P3D APEC, Stereo Cards & SSA

[bill3dbw3d@xxxxxxxx (Bill C Walton)]

I REALLY do like stereo cards and I am delighted with the increase  of
stereo card activity as shown by the international stereo exhibitions and
the APEC  effort.

Up until about five years ago the only outlet for those of us who work in
stereo's classic format was the postal folios of the SSA, which have a
wonderful format.  Then, in 1993, PSA Stereo Division's Chair Pauline
Sweezey decided that stereo cards should be introduced into the PSA.  She
told me about this at the San Diego NSA Convention.  I immediately joined
PSA and volunteered to help.  Pauline charged the late Warren Callahan
with the responsibility of getting a stereo card circuit started.  Warren
contacted me and several other folks and in Oct 1993 the PSA Stereo Card
Cirucit was launched.  After the 1st round I decided that perhaps I
should volunteer to take over as secretary as Warren didn't do stereo
cards and had many other stereo projects that he was working on.  Now we
have a small, but dedicated group in the PSA  Stereo Card Circuit (and
welcome anyone who is a member of PSA).  There are some outstanding
stereo cards being produced by this group.

Then, as a result of some (many) queries by me, Pauline Sweezey, Stan
White, Robert J Leonard and others including , lately, Carole Honigsfeld
several of the international stereo exhibitions started having card
sections .  Now there are ten exhibitions, including the Stereoscopic
Society in the UK, that are devoted to or have stereo card exhibitions. 
Negotiations are underway to possibly have a stereo card exhibition at
the 1999 ISU Congress in Lindau Germany.  Plus, if there is enough
interest we will start a ISU stereo card circuit, which could be huge and
take a long time to make the circuit, both of which add to the charm of 
it.

Last year, as a result of some long discussion between Klaus Kemper, of
Germany, and I the North America-Germany (NAG) Stereo Card Circuit was
launched.  It is a lot of fun as it involves translation in both
directions. It is small, but healthy and growing, and is on it's 2d
exchange in Germany now.

I want to clarify something that George Themelis wrote about the SSA/NSA
merger in the 1970s.  The SSA was still active, but the real problem was
that the print (stereo card) section was completely dead.  Alpha
Transparency folio was /is active and kept the SSA name alive during the
"dought"  After the merger with NSA the then SSA General Secretary Brandt
Rowles asked SFC Doug Smith to "jump start"  prints in the SSA again. 
Doug took on the task with a lot of energy, rounded up 10 of us
interested in prints and the SSA print folios were restarted in 1978. 
The next year Doug's military duties were such that he didn't have time
to be folio secretary so Brandt asked me to take over the position.  I
agreed and, except for six months in 1989 when I was "out to lunch" as a
result of oyster poisoning, I have been a folio secretary ever since. 
Which sort of disagrees with George's idea that the SSA secretaries
change every few years. Now there are 8 stereo card circcuits in the SSA,
plus 3 Realist format slide circuits, a 2x2x2 slide circuit, a 2 1/4 x2
1/4 slide circuit and a Cyber Circuit.  Both Viewmaster and a View Magic
over/under circuit are being discussed but have not been started yet.

I think that the record will show that the "marriage" between the NSA and
the SSA was more of an administrative matter that a financial one.  I
believe that both parties have benefitted from this merger.  The SSA had
gained some valuable publicity in Stereo World which has enabled other
stereographers to find out about  the orgnization.  When the merger
occurred all SSA members with a membership number of 718 (Nick Graver's
number) and below were "grandfathered " from joining the NSA, although I
believe most of them did.  Now the SSA member numbers are up over 1000 so
there have been about 300 people join the NSA/SSA since the merger, which
has benefitted NSA.

I probably will not join APEC, as I prefer the format of the SSA, which
provides feedback, is a wonderful form of communication and seems to be a
great way to develope long term friendships. This same format is used in
the PSA Stereo Card Circuit, the NAG Stereo Card Circuit and will
probably be used in the ISU Stereo Card Circuit (if it gets off the
ground)  But I applaud the efforts of the APEC organizers and I wish the
organization much success.  I do enjoy looking at the images on the APEC
website, but I wish that the change to eliminate the backs of the cards
from the website had not been made as the back are part of the
"presentation" of stereo cards.  But I understand the space problem also.

During the 30 plus years of my Army career we had a saying that was used
during both good and bad times, depending on the inflection of your
voice.  It was/is "What a great day to be a soldier"  I would like to end
this long posting by paraphrasing that saying "WHAT A TIME TO BE A STEREO
CARD MAKER"

Hope I have not bored anyone.

BILL C WALTON, ISC


------------------------------

End of PHOTO-3D Digest 2509
***************************