IN THE BEGINNING

The initial meeting to discuss the formation of a Jazz Archive in Victoria was held at the Whitehorse Inn, Hawthorn on Sunday, August 18th 1996. The meeting was convened by John Kennedy in co-operation with Eric Myers, NSW Jazz Coordinator from Sydney; Graham Evans, Manager Collection Development National Film and Sound Archive, Canberra. The meeting was chaired by Bill Haesler from Sydney, a col­lector, jazz musician and jazz critic, who is well -known in Melbourne jazz circles.

The Melbourne meeting followed a similar meeting held in Sydney. On June 23rd June 1996, under the chairmanship of Bruce Johnson, it was decided to form an Australian Jazz Archive within the NFSA, with each State, forwarding Australian jazz material to Canberra, to be preserved within the NFSA.

The Melbourne meeting was very well attended with some 64 jazz col­lectors, musicians, and representatives from the arts & music teaching fields. They listened to the various aspects of the proposal and some­times rather heatedly discussed the Victorian material being collected and sent to Canberra.

From the start of the meeting it became very obvious that the NFSA were not in the best position to take all material. Also some attendees were very critical of past experiences with the NFSA, and felt lodgement was not in the best interests of the Victorian musicians and collectors. Many also expressed disquiet about not having local access to the ma­terial if held in Canberra, and therefore were more in favour of setting up an independent archive in Victoria.

There were doubts expressed on how this would eventuate, but assess­ing the feelings in general, John Kennedy stated "I will start proceedings next week to form a Victorian Archive". John asked for an expression of interest to form the first Management Committee.

The inaugural committee meeting was held at John Kennedy's resi­dence on Thursday 29th August 1996, some 10 days after the initial meeting in Hawthorn. The following collectors and musicians were in attendance:- Margaret & Don Anderson, Jeff Blades, Margaret Harvey, Lorraine Cook, Eric Brown, Michele & Don Boardman, Dick & Shirley House, Ray Marginson, Ron Halstead, Peter Grey, William H Miller, Tony Newstead, Tony Standish, Tom Wanliss, John and Judy Ken­nedy.

Apologies from John Roberts, Dave Parsons, Harry Gordon.

GENERAL COMMITTEE

Jeff Blades, Margaret Harvey, Tony Newstead, Eric Brown, Tony Standish, and David Parsons.

General consensus of opinion was to use the name VICTORIAN JAZZ ARCHIVE Inc. Bill Miller suggested the Model Rules should show we are registered as a charitable institution. Even at this early stage dis­cussion centred around suitable premises and funding.

Later meetings in 1996 discussed the formation of the Model Rules and the annual subscription, which commenced at $20 per annum for standard membership.

October 15th 1996 saw the Incorporation of the Victorian Jazz Archive Inc, thanks to the hard work of Bill Miller and Don Anderson.