Viola da Gamba Society of America

What a funny thing: He needs money from the VdGSA so he can pay the VdGSA for a viol. What a hoot! It seems like a sound application, but I don't know him, and the letters of reference aren't posted yet. It seems like $3K would probably wipe out most of what we have to give away in this granting period, or perhaps a little more than half (when do we find out what we have to play with this term?). I personally feel I can't say much until I get more information about him (and our own situation), and as it happens, I'm about to be on the road for month, with uncertain internet access. I'll be home again by early November, and will try to stay in touch.

If this ends up being more of a case of "how much do we take off the price of the viol we were planning to sell", then perhaps it puts this particular application in a different light. This is curious... I've not yet been in this situation before, where all the funds are related (money-in and money-out are all our monies). Thoughts?

And now that I'm thinking big thoughts, I'm wondering if, in an effort to avoid needless work, pain and suffering, we who are part of the committee could have our own set of rules, guidelines, etc. in some form so that we know what our strictures, principles and pragmatic limitations are each year. I know that some things go round and round and round when all we have to go by is our collective memories and hunches. We've put such a lot of work into this in years past... could we have some way of keeping our process-related information handy so that, like GOOD Supreme Court justices, we could base our decisions on principle and precedent, rather than on personal convictions and predilections, like BAD Supreme Court justices?

-DM

Hi - I know, and think very highly of, Anthony. I support this application before seeing letters of recommendation; I could have written him one, although I guess I don't know him QUITE well enough to do that. But he is the future of the VdGSA in my opinion. He has infectious enthusiasm, and is an organizer - he proactively goes around getting people to do things. A spirit a little bit like Phillip Serna's, although he's not as good a player. (but he's only started the viol relatively recently.)

Yes to DM's call for a set of guidelines by which we can operate - I thought we sort of had those already, actually, but there were some changes at the summer Board meeting (at least, we will be directed to consider builders now, if I read mail from Suzanne F. correctly), so we must find out what all that's about. Wendy, can you enlighten us on this? A relevant snippet from the minutes, perchance?

As to following the standards of Supreme Court Justices, well, damn, I thought we had arrived at the age of the New Ethics, and I already have my list of what's needed for my fair share. Do you mean to tell me that greed and self interest are STILL out?

oh, and this - I thought we did have a ceiling for any one award - $2000, if I remember correctly?

Well damn! It took me too long to get my post written...more than 30 minutes evidently....doesn't pay to get distracted. I am going to complain. Anyway, the gist of what I wandered on about was that as far as I know we still have $5000 to work with. The only change is that now teachers are eligible to apply to GIA for instruments for beginning students. (Guidelines can be seen on the grant part of the website.) I think we should go with precedent and check out what we approved from January through June. We did agree upon a limit of $2000 per applicant.
I don't think builders are included for the GIA. Perhaps a Higher Power could confirm this. David's observation about the application being an in-house phenomenon was perceptive (I failed to notice), but I think we should just go about our job, and let Ken take care of that aspect. I'm glad that Jack is giving such a positive feedback on Anthony. And now if we can just get some recommendations. However, if we don't before David departs, then perhaps by November 1 there will be more applicants which may give us more perspective.
Cheers before I turn into a pumpkin!
LB

This just in... might even be enough as is? WG

Oh my goodness...no...you are right---you didn't miss it. It just went off my radar. I'm so sorry!!! I will get to it tonight; I hope that's soon enough. I can't imagine a music-lover (and professional flutist and baroque violinist and school music teacher) more in love with and committed to the gamba, so he definitely deserves a Grant in Aid, in my opinion.
More soon.
Hanging my head,
Emily
________________________________________
From: Wendy Gillespie [wendygil@indiana.edu]
Sent: Thursday, December 08, 2011 8:32 AM
To: Walhout, Emily
Subject: anthony allen

Hi Emily,

You are listed by Anthony for a recommendation for his Grant in Aid from the VdGSA. You may well have sent a recommendation and I have messed up and lost it, or perhaps you have not gotten around to it yet, which I would also perfectly understand.

Either way, the committee is considering all the requests, so would you be kind enough to re-send it if you already have, or write it if you haven't? I'm very sorry if I have lost it.

Best,
Wendy

I feel much better about this application. He sounds like a much more solid "investment", as it were, and moreover, the rec-letters are good- and I don't feel that sense of trepidation/ irritation that I did with the other pending application. Anyone else? It's been a while since we discussed it, but it's a quick read. We'd still have to talk about amounts (I'm sure we can't offer the entire 3K he's asking for). I believe we had last settled on a 2k limit per applicant... but I stand to be corrected, if appropriate.

I somehow thought this had been awarded - and I would support doing that now. According to the guidelines on the GIA portion of vdgsa.org the maximum amount we can award is $1500, and I'm fine doing that. Are these the current guidelines, reflecting the new protocols discussed at the board meeting in July? I believe they are.

Anyway, Anthony is highly deserving and I am happy to endorse his request for whatever seems fair to all.

- Jack

I suggest we wait with deciding amounts to award until the Dec. 15 deadline passes. In the past two granting periods we had some very qualified applicants come in at the very last moment. Emily's recommendation has not come in yet. Also, I had a recent negative experience with Anthony at a workshop I taught in October for the VDGSNE. This experience was in a class situation. He was quite childish and disrespectful of the teacher, namely me. I was quite surprised at such behavior from someone who is neither high school or college student, but a mature person who teaches kids. I'm not sure what he thought I was....a Berkshire bumpkin? Anyway, he has a few things to learn, not only in his playing but also in his interactions with other people. Because of this, I would not deny him a grant, but I certainly wouldn't recommend the maximum which we are allowed to give.
Lucy

yikes! sorry to hear this. I must say that my last interaction with him was more than two years ago, so I am not speaking from recent experience by any means. He was pretty much a beginner then and quite happy to just be soaking things up from everyone. I guess that's changed at this point. I would still like to help him with something, as I am guessing his means of support (pretty sketchy - landscape gardener? or something) has probably not improved. Lucy, do you know anything about this? But anyway, Lucy's recent experience trumps my outdated one.

Has anyone else had any interaction with Anthony? Maybe he was having a bad weekend? or was it more systemic than that?

Jack

I have never met him, but this experience of Lucy's gives me pause. Sheesh. And I was hoping this would be an easy one.

He works for Charlie Ogle in some capacity in the Boston area....in any case people seemed to be consulting him about instruments. I know quite a few Boston folk. I'll try to get more input. This should be easy enough to do since I am recommending that a student of mine buy one of Charlie's Chinese viols. Going to Boston might be the easiest way for her to get an instrument sooner rather than later.
Lucy

So here's Emily's recommendation. She was very worried that she misremembered exactly what instrument he wants to buy, and it does not look here to be specific about whether it is a 7-string or what, but her support for him is clear. She will be happy to tweak the letter if anyone is worried about it. --WG

Does the committee intend to award any more money before Jan 1? And do we know what Anthony's cut-off point is, at which he would not be able to buy the instrument? Sorry, I'm getting questions from board-types that I'm not sure how to answer. WG

I'm not sure I understand the problem... I thought we had established that there would be the three winners this period, and they were each getting a bit (as specified in recent-past e-mails), and that the rest of what we had to give away would be for the next granting period. I don't know about monetary cut-off points for Anthony... short of contacting him personally, how would we get that info, and have we ever asked for it in the past?

I apologize if I'm missing something, but I just don't get what the board-types are getting at... so, from where I stand, at this moment, the answers would be "no" and "no". Lucy? Jack? What say youse?

Right - I thought we had finished up business with three grants to be awarded to Anthony, John, and, um, can't remember the third. Lucy had a distribution plan that we all signed off on. Then, Romey was disqualified because of his non-membership status. But the other two grants stand. Wendy, did you notify the others as well as John? If so, we're done. If not, that's the next step and if Ken has to write the checks before Jan 1, he can do that and send them at his leisure, no?

And speaking of John Romey, I urge strongly that we reinstate the requirement that to be eligible for one of these grants, one must have been a dues-paying VdGSA member for a full year.

Happy New Year, all...

I think David and Jack have said it all. We are finished for this granting period. I second Jack in his recommendation.
Lucy