AAPA members who have arrived at the convention site in Dayton, Ohio since the Thursday evening Chinese supper include Arie Koelewyn, Mark McComas, Jim Patterson, and Bob Tauber.
The first activity for Saturday was the visit to the U. S. Air Force Museum. This museum is housed in a vast facility, and a whole lot of airplanes were on exhibit. According to what I understand, it turns out that one of the jet airplanes on exhibit there was the very airplane that our colleague Jack Scott flew during his days as a jet pilot!
After lunch the combined members of the AAPA and NAPA assembled in the meeting room to view a demonstration of the LetterMPress app for iPads and Macs. John Bonadies--the owner of Bonadies Creative, Inc., Molly Poganski, and Jeff Adams (who happens to be the cousin of our President, Susan Petrone) gave this amazing presentation. For those who are not acquainted with this "app," all I can say is "Ya just gotta see it!" Fonts of wood type are displayed on the top of the screen, from which the user can select the type face preferred. It looks so authentic; these are actual photos of the type itself. Having selected the type face, the user can drag the individual letters down to the bed of a Vandercook cylinder press--again, an actual photo of a Vandercook. After assembling the type on the bed (and hearing the same clicks and clacks you would hear while setting the type up on a real press bed), you can select the paper you want, then the ink--even mixing inks, if you so desire. When all is ready, you give the cylinder a little shove (actually a little swipe on the screen of the iPad), and watch the cylinder go rolling over the paper, pressing it against the inked type. And the finished broadside comes flying up to your view! What an inadequate description of a totally amazing piece of technology! Connect with a printer and you can even print your broadside!
Members of the two groups began assembling in the lobby of the hotel at 5:30 p.m. for the social hour, followed by a group photo shortly after 6:00 p.m. After the photo, the door into the meeting room (which had been transformed into the banquet room) was open, and members filed in and began sitting at the tables. After a tasty meal, George Hamilton, a member of AAPA's Laureate Committee, announced the 2012 Laureate Awards, then Michelle Klosterman and Alice Brosey presented the Laureate Awards for NAPA.
The speaker for the banquet was Alex Heckman, the Director of Education and Museum Operations at Dayton History at Carillon Park. Heckman's speech took in aspects of Dayton's history, the Wright Brothers' printing endeavors, and their subsequent flight achievements.
At the end of the banquet, NAPA President Alice Brosey officially pronounced the NAPA convention concluded, followed by AAPA President Susan Petrone's official pronouncement of the end of the AAPA convention.
Many thanks are due the planners of the convention: Michelle Klosterman, Gary Bossler, and Lisa Branstetter Holt. The success of the convention was the result of days and weeks of hard work, planning, and yes--probably a certain amount of stress. Thanks also to the members who took the time and made the effort to attend. Without attenders, the convention just would not be!
Note: Anyone who would like the list of everyone on the group photo, please let me know: ivan.d.snyder@gmail.com.
