Thursday June 26th
==================

The evening began with a "Meet & Greet" session held at the All Asia bar &
restaurant in the heart of Cambridge MA. A two-set session of fine dub
music was provided by Mang Dub (#1775). In between the sets an impromptu
two man acoustic session took place. I didn't catch these guys' names, but
they played a nice medley of half a dozen songs. Except for this unexpected
duo, all Performing Artists at RAW's 10th Anniversary Conference were
registered participants. A portion of that registration fee went towards
a RAW membership for everyone who signed up to attend.

Friday June 27th
================

Our day session also took place at the All Asia, starting around 11 a.m.
Our meetings throughout the conference tended to be intentionally
unstructured work sessions, where we hoped to solicit input, feedback, and
reasoning and work towards accomplishing many things. This day's agenda
started with a welcome, followed by a blessing from Ras Jahn (#510) of
Loose Caboose, and everyone then introduced themselves.

A short history of RAW as well as an outline of our current structure was
presented for new members in attendance. I gave an update on our current
non-profit status, and elaborated on the RAW mission.

Brief reports were given by our Treasurer, Joanie Pearson (#693), our
Performing Artists Coordinator, Kyle Russell (#238), our Off-line
Coordinator, Tom Pearson (#33), and our Off-line Coordinator, Zipp
Thompson (#784). An outline of all Board positions was given, including
the duties and responsibilities of ech position.

Feedback at this point centered on whether or not the RAW Forum would be
better off being a part of RAW's website, thus saving RAW a major expense.
Other issues included making better use of our on-line newsletter "Wha
Gwaan in RAW?" Some felt that the newsletter was too lengthy, and came out
too often, lessening its potential impact. Others said they looked forward
to receiving WGIR.

We discussed the unused potential of RAW's website, and how it could be
better used.

Further reports included the Committed Reggae Fan's and DJ/Label's
Coordinators' positions. Registrants were informed as to how these
Coordinators could be involved in their own runnings. I gave a short run
down on how DJs could include their monthly playlists in the compilation
of our RAW Bubblers chart.

I briefly discussed some of the reasons why our newest members have
numbers in the high 1700s, while our active membership numbers come to 700
plus. This lead to a discussion of some of the false expectations some
former members have had of RAW (Forwarding the Reggae Vibe vs RAW making
a band famous, and how a membership is useless unless one is proactive and
takes advantage of the networking opportunities available.)

A lengthy discussion then ensued on refocusing our efforts from a global
or national perspective to one that is more local in orientation. The
concept was regional chapters was discussed, and how this might allow RAW
to become a stronger organization.

I emphasized the importance of renewing memberships on time, how we could
forward outreach efforts to former members, and ways in which we could
support members in Third World countries where renewal dues are impossible
to afford.

We then discussed revenue sources, especially corporate sponsorships,
something which we have not utilized in the past. It quickly became
obvious that we needed someone on the Board with expertise in this area,
as well as someone with a wide knowledge of how a non-profit organization
works.

An update on the recent work on by-laws was presented. Some in attendance
had had experience with writing by-laws, and it was stressed how
important it is to differentiate between by-laws and policies.

A run down of volunteer opportunities was given, emphasizing some of the
topics mentioned earlier.

We discussed how current Board positions were filled, and how difficult it
has been in the past to get volunteers to come forward to take on some of
these responsibilities. Both Zipp and I pointed out that we were appointed
to the Board when it was first created many years ago, and how we were
nearing burnout.

More reasoning took place on how we could make use of our website's
potential, and whether we were making the best use of funds in our current
expenditure's on the printed newsletter that goes out to off-line members.
It was pointed out that there are a number of members who are on-line, but
who have requested to receive the printed version of WGIR instead. Some
ideas were to charge a small fee in such cases, to make WGIR more regional
if possible, and to limit the number of submissions from any one member.
It was pointed out that we have recently stopped sending the newsletter to
anyone who is overdue in renewal dues.

Conversation moved on to future conferences, and the dearth of proposals
submitted in recent years, as well as the expense of putting on a
conference. This year's event was, for the most part, being subsidized by
Kyle Russell (#238), at very little expense to RAW itself. $20 of every
$100 registration fee went to RAW as new membership fees or renewal due,
with the remainder going towards conference expenses. At this point, RAW
had only contributed $2000 towards printing and postage expenses. This
compares to Conference budgets of $15-$20,000 in the past. It was pointed
out how RAW's actual expenses decrease when a Conference (or Gathering) is
piggy-backed with an existing festival.

Before closing the day's open session, we discussed various ways in which
RAW could contribute to the works of other charitable organizations in
Jamaica and Africa.

Tired, but enthused and motivated, we broke for the day to get ready for
the evening's showcase to be held at Bill's Bar, across the street from
Fenway Park.

Dub Station Artists (#1586) is a band that is composed of musicians who
perform as a whole, and who back an amazing number of local singers. I'm
sure I will miss someone who sang that evening, but there were
performances from Marcquis Melody (#1383) from CA, I Rebel Soul (#597)
from MA, Runksie, Cutty & Live Wire (#577) from Bermuda, I-tal Fire
(#1766) from RI, Dion Knibb (#1740), Nachilus (#1783), Jem-I (#1767),
Skiffington (#1782) all from MA, and Zema (#923) from CA. The crowd was
well-entertained and very appreciative, skanking up a storm, and very
disappointed when it came time to close the club. I was amazed by the
wealth of talent in RAW, and especially in MA.

I'm sure I've forgotten someone's name after so many weeks since the
event. I know the DJ/Selectors were K-Don (#1741) and Strong Tree Sound
(#1762) and MCs included Ras Junior (#1739), Paul Wayne (#1760), and Osei
Chandler (#1760).

We had a small RAW table that did a healthy business, and we were able to
put up ONE small RAW banner, but unfortunately fire code regulations have
been strictly tightened since the tragic fire at a club in RI that
resulted in many deaths, so we were unable to display our beautiful RAW
backdrop on any of the four nights.

While the club was closing down, there were many small groups that formed
outside reveling in the performances that had just taken place, and
continuing discussions that had taken place earlier that day. AS we packed
up the vans, I felt very good about the conference so far, and looked
forward to two more productive days and entertaining nights ahead.

To be continued......

Tom RAW #33