Neville Young

Tomorrow morning I will wake up and know I don’t have to think about ITG News. Is this a good thing? No deadlines, no worries about missing photos, no nagging feeling that something is wrong somewhere and I’ve got bad links on my web pages. On the other hand, no more first sight of fascinating news from all round the world, no more starting – not through this channel anyway – new and rewarding working relationships and friendships with some of the most interesting people I’ve met. It’s sad, but seductive, to contemplate this newsless awakening so I thought I might share it a little and tell readers a few things about the last five years.

It's all Michael Anderson's fault really. He and I already knew each other, in the virtual world at least, because I was a user of TPIN, his excellent email list. Naturally I knew that he was also the ITG's Web Site Executive Director, but the ITG and I had managed to get along just fine without each other for many years so his ITG job had never had much of an impact on me. Yes, I had recently joined the ITG, mostly because of the advocacy of TPIN friends, but I didn't really know or understand very much about the Guild. This was about to change.

When the 2002 ITG Conference in Manchester was coming up, Anderson put my name forward to ITG's Publications Editor, Gary Mortenson, as someone who might want to work as a reporter, helping Mortenson and Anderson to tell the story of the conference as it unfolded. This happens on the web in close-to-realtime, thanks to the efforts of a large team, then the collected writings become a conference report in the next ITG Journal. Like many people who enjoy writing I am unable to resist a byline so I was in without hesitation. There followed one of the busiest and most exciting and interesting weeks of my life, and I was hopelessly hooked.

We seemed to get through Manchester without major casualties, and with the departure of Todd Davidson in early 2003 I was very surprised and flattered to be offered the News Editor post. Up to then I’d heard and used the expression “steep learning curve” without really thinking much about it but to find myself climbing up one, and feeling every bump, slippery patch and overhang, was really quite an awakening. Without the superb help and support of Mortenson, Anderson, Davidson, Jim Olcott and others I think I’d have fallen right off but I somehow struggled to a vaguely level bit and I’ve been hanging around ever since waiting for true wisdom and enlightenment to strike. I reached some kind of uneasy modus vivendi with the text and web editing processes and was eventually ready to post my first story, An Evening with Adolph ‘Bud’ Herseth at the University of Central Florida, to the website on 11th April 2003.

Since then we have received about 850 stories or story ideas and published about 650 on the web and somewhat fewer in print (not all web stories travel so well into the Journal). They’ve been from about forty different countries and have covered an astonishing range of topics – I never fail to be amazed and impressed by the sheer breadth and quality of what is going on out there, and it’s been a great honour to be involved in helping to record and present it to a community of readers. I am proud of the international range of the stories as I feel we must never lose sight of what the I in ITG stands for – we are vulnerable to the unfair accusation that we’re an American trumpet players’ club, and we must do all we can to show how untrue it is. To people who protest, “but you haven’t published any stories from my country this year” I want to say, “well, how many did you send in?” as the news service is a two-way street and requires your input: if there’s an American story before or after this one it’s there because someone sent us it, not because we made it up as part of an evil conspiracy. (Well, not usually.) It’s very simple – if you want us to publish more trumpet news from Andorra, Botswana, or Colombia, send it in!

I’ve already mentioned the incredible support I had in making the transition into the post. I must also say that without the kindness, help and positivity of the three ITG News Correspondent posts and their four postholders, the other ITG Journal and Website staff, ITG Board members, and individual story submitters and readers all over the world, the job would have been difficult and ultimately pointless. It is very humbling for an amateur trumpet player to have felt so involved with so many great people: I extend my heartfelt gratitude to every one of them. Some of these people have become very close friends; I will never forget how wonderful they have been to work with. The whole ITG web/journal team is a really, really amazing group and my bosses Mortenson and Anderson have been the most kind, effective and dedicated people that anyone could ever wish to work with. My family have been helpful, tolerant and supportive far above and beyond the call of duty and have put up with the late nights and bad temper and listened to my rambling accounts of news worries and news triumphs with saintly patience. I thank them too.

Of course the job has had its downs as well as its ups. A while back, the death of an eminent and much-loved trumpet player while I was away and unable to receive email or post stories was one such low spot: many people sent in helpful and supportive messages about the sad news, but others made their unhappiness with the initial lack of ITG recognition abundantly clear. Needless to say we learned from this debacle, and now have contingency plans which allow for future obituarial crises. Similarly, someone once sent me a series of quite imaginative hate-mails from a trumpet professor’s unattended computer during one of the occasional gaps in the news service. These gaps were usually health-related, and I know they have sometimes annoyed readers and story submitters, and I apologize for them - though in less colourful terms than were used to me. Thinking back, perhaps my being offended was the wrong reaction, when the emails at least demonstrated that their sender noticed and cared whether the news service was current or not!

I’ve not exactly been a great innovator. A couple of changes I’ve made behind the scenes have been useful, and I’ve tried to help sort out the problem of stories being duplicated, to the detriment of clarity and understanding, across different sections in the website or Journal. Mostly, though, it has been enough – given the other demands of my life and my non-trumpet-related day job – to just try to keep things going in a sort-of-OK way rather than to radically change anything. A nice man has been writing to me for years pointing out that we could do with an RSS feed and he’s probably right, but I am passing that particular torch on to my younger, cleverer and more up-to-date successors Amanda Pepping and Mark Boren in the hope that they do stuff like that before breakfast most days. I could write you a long list of things I would still like to do with the News but, you know what, I think it may just remain unwritten for now.

The decision to go was not all that easily made. Five years seems like quite a while in some ways, and just a blink in others: many ITG people have served far longer terms in far more demanding roles, but you do what you can and move on. I found that I needed more time for other elements of my life and it seemed a nice, neat thought to hand it on – in reasonably good shape, I hope – after exactly five years. I am truly delighted with the appointment of Amanda and Mark, which makes it very easy to walk away with a clear conscience, knowing what a great job they’ll do. I have grown very attached to the role but the great thing is that leaving it doesn’t sever my connection with the ITG – far from it: I am still a member, still a Board member, still a conference reporter and still someone who generally likes writing – and without the responsibility of editing others’ work, who knows, I may have time to actually do some writing of my own again. Though, to be honest, I don’t think this last bit is necessarily how Mrs Young and other persons close to me would view things. ‘Mending fences’ always sounds like such a great metaphor, but this is only because you haven’t seen our back garden.

So, it’s goodnight from me. I will still be around but with other hats on, and the news service will flourish with Mark and Amanda looking after it. Thank you all: it has been a great opportunity and a great privilege. Onward and upward!

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Neville Young