We’ll kick-off this season on September 7 with a special guest artist event featuring Four Shilling Short.  We so enjoyed the music that Christy Martin and Aodh Og Tuama arranged for us in 2004 that we’ve invited them to return.  Their workshop will once again feature their own arrangement of exciting ensemble music.

Our next special guest artist meeting will be on March 15 starring Cathy Barton & Dave Para.  The ever popular duo is certain to bring great music and fun to the month of March. Don’t miss it!

New Program Co-chair Peggy Mistak has invited the Park Ridge Recorder Society to join us in January and put together an awesome line up of other meetings.  Workshops will feature traditional music which has found its way into the movies, jazz and blues, original arrangements and compositions by our members, and tried and true DSNI favorites. 

Be sure to contact Peggy at with your ideas for our “Take It Up a Notch” meetings in October and May. Email Peggy at pmistak @ sbcglobal.com NOTE: You must remove the space on either side of the @ sign to email Peggy. 

There are many musical incentives for spending a Sunday afternoon with your club friends. So, be sure to check out the schedule and mark your calendar.

(Un) Risky Business

It’s more fun to think about music making than business obligations, but we need your help with two important matters right now in order to ensure that the Dulcimer Society of Northern Illinois (DSNI) continues to fulfill our mission of keeping dulcimer music alive and well in our region.

The first item is a familiar one. Whether you’re a frequent DSNI attendee, visit us for special occasions, or simply value the support we provide to dulcimer enthusiasts of every ability level and interest, we count on your dues.  Please take a moment right now and send off your dues check to our new treasurer, Bob Sullivan.  The dues form with Bob’s address is in the newsletter, and happily, dues remain the same as last year; $20, $15 for seniors.

The second matter is less familiar but still timely. The IRS requires that DSNI maintain a set of bylaws and observe them.  Ours haven’t been revised since the club’s founding more than 25 years ago.  At our opening meeting on September 7, we will conduct our brief annual business meeting and vote on a few bylaw revisions. 

These are designed to allow us to operate with greater efficiency. If, after reading the proposed bylaws you have questions or concerns, please call DSNI President Janet Swartz at 847-432-1701 or email her at the club email address, dsnimusic@yahoo.com.

Please click on the bylaws link in order to review all the proposed changes.  You will note that in addition to some wordsmithing, the changes include:

1.  Deleting language that requires our board to consist of exactly 9 members, so we can vary the size of our board to suit our needs and the number of available volunteers.

2.  Reducing the number of required board meetings from 4 to 2, a change made possible by the ease of board communication via email.

3.  Describing only 3 officer positions (to cover responsibilities required by law) in our bylaws.  This will allow us to rearrange other job titles and duties to suit the interests and abilities of our board members.

4.  Reducing the quorum sizes needed for the annual membership meeting and our board meetings.  Using percentage requirements rather than a fixed number allows the quorum size to remain in keeping with the club size.
 

For more information call 847-432-1701 or email dsnimusic@yahoo.com