The Educational screen (c1922-c1956])

Why Exhibit At the ICRE Workshop? About a score of tlic audio-visual industry's leading manufacturers o;' motion picture and still projectors, recorders, screens, and accessories spent a busy week at the sixth annual workshop of the International Council of Religious Education. The entire Garden View House at Green Lake, Wisconsin, was turned into an exhibit hall, and without exception the exhibitors were loud in their praise of the cooperation extended on behalf of ICRE, particularly by H. S. \'an Deren, in charge of exhibit arrangements, and Rev. Floyd Watt, in charge of projection. The exhibitors welcomed the chance to meet nearly three hundred of the country's leaders in church use of audio-visual materials, practically all operating on the national or regional level. It was a chance to discuss how their eciuiimpin and materials fit the needs of religious education, to compare experiences, to suggest new applications. While the church market presently docs not show quite the volume found in school sales, its potential is at least as great and its tempo of growth during the past ten years has been greater. Exhibitors still have much to learn about the use of what they sell to the church ; church workers have much to learn about what is available for them to put to use. In the school field the relationshi]) between vendor and user is closer, but this better understanding has had many more years to develop. In an equal span of time the church field is likely to be better developed and the opportunities for audio-visual services even greater. The eflfect of these annual workshops cannot be gauged solely from the interest shown (and business developed) just at Green Lake. More and more frequent are local and regional workshops that apply the lessons of Green Lake to local conditions. At least three such meetings are scheduled for next month — Dayton, Ohio on November 3 ; Sheboygan, Wisconsin, November 17-19; Wichita, Kansas, November 3-Deceniber 2. While such workshops arc conducted in the main with local and denominational forces, many of them with Green Lake experience, ICRE Visual Education Department staff will take an active partPearl Rosser at Dayton, Rev. Elmer G. Million at Sheboygan, and Rev. Donald Lantz at Wichita. .At most such meetings leading local audio-visual dealers are in vited to participate with exhibits, demonstrations, etc. The eflfcctiveness of such local dealer cooperation can be increased considerably if the manufacturers' national representatives are able to jjass along the experiences they gain at the national (Green Lake) meeting. Not only does the influence of the national meeting extend out into the local Church Federations and Councils in the form of grass-roots workshops, but it takes on worldwide importance through its stimulation of such workshops in other countries. At least in Canada and in China such direct results have been observed. So the export departments of the various exhibitors also have a stake in the growing success of each year's national meeting. Minor difficulties remain in the planning of such exhibits, especially in the matter of time ; the participant's day should not be so crowded that there is little time for exhibit visiting. But the ICRE staff is aware of this problem, which, after all, is one encountered also at the NE.A or .Master Photo Dealers annual meetings. It is certain that in coming years the results of exhibits sucli as those at the ICRE annual workshop will be even greater — both for the men who make and sell the equipment and materials and for the thousands of churchmen who use them. — Wm. F. Krusk. SMPE Convention Latest advances in the techniques involved in making color motion pictures and in high-speed i)hotography will receive major attention in papers scheduled for the 66th semi-annual convention of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood, October 10-14. An eminent scientist and authority on television will speak at a special television session. At a business meeting, SMPE members will discuss the proposed new constitution for the SMPE and the proposal to change the organization's name to "Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers." Audio Fair The nation's first ".\udio Fair" is to be sponsored by the Audio Engineering Society at the Hotel New Yorker in New York City October 27-29, 1949, according to an announcement by C. J. Lebel, president of the Society. In addition to exhibits of the latest audio products and developments, the Society will holil technical sessions featuring papers on recording and reproduction on tape, disc, and film. Microphones, loudspeakers, and amplifying equipment will also be demonstrated and discussed. New Name For NAVED? The members of the National Association of \'isual Education Dealers are now voting on the recommendation of their Board of Directors that the NA\'F;D name be changed to "National Audio-\'isual Association." The result will be made known at a special meeting to be held in October. In calling for the vote, Don White, Executive Secretary, informed his membership that "it was one of the terms of the .ANF.A-N.W'ED merger that 'the Board of Directors ... as soon as convenient consider the adoption of a name to be more descriptive of the functions of the entire combined membcrshii) of both associations.'" In its meetings before and during the 1949 convention, the Board discussed the change of name at great length. After discarding for various reasons the other names submitted, the Board resolved to recommend "National .\udio-Visual .Association" as the newname for the organization. When this unanimous recommendation was reported to N.AVED members present at the convention, it was subjected to a consultative vote and sustained by 29 to 14. Thereupon Jasper Ewing of New Orleans circulated a letter signed by, among others, several past presidents and charter members, urging that the old name be retained. Their position was that N.AVED had been organized by and for the benefit of visual education dealers and that the change of name would nullify efforts put forth the past eleven years. A counter-statement signed by ten present directors, including "Jack" Carter (president), Keith South (secretary) and Ken Lilley (treasurer). gave detailed reasons why the Board had come to its unanimous decision regarding the change. It pointed out that "visual education" has evolved by technical and educational progress into "audio-visual", a term nowused by practically all dealers as well as by educators' organizations ; that the -word "educational" was dropped because most members are now as much interested in religious, industrial and other film fields as in the 374 Educa-fional Screen