October is a big month for the California Bluegrass Associa- tion. Many of our members fly to Raleigh, North Carolina to attend the World of Bluegrass. The big annual conference sponsored by the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA). The CBA has been a sponsor and hosted a hospitality suite for the last quarter of a century. Lucy Smith from Chico is our current CBA Suite Manager and has selected her hospitality team: Geoff Sargent, Lani Way, Frank Solivan Sr., Steve Ladonga, David Brace, Dave Swartz, Teresa Michel, Gina Schaffer, and John Erwin. Lucy has also scheduled the three dozen bands we feature in our Suite Tuesday through Saturday nights. There are lots of California bands appearing this year: Front Country, Hot Buttered Rum, Steep Ravine, the Blue J’s, the Rambling Minors, the Molly Tuttle Band and a midnight Laurie Lewis Birthday Jam. We have wonderful and gen- erous sponsors who contribute to our hospitality effort: the Sierra Nevada Brewing Company and the Rumiano Cheese Company. Amy Sullivan and Kali Nowakowski of Straight Up Strings volunteer to be guest celebrity bartenders. We sponsor a luncheon for all Business Conference attendees on Thursday and are proud to introduce our own Molly Tuttle Band for a performance during that event. Five of our outstanding youth musicians have been invited to participate in the IBMA Kids on Bluegrass pro- gram and we are proud to sponsor Jake Gooding, Daisy Kerr, Andrew Osborn, Mile and Teo Quale. The CBA’s IBMA presence is paid for by the Bluegrass Instrument Raffle and there is still time to purchase raffle tickets for the drawing to be held at the October Fall Campout. Historically the CBA has selected a few talented and hard- working young musicians each June from our own CBA Kids on Bluegrass program, directed by Frank Solivan, to attend the World of Bluegrass each fall. Kim Fox, drector of the IBMA Kids on Bluegrass event, now requests that our musicians be selected by March 2017. This gives us an opportunity to expand our selection process to include all our young musicians. A selection committee is now being formed to meet the March deadline and we will include a range of musicians from KOB, the Academy and from our stages. Guidelines and submission criteria for selection will be published in the December issue of the Bluegrass Breakdown.
Our Annual Membership Meeting, Campout and Board of Director elections will be held in Lodi 10/17-10/23. Camping and jamming begin on Monday 10/17 and activities heat up on the weekend. Votes are tallied for our election and results are announced at the dinner on Saturday night. The Bluegrass Instrument Raffle winners are also announced on Saturday. The entertainment for the dinner will be the Rambling Minors. We “pass the hat” and encourage donations for our CBA Youth Program Scholarship Fund during the week/weekend. Glenda and Vaughn Lew host and manage the campouts for the CBA and they do a bang up job. Our Annual Membership Board meeting is held Sunday morning on site.
Remember to donate gener- ously to the CBA Youth Program Scholarship Fund. You may donate on line, by credit card, by cash or by check. We make it easy to ac- cept your money and all donations are tax deductible. Our goal is to raise $5000 this year to support and help our amazing and growing number of young musicians attend the Youth Academy, music camps and workshops and the World of Bluegrass. (among others). Please contact cbayouthprogram@gmail. com with any questions.
