To paraphrase a movie line, "If you beg them, they will volunteer." Ever since I came into the picture here, I've tried to get more people involved in volunteering their writing, graphics, and musical talents for Vienna Online. Little by little, my pleadings are bearing fruit. This month sees two new contributors to the flock, CL Margaret Leong and homesteader Bill the PinWiz. And, best of all, each has multi-talented offerings to add to the mix.

Beginning with age before beauty, Bill's expertise appears to be musical and graphical, as well as editorial. An active member of the Residents Club, Bill recently produced the beautiful "Visible Vienna" graphic that rotates in our page headings and is laid out below right. If you click the banner, you'll find a wonderful page about what and why we have a GeoCities Vienna. We recommend you visit Bill's new page to give you a good feeling of your residency in GeoCities Vienna. His insights put into words the feelings you may experience when you take up cyber-residency here.

The picture in the great graphic he has designed is a detail of "Vienna, seen from the Belvedere, 1759-61" by Bernardo Bellotta. In the foreground is the Palais Schwarzenberg, where Joseph Haydn's oratorios "The Seasons" and "The Creation" and Beethoven's "Septet" Op. 20 received their first performances. It's this kind of added information, courtesy of Bill, that gives these graphics the added significance they deserve. Putting one of these graphics on your page could well be a pleasure.

Another of our VCL graphics wizzes is CL Margaret. She has provided many graphic masterpieces for us, including the new designs on the Vienna Webring fragment on our front page and on every ring member's updated page. Margaret has also been instrumental in forming our new graphics committee, along with donating her mental efforts with composer scrambles for the Players Page, and by being constantly ready to help out with special projects, such as our February Hunt the Hearts contest.

Together, Bill and Marg have consented to take over the duties involved with the Vienna Award, the oldest of our Vienna neighborhood awards. Actually, it's the only one other than the Vanguard Award, which was begun about a year ago. With Bill and Marg's management, the Vienna Award will see a rebirth, coming not only through new designs, but also with a noteworthy method to fill the gap between the Vienna Award and the Vanguard Award. These categories will serve to highlight certain aspects of your Vienna Award page. Check out their plans, and the start of their bimonthly column, "Evaluating Vienna." You can read about the beginnings of the Vienna Award at va.html, as well as my reasons for handing it over to the capable hands of Bill and Marg.

We don't want these fine folks to overextend themselves, something that's easy to do when there are more jobs than people. I have found that the more help there is on a project, the easier it can be. We certainly have a much better magazine when we have more people contributing ideas and stories, and offering their time and talents to putting them on Internet pages. Whether it's a one-time offering, a bi-monthly or monthly column, or even if you just leave us a message in our guestbook or message board, you will improve the zine, you'll improve us, and you might even learn something yourself.

I look forward to hearing from you and telling you, "Welcome aboard."