IBMA Survey response

Nancy Cardwell of IBMA ask several associations to respond to a survey she is conducting. Below are our responses along with her questions. Joe Steiner added some additional thoughts at the end.

1. Name of association, year it was organized, current membership numbers, region you cover, your specific title in the association:

Northern Indiana Bluegrass Assoc., Inc formed in 1976 as a non-profit 501C4 . Current membership is 621. Although our focus is the upper Midwest we have members in seven states and Canada. I am president.

2. What is the mission statement, or main focus of your association?

The purpose of this organization shall be to educate the public to, and promote the awareness of, Bluegrass and Old Time Country Music.

3. What programs are you most proud of, that your association is involved with?

Through our Traditional American Music program we have exposed over 15,000 students to bluegrass music in the upper Midwest.

4. What are the greatest challenges facing your bluegrass association at present--and looking into the future?

Volunteer and officer succession is a major concern. The demographics of our audience is not getting any younger. Schools are reducing their expenditures due to the difficult economy.

5. What are the greatest opportunities you see for your association in the future?

Additional educational programs in area schools but this also represents our one of our challenges.

6. Is there anything you would like other membership constituencies in IBMA to know specifically about bluegrass associations? (broadcasters, artists, agents, merchandisers, labels, educators, media, etc.) Do you have any advice on how the industry can work together better with bluegrass associations, for everyone's benefit?

Unless we can broaden the audience for bluegrass we are all going after a decreasing revenue stream. Together we must find a solution to this problem

Jim Winger - President NIBGA

• As Jim said, the focus of our organization is to educate the public about, and promote awareness of Bluegrass and Old Time Country Music.  The main ways we do that now is through our festival (which includes music workshops), our club newsletter (which provides information on bluegrass events), and educational sponsorships such as scholarships and the TAM programs.  But, we are always open to, and seek out, new ideas for doing this, such as other types of concerts or more intensive educational workshops.

• That said, one of our challenges is that we want to provide a venue for performers, with fair compensation, but yet must maintain our reasonable gate prices to avoid alienating our audience and membership.  And, our audience changes over time, such that it is difficult to adequately evaluate the propensity for higher admission and acceptance of the wide variety of musical styles which can all be labelled as, or are close to, bluegrass.

Joe Steiner