The Association of
Public Relations Officers
and Bulletin Editors
of the
Society for the Preservation and
Encouragement of Barber shop Quartet
Singing in America, Inc.

ADVISORY BOARD

Herb Bayles W.Grant Carson Dick Girvin Mike Jones Brian Lynch Waldo Redekop

Escondido, Calif. Dallas, Texas Hemet, Calif. Louisville, Ky. Kenosha, Wis. Hillsburgh, Ont.

Oct. 16: Oct-Dec
2001 - Jan. 8: Jan-Mar
April 2: April-June

First I must tell you how surprised I was to learn that, due to some lapse in judgment last year, you somehow decided to elect me president. I'm now living proof that you don't have to know how to spell "PROBEmotor," to be President of PROBE. You should not have been surprised to find that my very first action, a presidential decree, allowing Society editors to use the "comma" in any place they wish - or not. Unfortunately, the PROBE executive committee vetoed that action. I did consider it a personal victory to have prompted the comment from veteran editor Dick Girvin - "Long Live The King!" I must also report that I have had no success in my attempt to abuse this position as a pickup line with the women, "Hi, I'm the president of Probe!"

Nevertheless . . . .
I first decided, as president, we needed to take inventory of what we were doing, what we were successful in doing and what we wished to do. With the help of your PROBE executive committee and others we created a list of Goals for Year 2000. I'm pleased to announce that we are well on our way to accomplishing ALL those goals.

The Goals that were successfully reached are:

1. Promote The PROBE Meetings At The Kansas City 2000 International
   Your participation at this event is today is testimony to the success we had in promoting this event. Thank you all for coming.
2. Continue To Publish A Top Quality Quarterly Publication (PROBEmoter) For Our Editors And PR Men
   We are very fortunate to have such a talented and dedicated editor as John Petterson at the helm of PROBEmoter. Have you noticed the quality of that publication in appearance and content? The PROBEmoter is in VERY fine hands.
3. Recognize Those Who Have Been Of Service To PROBE - Promote The Hall Of Honor
   Our thanks to Hall Of Honor Chairman Dick Teeters for maintaining this important part of PROBE. We owe a great deal to those communicators of the past and we should NOT forget them. It will undoubtedly continue and focus attention on those men who paved the way.
4. Expand And Build The PROBE Web Site
   Thanks to Arnie Wade for a great job. The PROBE Web site is a valuable source of information for PR officers and Editors. It is also growing and improving almost on a daily basis. Arnie is also actively soliciting additional input, articles and artwork as well as links to other online publications around the Society and using the Harmonet to our advantage when ever possible.
5. Continue To Administer The IBC
   The retirement of Dick Girvin as chairman left big shoes to fill and we're fortunate to have Sam Tweedy (a past winner of the IBC) to take over and coordinate this year's contest. I've asked Sam to continue and he has agreed so it appears the IBC is in good hands for the future.
6. Continue To Support And Guide The DCC/District's Bulletin Editor Contests
   Once again we had a successful season of bulletin contests on the District level with the help of Bruce Anderson. Our thanks to Bruce, the District Chairmen and the judges for their time and efforts in helping the editors of the Society make a better bulletin. Next year we WILL have all 16 Districts entered into the IBC.

Work Is Still Needed - Help Wanted!

Increase Awareness And Importance of the PR Part of PROBE
We still have a tendency to overlook the PR side. The newly recharged PROBE Outstanding Achievement Awards will help in this area. John Petterson and John Sugg have already had a great deal of success and we shall continue our efforts.

Produce a Quarterly Newsletter For The Judges, DCC, DBE And PROBE Officers
Again, Grant Carson started such a bulletin and Bruce Anderson will continue this tradition in the very near future.

Establish And Support The Editor's Class At COTS For ALL Districts
We will form a committee to create class outlines for COTS classes especially for bulletin editors. With the help of Society CSLT Committee we will work toward having the class taught in each district by a qualified instructor.

Attract And Certify More Bulletin Judges
We need more judges! Thanks to our dedicated pool of judges to date we've managed to hold successful contests on a Society-wide basis but some had to do more than their share. If you're not a judge, we need you.

Promote And Establish Additional Levels Of Recognition In District And Int'l Bulletin Contests
We now have the "Most Improved" Award for the IBC; perhaps the districts will add this to their program? The novice award is also a good idea. PROBE will promote this.

Establish And Instigate A Re-Certification Procedure For Judges
Like the singing judges, we need to establish a program where each bulletin judge can become re-certified on a periodical basis. There's still much work to be done with this before we put it into place.

Include Web Page Building As Part Of PROBE/Editor Training
With the internet becoming more main stream and editors publishing their bulletins online we should start to include the tools and basics of making a Web page as part of the COTS classes for editors.

Start a Mentors Program for Editors
Grant Carson has already started this program on a one-to-one basis. We would benefit by expanding this to Society-wide. Finding those who wish to be mentors is the first step. They can also assist us in our work with the CSLT Committee for current and new chapters.

Establish A "New Chapter - Extension" Editor Help Network
Overlapping with several other goals is to work closely with the CSLT Committee and offer our help when a new chapter is being formed. We want to assist the chapter coaches in helping these young chapters know the importance of internal and external communication.

Create A "New Bulletin Editor Packet"
This is also a continuation of previous work; Grant Carson and Tom Pierce have already created a mock bulletin to help chapter coaches show others how it's done. We will be creating a full "packet" including lots of helpful information available free to all new BEs. It should include the Bulletin Editor's Manual, Current Scoring Sheets, PROBE Style Manual, Clip Art, previous copies of PROBEmoter, sample bulletins, and a list of PROBE contacts including his mentor.

New Actions - New Ideas!

A Need for Illustrators, Artists and Cartoonists
The Society is in desperate need for good illustrators, artists and cartoonists. Some of our clip art is in the 12th generation of recycling through bulletins and an infusion of new artwork and even humor is long overdue.

A New PROBE Logo?
With the start of a new millennium there are several new ideas that have been proposed. We would like to consider revamping the old PROBE logo with a NEW PROBE Logo. Visit the PROBE web site to check out several designs.

A Barbershop Calendar
We also wish to look into the possibility of providing a "service" to all the members of the Society. An 18-Month Calendar is one such idea. We need something attractive with photos of our favorite quartets, choruses and important barbershop dates - a PR piece for the office. This could sell in the Society's Harmony Marketplace.

An "E-Group" for Editors and PR Men
Communication to all the editors and PR men who have email is becoming more important. Perhaps an "e-group" is possible.

Outstanding Achievement Awards
This year we have re-introduced the old International PR Awards, now presented by PROBE and called The PROBE 2000 Outstanding Achievement Awards (OAA).

The International WEBCAST
On the cutting edge, I am pleased to announce that, for the very first time, parts of the KC convention was WEBCAST to the world LIVE via the Internet. I would like PROBE to be involved in this project and include it as one of our services to the membership.

I feel that each of these goals will be a challenge but worth the effort. I invite you to take part in this effort and contact me if you see a way YOU can help or if you have any additional ideas.

My sincere thanks to the executive committee and all the others who have helped so far and look forward to the coming year.

So let's get busy!