Although I've tried to be busy with preparatory work for the Fall Show, I won't be there.  Long before we changed the date from mid October to October 1 and 2, I had booked a riverboat cruise on the Danube.  This will mean that while you're all enjoying the excitement, the wonder and the creative stimulus of our Annual Art Extravaganza I will be sketching in Budapest, Vienna and Passau.  Those who know me well will also know I'll also be sketching the river traffic.

                For 8 years I have been at every Fall Show and have always taken part in the various volunteer activities.  For the last three this has been as a demonstrator -- working on my annual Christmas watercolour painting for my grandchildren -- and I'll really miss the chance to talk to members and visitors.  Each year I invite about 120 friends and acquaintances (last year 72 of them turned up) so it becomes an annual reunion also  (I'll miss that too this year, but many of them will come anyway).  

                   Being a volunteer has meant that the show has always given me more than I could possibly give to the show.  First of all, if you volunteer for the setting up of the panels, you'll find, as you lift the panels around, the arranging gives you a lift -- the show begins to form all around you under the clear and helpful advice of Rosie Schroder who has been co-ordinating the set-up for enough years to know all the ways to make it easier.  And the panels do not need 250lb weight-lifters -- the female contingent can set up just as effectively as any male group.  Secondly the shifts for the actual show are relatively short and I've always had lots of time to wander -- see the show, talk to the artists and chat with visitors.  Thirdly volunteers are given the chance to join one of the various teams -- the greeting group, or the floaters, or the refreshment counter team, or the front desk teams, or the demonstrators.  In all cases you will not be alone and in most cases you'll find someone on the team who will have been there before.  Fourthly, when we initiated the 'Meet the Artists' idea, where artists are available to chat about their work, we found that most of those who came for that purpose seemed to say, "While I'm here I might just as well be a member of one or more of the teams."  

                I think this is going to be the largest show we've ever had with the extra publicity provided by the Culture Days events (they fall on the same weekend -- right across Canada -- as 'our' show).  In addition the change in the date this year means that the OAG Fall Show coincides with the Chamber of Commerce Home Show in the huge Display Area at the back of the Agricultural Association's building.  This means we could have many of the 2000 people who usually attend  that show, coming in to see and hopefully buy some of our work. Lucky you!

                Don't get me wrong.  I will be very happy to be 'cruising down the river' and filling my sketchbooks, but I will certainly look forward to meeting and hearing about the show from lots of you at 'Temptations', which is rapidly becoming the OAG annex when we drop into town.

                Have Fun!  Be a part of this exciting event in our year

David

 Congratulations!