Workshop: July 28 - August 1, 2008, Kittitas

Introduction

It’s time to start thinking about this year’s WOTFA State Workshop and the class(es) you’d like to take. Dates for the 2008 Workshop are: Monday, July 28 through Friday, August 1, 2008. As usual, the event will be held at the Kittitas Elementary School facilities in Kittitas, Washington.

Enrollment this year will begin the first Monday of April. To be eligible to participate in the Workshop follow these two steps:

1. Make sure you have renewed your WOTFA membership. No application can be accepted without including a valid 2008 WOTFA membership number. You can take care of this by completing the WOTFA membership form (found on this website - http://wotfa.org/membership.html - or on the inside back page of the December/January 2007 issue of the Evergreen Fiddler newsletter) and mailing it with your check to John Grundstrom (address is on form).
   
2. Workshop enrollment forms MUST be postmarked ON OR AFTER the first Monday in April (that will be April 7 this year)! Enrollment applications postmarked before this date will be returned and must be resubmitted to be considered for enrollment. The workshop is very popular and this rule has been established to make enrollment fair and accessible to all. (The workshop fills very fast - in 2006 we received more than 385 applications the first day).

There will be a limit on class size and on total attendance to insure the classrooms and facilities are not overcrowded. When classes are filled up, a wait list will be established from which registration cancellations will be filled.

New This Year

Based on high levels of interest in lower intermediate level fiddle instruction, this year we will offer two classes. They will be taught by sisters: Leslie Beck and Donna Lemmelin, and there will be some opportunity for interaction between the two classes.

Our Advanced Fiddle – Swing class will have a new/old-hand instructor this year. Paul Elliott has other commitments during our workshop dates this year and so (at his suggestion) we have convinced Paul Anastasio to teach the class this year. Some of you will know that Paul Anastasio helped pioneer the class and was the original instructor. He taught for several years before his commitments prevented his coming and he recommended Paul Elliot for the class. The rest is history, as they say.

Pete Martin is taking a hiatus, or sabbatical, from the workshop for a year or two so we will not offer the Advanced Mandolin class this year. Tom Moran, our 2007 Intermediate Mandolin instructor is totally capable of teaching the advanced class but, on balance, we feel there is more need for him in the intermediate area. Some who were planning to take Pete’s class again might want to consider Tom’s class this year. He is an exceptional mandolin player and a professional teacher.

Download the Schedules and Forms

Class lists and descriptions, as well as application forms, for the 2008 Workshop will be published in the Evergreen Fiddler in March and on this website. That gives everyone time to study the list and make decisions about the classes he or she will select as first and second choice on the application forms

This year, we are offering both the workshop list and the enrollment form in two formats - Word and pdf. You will need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to open the pdf file. Download Adobe Acrobat here.

• 2008 Workshop Enrollment Form - PDF format
• 2008 Workshop Enrollment Form - Word format
  
• 2008 Workshop Classes - PDF format
• 2008 Workshop Classes - Word format

Special Message From Workshop Chairman

Our experience during the past two years has been that as many as 400+ people apply for the workshop on the first day open for applications. When this happens we get several overbooked classes and must process the applications in a way that is fair to all.

I already have the mechanisms in place to work through that process but I want to let you know that it involves quite a lot of extra time to complete.

This means I may not be able to get messages out to let folks know whether or not they’re enrolled as soon as many would wish. I commit to you that I will do my best to get the job done as fast as possible.

One thing that would help me immeasurably would be if you have an e-mail account to please include it on the application form and then regularly check your e-mail after about the third week of April for my message. Also it’s very important that you send me a reply immediately to let me know you have received it. I spend a tremendous amount of time trying to verify whether or not roughly 400 people have gotten the information I sent. If you don’t have an e-mail account I will send my message by snail mail and I will assume you have received it. As you can appreciate, the snail mail alternative takes a tremendous amount of my time.

I look forward to another great Workshop in 2008 and hope to see you there.

Bill Parker
2008 Workshop Chairman
bparker@ldsliving.com

Updated 4/1/2008