Once again many SAW members will participate in this year’s Northeast Regional Folk Alliance (NERFA) conference, Nov 7 – 10, in Kerhonkson, NY. Year by year SAW recognition increases at NERFA through showcasing both our members and Mid-Atlantic Song Contest winners in our two showcase rooms--affectionately called The House and The Senate. This is sure to be another great event with little chance for sleep during the four-day conference highlighting music, workshops,
mentor sessions, and displays.

Last month I said we’re working on ways to improve communications, to bring our membership more useful information, and to deliver that information in ways that make sense and are timely. I also asked you to send me your inputs at president@saw.org —your concerns, insights, requirements, etc.—well keep them coming because you’re helping us focus on what we need to be doing.

To this end, you may notice some changes in the next couple of months—website, educational opportunities, etc. Some inputs we’re considering include expanding workshops for beginners and dealing with collaboration. Other concerns that caught my eye are how to integrate new members, schedule workshops that are led by Grammy Winning songwriters, and increasing the focus on jazz, pop, and country—all great ideas.

Well, thank you, Education Director Patty Reese for your clairvoyance - hopefully some of you took the opportunity to participate in the multiple Grammy winning Gary Nicholson workshop and performance in Oct. If you did, let us know what you thought—this was a super bargain for SAW members so I hope you took advantage of it.

Check out the Nov happenings and get out there and have some fun. As I said, we’re looking to bring you more useful and timely information. To do this, we can really use someone who’s willing to lead the effort of birthing this new baby - no it isn’t as hard or complicated as it sounds - in fact, I was wondering what level of effort it might take to coordinate content and increase the usefulness of our SAW newsletter -- so I spent about 10 minutes and reached out to three different people, all having the skills to write and provide a meaningful and relevant article, and I asked if they’d be willing to be a contributor—they all said yes! I know we can make our SAW Notes more engaging and useful to you—Then I thought what fun it might be to read some stories from other SAW members on what motivates them and how SAW has helped them—Testimony Time! So ... I wondered how hard this might be to try out and decided to include my own experience in this issue just to give you an idea of the many different things we might be able to include in our newsletter.

I think this could really be a lot of fun for a SAW member who wants to make a huge impact on the SAW newsletter—Could that person be you? If you might be interested, just e-mail SAWVolunteers@SAW.org and express your interest.

Rob Veale, President | president@saw.org