The 2011 AAPA convention officially got underway Friday morning, July 1. The first order of business was introduction of members present. Some interesting facts emerged as the members introduced themselves. George Hamilton joined the AAPA in 1948, giving him 63 years in the organization; but Dean Rea joined in 1942, and has been in the AAPA for 69 years!
Reports from the officers were reasonably brief and for information only. Pres. Mike O'Connor led off by reading a report from First Vice-president Mike Coughlin, followed by the secretary-treasurer's report given by Ivan Snyder. Dean Rea was next with the Official Editor's report.
The first presentation was "Business Ventures in Printing," given by Matt Kelsey, a member who lives in Saratoga, California. Matt is proprietor of Liber Apertus Books. He told how he got into book publishing, and give some description of what is involved to publish a book and get it on the market. A number of impressive volumes were passed around for members to take a good look at. Matt also passed around a few wedding invitations and business cards--another line of his business venture. Most of his clients for the latter line come from his web pages on the internet.
Following a brief break, Mike O'Connor presented a talk titled "AAPA's Future: Increasing the 20." The title of course reflects the "80/20" rule--the adage that in a typical organization, 80% of the work and activity is done by 20% of the members. Mike emphasized his facts using a Powerpoint "slide" presentation and the results of two surveys he has made--thanks to the responses of members who took those surveys. Of course, what Mike's presentation led into was: how to increase that 20% of members that are active in the AAPA.
Mike's presentation led quite naturally into the next feature: Dean Rea's and Mike's discussion of "Pixels in a Pica World." Examples were given of members who are publishing electronically--without presses, paper, and ink. The late J. Hill Hamon was one of the pioneers of electronic publishing with his "Whippoorwill E-Comment." Florida member Hugh Singleton and New York member Dave Griffin continue to contribute to the E-Journal Archive. Some discussion ensued in the limited time, contrasting electronic amateur journalism with the traditional printed media, and how the AAPA can go about living in both worlds. Dean Rea is also editor of the online "Author's Bazaar," to which both AAPA members and non-members contribute. Mike O'Connor formats the "Author's Bazaar" and gets it to a website. He divulged some of the secrets he utilizes to get this feature as attractive as it is.
The afternoon's activities gave two glimpses of local pursuits in the "real world." First was a tour of Arion Press and M&H Type, led by Matt Kelsey, a former employee of Arion Press. Stops there were an exhibition of books published by Arion Press over the years, the pressroom where books were actually on the presses, the bindery, and the type foundry where metal type was being cast. Bryan, operating a Monotype Composition Caster, and Dave, operating a Thompson Caster, answered questions from the group as they showed us the operation there. As one would expect, Arion Press does not suffer from a scarcity of type faces. There were rows and rows of full-size type cabinets--probably hundreds of them, each cabinet containing 24 type cases! Arion Press propietor Andrew Hoyem talked to the group and answered questions at the end of the tour.
After a drive through San Francisco traffic, the next tour was through the San Francisco Center for the Book. There were two printing projects underway there--both on Vandercook presses, and both using Photopolymer plates--though there were a good many type cases which could be used if desired--and which no doubt are used on their book projects.
It was a full day--and I have just hit the high points. I shall endeavor to start uploading some photos to the photo album soon. Stay tuned! --I. Snyder
