Sunday, Jan. 24, is the annual meeting of the Southern Oregon Songwriters Assn., in Talent (appropriately), just south of Phoenix. I’d really like to go. It is going to have to depend on the weather, which is chancy this time of year—and I’m driving an old truck, with no snow tires (don’t need ‘em on the semi-tropical Oregon Coast), and driving at night—and I can’t get an online weather forecast longer than two weeks out.

SOSA has some problems: a relatively static membership (not many new people, in other words), and declining attendance at their “showcase” events (a lot of that because SOSA members have gigs in other places now). That last is a success-related problem, actually—the organization has “cycled through” some successful people, but almost no one has come in to replace them. I’d hate to see the organization go under; it has accomplished a lot for the people who are in it. The challenge seems to be roping more people in.

So what can SOSA do? Well, the organization’s got to offer some benefits one can’t get without being a member; they’ve got to offer some services that potential members would consider desirable; and they’ve got to be well-known enough so people not only want to bang on their door, they know where the door is. Do I know enough to help with any of that? I’m a novice at this promotional stuff, after all.

Last one first. I’ve done a little of the household-word stuff. I think one of the best things one can do is become associated with a Cause. The “Deathgrass” benefit concerts for the Food Pantry have become awfully well-known; we can generate a good crowd, and good money—and that translates into our being able to generate a crowd and revenue for other things. What cause? Pick one (not too flaky, of course)—one advantage of These Troubled Times is there are a lot of people needing help. So the organization arranges the benefit concerts, and showcases, publicizes, &c., the individual players at the same time.

The member benefits? The access to public TV is cool; I was told SOSA’s shows could appear on a regular schedule if they just did more of them. Okay, do more. You don’t necessarily have to repeat people—mix ‘em up, in duos, trios and small bands. I’ve been harping on the need for performance DVDs, too. Maybe the organization should invest in a video camera. The “showcase” CD (which wasn’t done last year) is a good promotional tool, too—but need to focus on distribution, so more people know about it. Your music and/or links on a SOSA Website (SOSA also doesn’t have a Website any more, and the MySpace page is a poor substitute). When I moved to southern Oregon, I’d never have known there was a songwriters’ association if they hadn’t had a Website. Access to a good commercial recording studio at discount rates would be good, too.

Attracting people? Being better known, and offering member-only services, helps. I’d like to see some coaching and critiquing. Something the Eugene Songwriters Assn. does is a monthly critiquing session—everybody brings their latest material, and everybody critiques it. SOSA’s never done that that I know of. What SOSA has done that I haven’t seen anyone else doing is the “showcases,” that give people experience performing their stuff. Both, I think, are necessary. I probably fixate a lot on the writing part, because I think it is teachable—and I don’t see it being taught. The people I know who’ve become decent writers have mostly puzzled it out on their own—and there are plenty of good performers who either don’t have anything to say, or don’t know how to say it very well. If one of the prerequisites to making it in the music business is having material that’s better than anybody else’s, then somebody should be helping those folks.

Could SOSA do both—training performing and writing? I’d like to see songwriting classes taught through the local community college (and teaching a class is one of the items on my 2010 Worklist). Has the organization ever gotten its 501©(3) tax exemption? They should.

Follow-up question, of course, is to what extent I can help with this stuff. I am 300-plus miles away, after all. However, I’ve got the time to travel a little bit, and the Internet allows me to do some things long-distance. I’ll pass it all on. I’ve already volunteered myself to do their newsletter next year. I can do more than that.

Joe