2010 CMSA Convention Information

[NewsFetcher]

The Mandolin Cafe has posted news:
2010 CMSA Convention Information
http://www.mandolincafe.com/news/publish/mandolins_001250.shtml

The Classical Mandolin Society of America and the Seattle Mandolin Orchestra invite you to attend the 24th Annual CMSA Convention, October 13-17, 2010 at the Marriott Seattle Airport hotel.

---------------------------

NOTE: You may use your board membership to comment on news articles published by the Mandolin Cafe. Your comments will appear here and also will be appended to the end of the news article for public viewing. Standard board membership posting guidelines apply. The addition of images, videos, links and BB coding is turned OFF for this area so as not to compete with or interfere with the news item.

[violmando]

Either the Registration Information is misleading or CMSA did not do what it said it would do at the last convention; offer scholarships in case of need. I am not able to go this year, partially due to finances, mostly due to the distance and a disabled husband, but I would not fit into the "full time student category" for scholarship aid. Yet I was told at the 2009 Convention here in Dayton that there would be small amounts of aid available for members in need. If so, that should also be listed or people will not apply. You want folks to come, you need to mention this as well. It may be one reason that many folks only join the years that they are atending the convention as well. Think about it.
Yvonne in Yellow Springs, OH

[M2Lou]

I'd like to clarify the issues behind Yvonne's comment.

We do indeed have scholarships for full time students. Those guidelines are clearly posted on our website. The scholarship covers the cost of convention registration, not travel or housing.

We also offer comped registrations for "hardship" situations. In the interest of confidentiality, we don't publish this openly, nor do we publicly recognize the recipients. If someone has a situation where they would attend the convention but can't afford the cost of registration, all they need to do is contact me at CMSAPresident@classicalmandolinsociety.org to start the process.

To my knowledge, CMSA has never denied a "hardship" requests.

Lou