Tradizioni - March, 2008
Dear IFAFA Members,
It was exactly one year ago today that I wrote to you for the first time, and I’d like to take just a few minutes at the beginning of this letter to say thank you to each and every one of you for all of the support I’ve received over the past year. Countless emails have come through from individuals sharing their hope for the sustained longevity of IFAFA, and although the message has come from individuals all across this country and abroad, their ideas remain one and the same. It is the shared purpose that we as an organization stay strong and stable, yet find the courage to push through and adapt new and innovative ideas for the future.
With that being said, I’m extremely delighted to announce several new and exciting developments. First, as I’ve mentioned to you many times in the past, initiating new and active committees was one of my first and major goals. As those in attendance at the Dallas conference have already learned, heads of each of the three committees have been approved, and participating board members have been appointed for each. Now all that remains is your participation! It is my goal that at least half of the participants in each committee come from the general membership.
I know that each one of you has an opinion or vision regarding IFAFA – why not share your thoughts by joining a committee? If you hesitate because time might be an issue, I can assure you that your efforts will require no more than 4 to 5 solid hours every three months. That’s really all it takes…I promise! As a final thought on this, while each of the Executive officers and the entire Board of Directors always have your best interests at heart, we will always continue to seek direction from you, our most valued members. Please contact me at the information below if you’re interested, and I will immediately put you in touch with the head of the committee you’re interested in joining.
The second major announcement is that the Board of Directors has approved a bill to allow the development of a brand new IFAFA website! A local Wisconsin-based web development company has responded to our organization with a proposal based upon a rather large wishlist of items, which we as a group decided we’d like to see implemented as part of the new website design. I’d like to take just a quick moment to highlight some of the exciting features that will be available through the new site:
- Discussion Forums – Provides all users of the site with the ability to post questions, opinions, and get answers under a single topic thread. Very useful!
- Blog (a.k.a. Web Log) – Allows anyone the chance to share their personal thoughts with the readers of the site! Have you recently taken a trip to Italy and would like to share some of your experiences? Post a blog! Have an interesting opinion regarding the state of traditional Italian folk arts in the world today? Post a blog! Just had a new baby? Post a blog and let us all know!
- Members will now be able to pay their dues online
- Non-members will now be able to register with IFAFA, and pay their dues directly online
- Provides the ability for members to update their contact info directly online
- Allows for all visitors to pay for merchandise directly through the site
- Provides the IFAFA website administrators the ability to make immediate changes to the site, without the need to involve the host. (For those of you who have noticed that our current site doesn’t get updated so often, this is a huge win!)
- Ability to sign up for email updates
- Allows RSS feeds to be linked to any registered supporter site
And believe it or not, this is just a small subset of items that will be incorporated into the new site. This was another one of my top priority goals when I took over my position, and to see it come to fruition pleases me to no end. The site is scheduled to begin development in April, with deployment slotted for sometime in late May or early June. I will be sure to keep all of you informed as we move forward with the design.
The final important announcement provides an answer to the question that I’m sure has been on everyone’s mind – Where will this year’s IFAFA conference be held?! Well, I’m very pleased to announce that the 2008 Italian Folk Art Federation of America conference will be held in….drum role please….Sacramento, California!! The conference is scheduled to be held October 24th through October 26th at the Radisson Hotel – Sacramento. Doris Beckert and her group Balliamo are actively brain-storming for new workshop ideas, and have already proposed some interesting topics.
Registration for the event will soon be available online from our new website, as well as through future mailings. Please note that the conference fee for adult members this year will be increased slightly to offset the costs associated with hosting a conference in California. Students under the age of 22, however, will continue to be granted a full reimbursement of their entrance fees, provided they attend a minimum set number of workshops and adhere to a very short list of rules set forth by IFAFA. This scholarship program, which started several years ago, has been a great success thus far, and will continue to be afforded for many years to come!
There is one additional announcement regarding the 2008 conference. Another one of my very high priority goals was to bring in a group direct from Italy to each conference held during my term as President. I’m very pleased to announce that I’ve managed to all but secure a wonderful musical group by the name of DisCanto, hailing direct from the region of Abruzzo, to participate at this year’s conference in Sacramento! The group has been traveling to Philadelphia for the past several years, and has garnered quite a following. This year, they will not only be performing in Philadelphia, but will also be performing in Toronto, and of course, now in Sacramento as part of their U.S. itinerary! While all of the details have not yet been established, I hope to work along side of Doris and her group in order to provide DisCanto a stage to present us with some entertainment, not only on Friday and Saturday nights, but also to allow them to present several workshops based on topics as they see fit. Again, some very exciting news!
Finally, before I conclude, I’d like to share with all of you a humorous, but telling story that I heard recently from one of the Italian leaders here in Milwaukee. He reminisced about a trip he’d recently taken to Italy some time last year, and while traveling through some of the smaller towns in Southern Italy, he happened upon a local celebration. During his time there, he walked the streets, enjoying the unique camaraderie that only Italians seem to have, when unbeknownst to him, a parade started to pour through the streets. The beginning of the parade was no different than any other Italian parade you can think of, until, he said, the local Italian band started to march through. Some of you might immediately picture a uniformed band marching in step, all playing their instruments with tremendous fervor, like the German or Chinese bands might do. As he explained it, however, this couldn’t be any further from the truth! Every single band member was walking at a different pace, some looking left, some looking right, one member on his cell phone, “most” playing their instruments, and one, wearing just a v-neck t-shirt on top, carried, but didn’t play his trumpet, most likely because of the huge cigar that hung out of his mouth!! The description was purely hysterical…and purely Italian.
I tell you this story because I believe there’s a great message found inside. Italians throughout history have been known for their individualism...but just like this band, no matter how individual each member is, they all marched together as a group. I believe this notion should hold true with IFAFA, as well. All of us have different reasons why we as individuals or as a group have joined IFAFA. Some of us enjoy the dancing, some of us, the singing, some, the instruments and music, and others, simply the camaraderie that I spoke of earlier. We all remain true to the reasons we joined, but we must remember that no single instrument can take the place of the entire band. And as your leader, it must be known that I’m only as good as the band members themselves! We are all ultimately here for one sole purpose – to keep our Italian heritage alive, here in the United States, by preserving the one subject we know so well and are so passionate about…the Italian folk arts…every single aspect of them.
I’d like to thank you all again for your support. Please continue to look for further updates regarding all of the subject matter that I spoke of, and as always, I ask that you feel absolutely comfortable to contact me through phone or email at any time. I love hearing from our members, and am excited about our future!
Sincerely,
Mark DeSanctis
President
Italian Folk Art Federation of America