PROBE
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.
PRESIDENT
Grady Kerr
8403 Manderville Lane, #1094 N
Dallas, TX 75231
Tel. (214) 369-5893
swdroundup@aol.com
VICE PRESIDENT FOR PUBLIC RELATIONS
John Sugg
P.O. Box 1244
Fayetteville, Arkansas 72702
Tel. (501) 521-2020
johnsuggsr@cox-internet.com
VICE PRESIDENT FOR BULLETIN EDITORS
Bruce T. Anderson
2060 So. 26th St.
Lincoln, NE 68502-3025
Tel. (402) 435-0974
job60@ix.netcom.com
SECRETARY-TREASURER
Dick Girvin
57 Calle Cadiz, Unit F
Laguna Hills, CA 92653-3941
Tel. (949) 380-0732
dickgirvin@juno.com
IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT
Waldo Redekop
6 Church Street, P.O. Box 276
Hilllsburgh, Ontario, Canada N0B 1Z0
Tel. (519) 855-425
waldo.redekop@Sympatico.ca
PROBEmoter
EDITOR
John Petterson
1017 Meadow Drive
Norwalk, Iowa 50211-1215
Tel. (515) 981-0057 home
(515) 270-8048 business
(515) 270-8056 FAX at business
Bltnedjp@aol.com
PUBLISHER
SPEBSQSA, Inc.
6315 third Avenue
Kenosha, Wisconsin 53143-5199
Tel (800) 976-SING
ADVISORY BOARD
Herb Bayles
W.Grant Carson
Dick Girvin
Mike Jones
Brian Lynch
Waldo Redekop
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Escondido, Calif.
Dallas, Texas
Laguna Woods, Calif.
Louisville, Ky.
Kenosha, Wis.
Hillsburgh, Ont.
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PROBEmoter is published quarterly and distributed
by mail to all PROBE members. Membership in PROBE
is open to anyone. Dues, $5.00 per year, are managed
by the secretary-treasurer, and are payable by
individuals or chapters.
Correspondence about PROBEmoter, content and
contributions for publication should be sent to the editor.
Deadlines for 2001 issues,
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President's report
Looking forward
Several changes made; PROBE moves onward
By Grady Kerr, PRESIDENT
I'm very pleased with the meetings in Nashville and would like to tell all who attended the meeting how much we appreciated your participation. I think all who attended enjoyed themselves and I know many were impressed with the work being done and support us in our progress and new direction.
As I reported to those in Nashville, your board of directors has been agonizing over our current dilemma. As is the case with this organization, it has had its ups and downs. Right now we're on the upswing and we plan to continue that trend. I believe we have the plans to do just that.
Currently, PROBE is high in resources but low in exposure. We have lots of experienced folks, but we're low on members. We have high goals but we're low in finances. Here's the solution to these dilemmas.
A Great BOD
There's been a great deal of activity among our board of directors and committee chairmen over the past year and you can be VERY proud of the men you have in the leadership positions. The ideas and changes we presented to the Nashville group had been discussed and examined the BOD and, I'm proud to say, done very professionally and with the best interest of the organization in mind. If you could have seen behind the scenes you would be very impressed with the work done by these guys. I know I am. Their dedication has been an inspiration to me. Despite the issues, they've been productive and a pleasure to work with. I'm happy to report we are all still good friends.
Kicking and Screaming
Welcome to the new millennium. The use of computers, the Internet and e-mail has changed the world and barbershopping. If any group should be on the leading edge of this technology explosion it should be PROBE. Currently, the majority of our members have e-mail and we're going to use this to our advantage. While we still want to serve those not into computers, but we will not be held back in our quest to keep up with the rest of the world. This includes helping our members develop Web pages, online publications and communicate via e-mail networks.
The Cost of Freedom
For many years we've had a free ride thanks to the folks at our International headquarters. They handled the membership database and the bank account. Unfortunately, this ride was not free. Over the past few years we lost touch with the membership and our finances. Our membership is way down and to the surprise of the PROBE leadership, we almost ran out of money. Unfortunately, we had to cancel two issues of the PROBEmoter simply due to the fact that we didn't have the money.
The Spirit of PROBE
I've been around long enough to recall a PROBE that had SPIRIT. By that I mean there was PRIDE in being a member of the organization. It also stood for something important. I want to recapture that spirit. We used to use the slogan, "The Most Influential Fraternity in the Society." Once we had over 1,500 members in PROBE.
(President's Report continued on next page)
(scroll down for index of articles)
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From the editor's cauldron
