or enthusiast to join our ranks. Use the membership application you've received and make photo copies of it for additional memberships. THANK YOU FOR YOUR CRUCIAL HELP.
This editor feels rather responsible for part of the current problem. Because of a schedule of work which some of you might not even believe, I have been very late with several issues of the bassoon newsletter. This has inevitably led to a loss of support from many bassoonist members of IDRS. I am extremely sorry about this.
But, on the positive side, I hope to rekindle the confidence of these former members and hundreds of new members (bassoonists, oboists, others). In this year, 1976, I have personally completed no less than SIX newsletters and one half of the IDRS Journal. This brings us completely up-to-date on all owing issues of the newsletters. Please remember, all former members of the Society, that for your membership fee we have never failed to provide every benefit of IDRS membership --we print more publications (and of the highest standard of quality we know) than all or most other Societies of this type, we have organized, exciting, informative and ever-improving Annual Meeting/Conferences--in locales widely varied so as to be close to most of our North American members (West Coasters, be rewarded for your patience and support: we plan a California visit in 1978, only 18 months from now), and we continue to invite communication and participation from all members--through our three publications, attendance at the Annual Meetings and open and cordial contact with all officers of the Society, our librarian and the editors.
Please plan to share with us a growing and improving International Double Reed Society in the coming years. Thank you for your support and encouragement now.