P3D Richmond Convention Observations

[Mary Ann & Wolfgang Sell <vmmasell@xxxxxxxxx>]

It's great to see so many positive comments about the
convention and the pleasure everyone took from this
year's event.

Unfortunately, we didn't get to see any projections or
attend any workshops this time around because Wolfgang
was Trade Fair Chairman and I was his assistant.  We
spent many long hours working around last minute table
changes and assorted glitches that always occur at the
last minute.  I think Wolfgang was in the Trade Fair
Hall from 10 a.m. on Friday till 11:30 p.m. as well
as all day Saturday and Sunday.  But I think both
sellers and buyers were pleased with the overall
results.

I would like to thank Dan Shelley who is taking on
the task of being the Internet Coordinator for the
NSA.  He will update the site with new images and
information as well as add convention information
as it is available.  If you missed Richmond you won't
want to miss Green Bay.

It was a pleasure to see so many from Photo-3D at
the convention.  Because Wolf and I were in the
board meeting from 7 to 11:30 p.m. we missed a
lot of room hopping but we saw many of you at the
Trade Fair.  It's nice to be able to put faces onto
names.

One thing that was especially noteworthy to us was
that we had OFFICIAL representation by Fisher Price
at this year's View-Master meeting.  They were so
impressed by our group that they plan on sending a
company representative each year!  It was a reel
plus for us to have these special folks attend.  We
also had nothing but praise for our guest speaker this
year -- Rich Dubnow -- VM staff photographer for the
past 20 years.

Gabriel must be a little shy so I will let everyone here
know that he won an "Honorable Mention" award
for his story on Discovering 3Discover that he researched
and wrote for STEREO WORLD last year.  I believe
this story was inspired by the interest generated on
Photo-3D.

I can't remember who all we met but it was great to
see Andrea and Scott Blair -- their interest in 3-D is
amazing.  Dr. T, of course, was there selling Realist
goodies and we thank him for his donation of his
club's newsletter and his newest manual to the Holmes
Library.  Ron Labbe was a big cutup like usual,  Bill
Walton was doing double duty as Chairman of the Board
for NSA and escorting the TV cameraman around to
various areas of the Trade Fair (he also did his fair
share of time at the SSA table).  Shab Levy had a
good group of volunteers to man the SSA table although
I did notice that most of them were members of the
card folio.  Tom Martin "Mr. Realist" was trying to
get permission from the VM guys to make shirts with
the VM logo as well -- good luck Tom!  My good
friend John Baird and his son David had marvelous
"knock your socks off" light paintings on display and
in the Stereo Theater this year.  Boris won a first
place ribbon for his stereo card exhibit -- way to
go Boris!

Gosh, it's hard to remember because there was so much
happening all of the time.  No sleep, little food, but
loved every minute of it!  Can't wait till next year.
This was our 12th convention and once you go, you
just can't stop.  I thank all of you for coming and
hope to see even more of you at next year's event.

Continue checking the Richmond web site because they
intend to keep it running for a couple of months letting
everyone know how the various events were attended
and other convention details.

Mary Ann Sell
NSA Vice President
Curator, OWHSRL
The "View-Master Lady"
Originally sent 8/12/98





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