AV News Magazine | Page 4

AV News 174 - November 2008 Editorial Jill K Bunting CPAGB & John Smith APAGB CPAGB Well here it finally is! - our first issue since we took over as the new Joint Editors. It's hard to believe that it is almost a year since we were first individually approached by the 'press gang' of AV Group Chairman Keith Scott and the Secretary Brian Jeffs. We both inititially turned the job down - Jill because she had never produced a magazine before and John, as the 'new kid on the block', felt he did not know enough people to be able to ask them to contribute articles. The suggestion was then made that maybe we could become joint editors. John produces a magazine for the Lancashire & Cheshire Photographic Union, so has the experience and knowledge of editing a publication and Jill knows quite a lot of people in AV circles. So eventually we agreed. It is only by doing the job that you begin to realise the tremendous amount of work that the previous Editors, Joan and Glyn Horne, have put into the magazine. They had even more work than we do, as they also produced the address labels, then packaged and posted the magazine. This job will now be done by the printers, Mensa, so we thank them for taking on this task. We hope we can live up to the standards set by Joan and Glyn, but also put our own style into the magazine. Now that it is available to non - RPS members, we aim to take it forward and encourage a wider readership by ensuring that it is 'all inclusive' covering all aspects of AV. From International and National events to our specialist AV clubs and down to the activities of a few people who come together to enjoy making sequences for their own pleasure. To help encourage new AV workers and readers, we have set up a website at www.avnews.org.uk where you will find the latest news, images and a full Calendar of AV Events and Festivals. Please send us details of your meetings, competitions and events. The more publicity the better. Those of you who could not attend the events detailed in these pages will hopefully enjoy reading about them. We also plan to include more informative articles - John was so impressed by Peter Appleton's report on the Zoom H4 (see page 44) that he went out, bought one and tried it out at Cirencester. Some of you may have read comments on the PTE Forum about this recorder, but you can hear evidence of its capabilites for yourselves on our website. Both Peter's demonstration and the live report from the Chairman of the RPS International Jury, Ian Bateman are available for download. If you didn't manage to get to the International, you missed a really great weekend. John feels he now knows all the guests at the Gala Dinner intimately, spending many hours creating the montage in the centre pages! We hope you enjoy reading this issue and continue to help make it 'your' magazine. We look forward to meeting you at one of the forthcoming events, please come and introduce yourselves to us. Page 2