ASRA Newsletter

President's Newsletter - Winter, 2008

Hello. I’m glad to be writing to you again, especially those of you I haven’t been in touch with since the last newsletter.  I’m glad to report that ASRA finances and membership are doing well, with a healthy surplus from the joint ASRA/IASA conference and a steady stream of new members joining the ASRA community.  We have moved our website to a dedicated web address at www.asra.asn.au, so don’t forget to update your favourites.

The ASRA board is working hard to maintain the output of conferences, journals and other communication, and always on the lookout for people to help with all of that.  The ASRA technical conference From Manual To Mass held in March this year was highly successful and had the most hands-on technical program to date that ASRA has offered.  Our second conference for 2009 looks set to bring out powerful ideas about the future of our sounds – and their past. 

 

Second 2009 ASRA Conference – Endangered Sounds

I'm pleased to announce the second ASRA conference for this year is entitled Endangered Sounds and is to be held at the National Library of Australia (NLA) in Canberra on Thursday 20 and Friday 21 August 2009. Please fill out or Conference Registration Form, or just visit us online at www.asra.asn.au.

The conference will explore the different ways sounds can be lost, in an age where environmental, social and technological change is happening so fast; and identify what we have to do about it. Our keynote speaker for the conference is William Duckworth. Bill, along with his collaborator Nora Farrell, works globally with sound through public and virtual projects that connect people, arts and archives. Their latest project is a series of sound gardens, including one at the National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA) in Canberra that you will be able to visit if you are in town for the conference.

 

NFSA Sound Day

For the first time this year, the ASRA conference will be associated with the NFSA’s Sound Day.This initiative, first announced at the ASRA conference in 2006, has become an annual focus for public discussion about the importance of sound in all our lives. These activities will be held two days before our conference, being Tuesday 18 and Wednesday 19 August, during which the Minister for Environment, Heritage and the Arts, the Honourable Peter Garrett will announce the next ten Sounds of Australia for inclusion on the National Registry of Recorded Sound. Now is the time for ASRA members to nominate important recordings for this year’s selection via the NFSA’s website at www.nfsa.gov.au

 

Membership Renewal and Annual General Meeting

Please find enclosed your ASRA Membership Renewal Form for the 2009/2010 year.  I remind you that membership is an important part of being able to contribute suggestions and ideas at the 2009 Annual General Meeting (AGM) which will be held during the conference.  As we are continuing to evolve ASRA, our journal, website, organisation business model, archives and corporate memory are constantly exposed to change.  There will be some discussion along these lines at the AGM, as well as during tea breaks and other social times during the conference.  ASRA’s membership is its greatest strength, and I invite every member to contribute to this discussion.  Please don’t put off returning the enclosed membership renewal, so that you can participate fully.

 

In Memoriam

I am sad to say we lost a very loyal ASRA member last June when Jack Greaves passed away.  Jack was a life long collector, meticulous in his research, generous in sharing his knowledge and diligent in caring for and documenting his collection.  Jack’s collection of band records, along with his associated research and knowledge was extraordinary.  With his collection and research being jointly preserved by the NFSA and the NLA, I know that Jack was glad his work will continue to be available as a resource for study of the bands that were such an important part of their communities, and to the history of sound recording.

 

Keep in Touch

I hope that I will see you at the Endangered Sounds conference in August, but in case you can’t get to Canberra and want to contact me, or offer your assistance and support in any of ASRA’s activities, please call me on (02) 6248 2037, or send me an email at If you are in Canberra, expect an inspiring keynote, a significant Alice Moyle lecture, insightful plenary sessions, a forward-looking strategic AGM, and a convivial conference dinner.

'Til next time.

Matthew Davies
President – Australasian Sound Recordings Association
June 2009