"Now is possibly one of the best in the history of the zine for volunteers to come forward with story and photo ideas,..."

Sometimes being a volunteer just isn't all it's cracked up to be. Early in 2000, Yahoo stopped being supportive of its GeoCities arm, and our existence as a part of a greater "all" was seriously quashed. Where once we could count on many hundreds of "hits" and "visits" each time the Yahoo news was sent out, we can now count on only tens of tens.

But even though our numbers are down, we continue to try to present something for our readers. I am thankful for Florian and Keith, whose stalwart support have been indispensable to me through the year. Bill and Paul, each with columns of interest throughout the year, have likewise been major contributions to the readability of our little zine. Several others, such as Marg, have contributed during the year, and then found their real life situations such that their volunteering efforts needed to be greatly curtailed. Such has been the year for me, so I am in total empathy with that position. Another couple have had their efforts ignored in large part, so we stopped publishing them when it became clear that we needed to expend our energies where they were best used.

Now is possibly one of the best in the history of the zine for volunteers to come forward with story and photo ideas, help with administering our Vienna awards, and yes, even providing an editorial direction for the zine. There's no question that a hands-on editor of a classical music bent could do a lot with the platform that we have created. I think I can speak for the others when I say that we are no harder to work with than any group of musicians, students, and editors.

No matter what happens in that area, we'll keep putting out something, even if it's just one new story a month, such as this month's issue. That's sad to say for such a monumental issue as the start of the Third Millenium, but I guess like a lot of other dot.com companies, we've not had that great a year. At least we don't have to worry about paying stockholders. (We don't have any!)

May your year be blessed with prosperity of the heart, soul, mind, and property.