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ASIA SYMPOSIUM 2011

Posted: Sat Feb 26, 2011 10:15 pm
by tippie53
http://www.asiartisans.org or dot com This years ASIA Symposium is geared up and ready to go in June in East Stroudsburg PA . Anyone near there needs to sign up to get in A great venue to learn and share information on guitar and string instruments .
We have some serious guitar people coming . Laurence Juber will perform Sat night , Bending seminars , Inlay , and CNC classes . Book your space if you want to show. Again see you there .

Re: ASIA SYMPOSIUM 2011

Posted: Sat Feb 26, 2011 10:27 pm
by Kevin Sjostrand
John,
Can we still join ASIA at the discount amount? I never got around to it, but
am still interested in joining. Wish I could attend, but a trip like that is not in
the cards for me at this stage of my life.

Kevin

Re: ASIA SYMPOSIUM 2011

Posted: Sat Feb 26, 2011 10:33 pm
by tippie53
if it is your first time you may ask them for the first time discount . Hope to see you there

Re: ASIA SYMPOSIUM 2011

Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2011 11:14 am
by Duke of Pearl
Thanks to tippie53 for requesting this be posted here!

Washington, DC, luthier David Berkowitz and myself (Duke of Pearl) have at the last minute been put in charge of doing a 3 hour morning workshop on CITES/Lacey Act/U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service/APHIS/Customs issues regarding natural materials used in stringed instruments, on June 11th at the Association of Stringed Instrument Artisans (ASIA) Symposium in East Stroudsburg, PA. (see: http://www.guitarmaker.org/; contact: nadine@custompearlinlay.com).

New and confusing regulations affect every instrument builder, materials vendor, dealer, player, and collector, and are being aggressively enforced. Even unknowing violations or first offenses can result in confiscation, heavy fines, bankruptcy, and jail time (I was investigated for 8 months last year by F&W)!

As of today we have the following federal agents giving presentations:

George Balady, APHIS Agriculturist (Staff Officer) in USDA's Riverdale, MD, office, a specialist charged with APHIS' role in the Lacey Act.

Craig Hoover, Chief, Branch of Operations, USFWS Division of Management Authority, in Arlington, VA. He's a Chief Biologist and will be accompanied by someone from their Branch of Permits, and possibly also with a third F&W agent from their Office of Law Enforcement.

Although David and I know a fair amount about the regs, with this much professional heat in the room we plan to just shut up and listen along with everyone else. We're very pleased that these busy guys are willing to travel and work on a weekend to help us out, and are welcoming them to hang for the day and be available to mix with attendees and continue informal discussions (for which there may be a room available after the lunch break, if needed).

It’s too late for ASIA to include publicity on this as the last pre-convention issue of Guitarmaker has already been mailed out, although they will be mentioning it on their website. We're trying to get the word out as much as possible on the internet, such as Facebook and any luthier forums. Please spread the word on it! It’ll be a rare chance to be face-to-face with high ranking government authorities for direct answers on everything, and we’re certainly anticipating some serious attendance for it!

Re: ASIA SYMPOSIUM 2011

Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2011 12:20 pm
by tippie53
Thanks again for your posting Chuck. This is a very important topic and all should read. We appreciate your time and effort in this.

Re: ASIA SYMPOSIUM 2011

Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2011 2:06 pm
by Ben-Had
Does this have anything to do with "you can tune a guitar but you can't tuna fish?"

Tim B