I.B.M. Ring 362
Dr. James William Elliott Ring
Bangor, Maine

Minutes of March 2006 Meeting
March 19, 2006

The March Meeting for I.B.M. Ring 362 was held at the Hawaiian Paradise Restaurant in Newport on March 19, 2006. Dinner began at 3:00 pm. After dinner, Territorial Vice President Bob Nixon welcomed members to the first meeting of I.B.M. Ring 362. The welcoming address was followed by performances, then the business meeting.

The theme of the performances was Member Showcase. Wes Booth was the emcee. Please see the Ring Report for a description of the performances.

President Alan Drew called the business meeting to order. A motion was made to run the meeting by a relaxed version of Robert's Rules of Order, rather than the full formal version. The motion was seconded and passed unanimously.

The Secretary presented the minutes of the January meeting, which had been published on the web site and in the newsletter, for approval. The minutes were approved unanimously.

The Treasurer made a report. The Treasury had collected $115 in member dues and $5 for a magician's ad on the Ring web site. Expenses so far have been $50.85 for the Ring web site, for one year's worth of web site hosting and two year's worth of domain name registration.

As old business, Stan Davis raised the subject of his concerns about the potential of members copying each other's effects, which he had expressed in a letter appearing in the first issue of The Rapping Hand, the Ring's newsletter. There was a general discussion involving many members. A general consensus emerged that it was inappropriate for members to copy the presentations of other members. Many members agreed that it was also inadvisable for members to begin to perform effects that they had first seen performed at Ring meetings by other members, even with original presentations. There was also general agreement that many effects are standards that any member is free to perform in his or her own style. Stan asked for a vote on whether we could agree that there should be a culture in the Ring that encouraged originality in effects and presentations; this motion was seconded and passed unanimously. Stan's letter is appended to these minutes.

In new business, the Constitution, Bylaws, and Policy and Program Manual, which had been published on the web site and mailed to the members, were briefly discussed. These documents are based on templates supplied by the International Brotherhood of Magicians and have been adapted for our Ring. The documents were unanimously approved by the Board prior to dissemination to members. Separate motions were made and seconded to approve each document. Each motion passed unanimously. The Treasurer was then given authority to incorporate in the State of Maine as a nonprofit organization.

Territorial Vice President Bob Nixon reported that Ralph Greenwood had suffered a fractured hip, and was convalescing in Florida. His telephone number is (727) 771-4707.

We proceeded immediately with the Ring Name Raffle. The approved names were:

• Dr. James William Elliott Ring
• The Ralph Greenwood Ring
• Chung Ling Soo Ring
• Houdini Ring
• The Maine Ring
• The Maine Mystics

One free ticket was given to each paid member. Additional tickets were made available for purchase, and $100 worth of additional tickets were purchased. The name drawn was "Dr. James William Elliott Ring", which will be the descriptive term appended to the Ring name for the next year.

The provision in the Policy and Program Manual to create a permanent record of the Ring's names throughout its history was raised. Two members pledged $40 towards the purchase of a plaque or scroll to display the names. A member pledged to establish the endowment for the Dr. James William Elliott Card Challenge, to be held every April.

Vice President Wes Booth announced that the April meeting would be held at the Sebasticook Valley Community Center, and that all meetings for the foreseeable future would be held there as well. The Community Center is granting the Ring use of the facility in exchange for one or two fundraising shows per year.

S.A.M. Assembly 174 President Scot Grassette announced a lecture by Angelo Stagnaro on April 2 and distributed a printed list of other events, all of which are displayed in the Ring's website calendar. The members were reminded that the first Dr. James William Elliott Card Challenge will be held on April 23.

The members were reminded of the availablity of free web pages from the International Brotherhood of Magicians for its members, a program that will be announced in the April Linking Ring. The web pages are created by an authoring program that allows text entry, links, and image upload. While not as flexible as a personal web site, it is very easy to use. Two ring members (Markus Almodarr Steelgrave and Dr. Wilson) have posted pages. In order for the Ring to have a set of pages, a Ring member will have to give up their pages and allow the Ring to submit pages using their name and password.

President Alan Drew proposed the formation of a committee to organize future fundraising shows. Carroll Chapman volunteered to head the committee, and pledged to draw on the expertise of Ring members in selecting venues, additional non-magical performers, and charity tie-ins for the shows.

With no further business at hand, a motion was made to adjourn the meeting. The motion passed unanimously.

Letter from Stan Davis
Date: January 29, 2006

OK- here goes.

Hey everyone- I am excited about this new organization. Here's my one comment and question from the first-

As I see it, organizations of magicians stand or fall on two principles:

- What kind of feedback will we give each other about the performances we do for each other?

- and.... What will we steal from each other? (Maybe that should be phrased more delicately....) How will we deal with admiration and imitation of ideas we see? Is imitation the sincerest form of flattery or is it plagiarism?

Here are my thoughts and I welcome yours:

- We owe each other honest, detailed feedback. What did you all like about a routine I did? What parts of it really cook? What story or presentational element or gesture or move really made it work? On the other hand, what detracted from it? Maybe I couldn't be heard. Maybe I flashed a coin that was supposed to be somewhere else to the whole left side. Maybe the presentation was boring. Maybe the whole presentation was exposition ("I have here a silk scarf. Now watch how I...."). Maybe you have a suggestion about sound amplification or a different move or a way to extend or shorten the routine. One of the reasons to perform for each other is to get that feedback- and that was the core of Mystery School and the Phoenix gatherings. I believe it doesn't help the other person just to give our feelings (as in "that was great" or "that stank") without specifics or ideas. I like the idea of distributing slips of paper and giving people time to write feedback after every perfomance.

- and we owe others the respect of not imitating their performance. That respect, I think, comes in two ethical pledges that I am glad to make to you all if you will make them to me in return:

1. I will not imitate your routine, your presentation, your lines, your jokes, your character, or any other specifics that you have created for your routine- no matter how much I love them. Only with that guarantee- from all of us- will we be free to share our hard-won creative work with each other. Imagine that you do your favorite original routine for an audience a year from now and find them telling you that they saw me do the same presentation before you- and telling you that you do it almost as well as I do (natural because when they saw you do it they already knew what was coming). I assume you would want to asphyxiate me with a thumb tip or maybe even a card sword.

2. If you do an effect that is not already in my working repertoire I will not add it to my repertoire after seeing you do it and seeing how cool it is- and I would like the same courtesy from you. Maine is a small state. People will see several or many of us. If we all do the same tricks, even if we do them in different presentational frames, people will know what magic moment to expect as soon as they see the props- and will not have the experience of surprise and awe that we can give them if we all do different tricks- and there are enough different effects to go around. If you do an effect that IS in my working repertoire I will tell you- and work with you if you are willing, to differentiate both routine and effect so that people experience a different effect from each of us. In doing the linking rings, for example, there are many different routines which spin out in different directions.

So that is my opinion. I would welcome knowing how many of you agree with me. For the many of us who work for years or even decades to polish each routine, and who make our living with magic, these issues are important in that they tell us how much of our work we can share with the Ring without fear. And I believe that a clear understanding from the first about these two issues- feedback and avoiding plagiarism- will lead to a stronger Ring and thus a stronger magic community in Maine. I welcome your thoughts.

Yours in magic,
Stan Davis