Great Plains Ragtime Society...it's here!
	Here in the Omaha/Council Bluffs/Bellevue area, we've never stopped playing/listening to/enjoying the first major form of popular music to come out of the United States...and we want to tell the world that.

That's where the Great Plains Ragtime Society comes in. Launched on July 11, 2006, its purpose is twofold: (1) To promote old-time piano here in the Omaha metro area, and (2) to facilitate the local festival, Ragtime to Riches.

Next meeting!
	Our next meeting: Sunday, December 14, 2008, at 3:00 PM at Renier's Pianos, 49th and Dodge Sts., Omaha, NE 68104.

GPRS gets "two thumbs up!"
	Here's the word from Nan Bostick, one of the performers at the 2006 and 2007 Ragtime to Riches Festivals:

"So happy to hear the Great Plains Ragtime Society got started; hope you have a great turnout and wish I were there! Anyway, would you mind adding my email to your message list for the Society? I've been telling folks all about it in my travels and do feel I have a little something to do with putting a bee in your bonnet about this.

"Hope you're doing well." Thanks so very much, Nan!

Hey, whazzup!
	**Here's what happened at our first Great Plains Ragtime Society meeting, held 9-10-06 at Omaha's St. Paul United Methodist Church:

Club members decided to meet at least four times a year (March, June, September, and December), with additional meetings as needed. We're also seeking involvement from faculty and students in the music department at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. In addition, GPRS is shooting for the launching of a pre-Ragtime to Riches event (to take place in June and to be modeled after the Joslyn Art Museum's "Jazz on the Green" series).

Other proposals: (1) To get involved in existing local musical events; (2) to build (rent?) a float, put a piano on it, and have somebody play the instrument during a future parade here in the Omaha metro to promote local old-time piano; (3) videotape future Ragtime to Riches Festivals. (We've also set dues at $10 per year.)

**This is what happened at our December 10, 2006 meeting (at St. Paul UMC):

It was decided to find an Omaha spot for the 2007 and future Ragtime to Riches Festivals due to concerns about lack of attendance at the first two fests (at Broadway UMC in Council Bluffs).

Two possibilities have arisen thus far: MusicPlex (1219 S. 180th Plz., Omaha, NE 68130) and Florence City Hall (2864 State St., Omaha, NE 68112). (Don't be alarmed about Florence City Hall- it's no longer a government building, but now a banquet hall and entertainment center, while MusicPlex is a combination store/recital hall/music instruction center whose Website is www.themusicplex.com.)

A venue decision will be made by February 1, 2007; when the decision is made, we'll get it posted on our Website. Stay tuned...we're still having a festival!

***And now for an update on prospective R to R sites: We may have an albeit outside chance of getting to use the Grande Olde Players Theater (2339 N. 90th St., Omaha, NE 68134). Less of a long shot is a private residence...that of Bob and Joyce Markworth (13535 N. 73rd Plz., Omaha, NE 68122), of the local chapter of the American Theatre Organ Society. (MusicPlex and Florence City Hall have dropped out as prospective R to R sites.)

The goal is to have an Omaha venue in place by 2-1-07 (3-1-07 if push really comes to shove). If no Omaha venue is found, we're having the festival at Broadway UMC. (As soon as changes are made and confirmed, they'll be right here on this site. Stay tuned!)

We've found a place!
	On February 1, 2007, the Great Plains Ragtime Society agreed to switch the Ragtime to Riches Festival to the Strauss Performing Arts Center (on the campus of the University of Nebraska at Omaha). The university has offered the club the use of the choral rehearsal room- Room 105. (UNO, many, many thanks!)

Our next meeting happened on Sunday, June 10, 2007, at St. Paul United Methodist Church here in Omaha. In an effort to increase exposure for the Ragtime to Riches Festival, we distributed flyers to each member, with the flyers, in turn, to be posted all over town. Hope to see YOU at R to R 2007...you're in for a fun time!

Our best meeting yet!

The Great Plains Ragtime Society's most recent meeting happened on Sunday, January 13, 2008, at 4:00 PM at St. Paul United Methodist Church, 5410 Corby St., Omaha, NE. The meeting started out with some live music by Jim Boston, followed by a very healthy discussion about sheet music, ways to get more people to come to meetings, and ways to get the word out about this year's Ragtime to Riches Festival.

It was decided to produce a flyer to be posted at different businesses (especially music stores) in the Omaha/Council Bluffs/Bellevue area and to issue complimentary three-day passes to key media people and also to key music education figures...anything to end R to R's and GPRS' status as the area's best-kept secrets.

Many thanks to Ron Kroenke, Rozanne Christensen, and Jim Boston for making it to the first GPRS meeting of 2008...and many thanks to St. Paul United Methodist Church for allowing GPRS to hold meetings there!

This meeting was pretty good, too!

Our GPRS meeting of Sunday, April 13, 2008 followed the same basic format as the previous one, held three months before. The major highlights (besides the music and the good times had by all, of course) were: (1) The first-ever Great Plains Ragtime Society flyer was unveiled and is being circulated all over the Omaha/Council Bluffs/Bellevue area (and at least one other place besides); (2) the decision was made to hold a fundraiser for the Ragtime to Riches Festival, to be held on a yet-to-be-determined Saturday at Hy-Vee Gas at 90th and Center. (The manager of that supermarket, Mark Parker, has allowed nonprofit organizations to pump gasoline for customers and also solicit donations for those nonprofit groups; a different organization gets to pump each Saturday from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM.)

And, in order to increase attendance at the meetings and to give the community a sense of familiarity with GPRS, we're going to start having meetings monthly. They'll now be held on the fourth Sunday of each month...except in May and December, when they'll take place on the second Sunday of those two months.

Thanks, Rozanne, Ron, and Jim, for making it to April's GPRS meeting...and we'll see YOU at St. Paul United Methodist Church on June 22, 2008!

About the fundraiser...
	GPRS held its first (and hopefully, not its last) annual "Pump Up for Old-Time Piano" fundraiser on Saturday, May 31, 2008, at Hy-Vee Gas at 90th St. and W. Center Rd. in Omaha, NE. Taking place from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM that day, the event took in $110.27; the money will go to helping facilitate the upcoming Ragtime to Riches Festival.

During the third hour of the fundraiser, Jim, Lorraine, Jeramie, and Tiffany met former Omaha Mayor (and one-time US Representative) Hal Daub, the Republican who's trying to get his mayoral job back from the Democrat who took it away from him, Mike Fahey. (No word on whether Daub made a donation, though...)

Anyway...many thanks to Tiffany, Lorraine, Jim, and Jeramie for pumping gas, washing windows, etc., etc. at Hy-Vee Gas. And many, many thanks to Mark and Josh from Hy-Vee for allowing the event to take place!

Oh, what a meeting!
	The Great Plains Ragtime Society found a new place to get together: Renier's Pianos and Keyboards, 49th and Dodge Sts., Omaha, NE 68132.

That's where our November 2, 2008 meeting took place. Attending the 3:00 PM meeting were Rozanne Christensen, Jim Boston, and three newcomers: Marilyn Guss, Rebecca Guss, and David Weber.

Jim provided the music during the upstairs meeting; his selections included Shelton Brooks' "Jean," Scott Joplin's "Peacherine Rag," and an Edgar Leslie-Bert Kalmar-Pete Wendling number called "Take Your Girlie to the Movies (if You Can't Make Love at Home)." And then, in offering a short little talk on how ragtime music got started, Jim offered up "Mickey Mouse Club March," both as a straight march and as a rag!

Then the meeting evolved into a brainstorming session on how to further publicize an event that, almost four months earlier, collected $335 (which went to Omaha's Food Bank). Suggestions raised included contacting radio stations like KVNO and KIWR as well as television's CTI 22 (available on Cox Cable here in Omaha); getting hold of Omaha's other papers: "Omaha Star," "Omaha City Weekly," and "The Reader-" in addition to doing the same with the newspapers in the city's suburbs. And a liaison with Love's Jazz and Art Center was suggested, along with linking up with Omaha's many school districts. (Marilyn offered to talk up the Ragtime to Riches Festival with Nebraska's biggest school system, Omaha Public Schools.)

And Dave suggested putting a bug in the ears of the folks at www.omahapianoservice.com.

All in all, this was our best meeting yet...no doubt about it. Many thanks to the "Omaha World-Herald" for publicizing the meeting, and many thanks to Dave, Jim, Marilyn, Rebecca, and Rozanne for coming to Renier's. See you there on December 14, 2008!