The differences are that the IBM puts out a digest-sized magazine, and the SAM puts out a regular-sized magazine.

OK, there may be more to it than that. At least with the magazines, which depends really on the editors' skills, talents, and friends-who-can-be-talked-into-doing-work-for-them. And for many of us, it's the magazines which are the sum total of our membership.

For me, the SAM offers SAMtalking, a discussion forum which has, so far, been extremely fair and a safehaven from bickering and jealosies. And the SAM e-mail list has been the same. Each (SAMtalking and SAM's e-list) has carried some of the most valuable lessons on performance, business, and ethics that I've seen anywhere.

The IBM offers its e-mail list, but it has become a LOT less user-friendly lately and truly is a pain to try to access via the posted discussion group. Point to the SAM.

Neither group really enforces their rules about exposure and ethics; more's the shame. Personally, I'd just as soon hang all offenders by the eyeballs until miserable, but that's just me.

*jeep!
--Grandpa Chet

I have learned a universal principle.....Once you give, then you can receive.

I have been blessed greatly by the I.B.M.


Steve Hart
the "Motivational Magician"

Walt,
Even if you don't know it, people do care and it does not matter whether they are IBM or SAM. You mentioned Insurance. If you know where to get Liablity Insurance any cheaper, let me know. I talk as if the coverage has been lowered. that is not true for the IBM. I havent checked the SAM but I would doubt it. Also the IBM is hoping to be announce other types of insurance that everyone needs coming up very soon. But only members can take part. Making statments about the integrity without specifics is not a good thing. I don't think either organization has lowered it's standards to keep membership. If you know of some offenders, let us know so we can look into them but don't generalize. We hate to see you go and hope you don't. If you have specific issues you would like to discuss, feel free to email me privately and I will look into them for you.
Terry Richison

Posted: Jul 14, 2008 11:39pm
Justin, I am glad you are not thinking of giving up magic altogether. Even though you may not have a Ring that is very active or that does not fit good with you right now is no reason to let your membership lapse. There are many good things as far as being a part of the International organization that you can use to become better and stay in the "loop". If the local SAM has a good Assembly, go give it a try. There is not reason you can't be a member of both. Most of us are members of both. Keep your chin up and like someone said, don't throw out the baby with the bath water.
Terry Richison
IBM Membership

Thanks for the thoughts, I appreciate your input.

Right now I'm just going to stick with doing hospital shows and very few select private performances.

As far as any type of club is concerned...I think I'm just going to stay in one; My Bicycle club. And as far as staying in the loop, I'm with Rocco and he is very active so I won't miss out on anything, per say. I also am a Magic Magazine subscriber from day one. I used to subscribe to Genii for the past 19 years but recently let it go too.

But right now, all I care about is the Tour de France! I have very little or no interest in magic at all in the summer. And also the pool! I'm more interested in keeping my diving form and hitting the boards!

The Marines have a saying: "The price of criticism is participation."

I felt the same way about Ring 50 in Washington, DC (Mike Taggert and I are now both past Presidents of the Ring). Our membership has skyrocketed, we are voting in new members every meeting, and the revived Magi-Whirl convention had nearly 700 people at the public show this year.

It started with ONE GUY.

Dan Lacey decided, on his own, to make the Ring more friendly and inviting. He greeted everyone at the door. He made it a point to greet visitors, learn their names, introduce them to other members with similar interests and introduce them to the members during the meeting. His enthusiasm was infectious, and soon other members were acting the same way. We started getting more visitors and members (big surprise). A bunch of the younger members decided to get involved, and soon the Ring had more energy than it had for years. Dan was elected President of Ring 50.

A few months later, Dan fell ill and was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer. He was gone in a matter of weeks. From his hospital bed, he ordered awards and signed Certificates of Appreciation to the Ring officers and award winners. He asked his family to visit the Ring to maintain that connection.

In his honor, Ring 50 has established the Dan Lacey Memorial Trophy for DC Magician of the Year. We hold a competition each spring, and the winner performs at the Magi-Whirl public show.

We have since changed meeting venues (which doubled our attendance), and although he is too modest to admit it, Mike Taggert has been instrumental in reestablishing the Ring and Magi-Whirl. And by the way, the DC SAM & IBM chapters have many of the same members, and over the years Assembly 23 has become more Close-up oriented and Ring 50 is more into Stand-up magic. We have also tried to show respect to our older members by asking for help and advice, and they have in many cases helped us to avoid "reinventing the wheel." We are certainly not perfect, and have many areas of needed improvement, but the point is we're moving and in the right direction. (Any comments, Bill Wells?)

Why am I telling you this? It's simple. What you get out of any organization has to do with what you put into it. Have you considered what the IBM and your local Ring would lose by not having you as a member? You may seem to be alone in your desire for a vibrant, active group that is actively helping its member become better magicians. I assure you, you are not alone. I'll bet you could find some magi in your area who are not Ring members and if you could return with an attitude of helping, it's quite possible that you could see the existing Ring transform! It's not an overnight process - few things worth doing are. But it's worth a really serious try.

I believe that every town deserves to have a local magic organization that is actively improving and promoting magic. It's not always an IBM Ring, but in most cases it can be.

The price of criticism is participation.

You mean you can be a member of both? At the same time?? Wow! I may check into local SAM clubs, I have only been a member of IBM for around 5 years or so. Anyways, I am glad your gonna at least look into another group, Justin. I got a feeling you add to a group more than what you take so good luck.

GlenD

Dear Eric,

That is an inspirational story, thank you for sharing.

Yours,

Paul

Too bad you decided to quit. You'll be back. But, you'll have to wait another 20 years for your Order of Merlin.

I thought OM was 25 years?

I'm late to this topic.

So, did you renew?

Also: If you ever decide to go to a National convention, you still have to pay extra which is equal to the dues.

Quitting a local could be like quitting a church because you don't like the people in it. But one would still want to be a member of the International.
You cannot let people get you down.

And if you perform and need performers insurance, you cannot beet the IMB performers liability policy. I used to be an insurance guy before I went into full time magic, and in my research I could not beat the IBM liability policy.
PLEASE let me know if you found something better.

I have not attended a meeting in a while because I am usually performing when they have a meeting. But there are lectures, conventions, the forum, the banquet, the Christmas party, the picnic, the public shows.
I used to be very active, never missed a meeting.
It was fun performing neck to neck with the Sr. guy who could fool everyone.

I quit for a few years as life got in the way. Then I decided to be a member for life. (But I am not a life member). If I would have stayed in when I first joined at 17, I would have 32 years in each club.
I've had some problems with things about clubs and certain people.
But I tried to rise above that. I'm still a member of both IBM and SAM, and can afford the dues.
So I have nothing to loose, except space to put those darn magazines. I am too busy to read them, so they are piling up, most have never been opened, lol.

Good Luck in your decision and whatever you do. You are always welcome back in the club, and you can always be my guest at a local meeting in New Orleans(just let me know ahead of time so I can take the night off).
We can even bicycle there together! (just joking!)

ACE

Posted: Aug 27, 2008 8:09pm
Man, I hope no one knocks you off your bike, then you would have to quit the Bicycle Association, (I'm JOKING, Of course!) I just could not resist.

Hi, another Navy guy here. I had been a member from 2001-2004, but my membership lapsed when I transferred overseas. I've been thinking lately that I'd like to renew my membership and return to the fold...

Well I for one can say that I hope you return to the finest Magic Organization in the world. We want you back and we need your input.

Rodney

I'm pretty sure we've lost Justin; he sounded just too committed to leaving, no matter what anyone said or could have said. But I'm left wondering exactly why. He didn't offer any specific reasons for his apparent disillusionment with IBM. But there definitely was a kind of bitterness expressed between the lines of his writings.

I know I, at times, have considered dropping out of both IBM and SAM. My reason is the camaraderie I'd hoped to find at conventions has, far too often, been disappointing. My frequent attempts to start conversations with an "average" attendee too have been terminating with mono-syllabic responses or dead stares and a turning of the shoulder.

Social skills seem to be in minimal supply which, when you think about it, is nothing short of astonishing for a gathering of a group of entertainers. Cliquishness seem to be on the rise. Seemingly terrified of connecting with others outside their own groups, attendees make a lone individual become rather quickly disillusioned with seeing conventions as places to connect with new people. (And as for most of the big-name magicians, don't get me started. Should they even deign to make an appearance among the unwashed, their baseless arrogance and pretension -- unless, of course, they have a product to sell -- have become repelling and repugnant in their own way.)

Lest you suspect that it's something in MY approach or attitude which might be at fault here, I can only say that I regularly meet and enjoy many, many different kinds of people in social situations in the course of my professional and personal lives, and I rarely get the frigid and unreceptive encounters with strangers that I am too frequently encountering at large gatherings of the general magic community.

Which isn't to say, of course, that every magician is unsociable or insular. The occasional meetings I do have with the seeming minority of approachable and gregarious magicians are very much embraced and treasured indeed. But those worthwhile connections are becoming rarer, it seems to me. Often, those individuals share with me that they, too, are perplexed by the high degree of standoffishness they have encountered.

I don't think it's always been this way. Conventions I attended in the '60s and '70s seemed much more convivial and gregarious than they are now. I remember, for example, how the great names, for the most part, would freely and affably mingle with attendees throughout the conventions. It was natural and easy to approach and enter a group, or strike up a conversation with most any person who happened to be standing beside you.

I'm sorry to say that I've recently decided to attend conventions, if at all, with people I already know. Otherwise, I'll just see the shows and visit the dealers' rooms. The alternative is just too galling.

So that's my bitter beef. I don't know whether it was shared by Justin. I do know that mine is not so great as to drop IBM entirely. The magazine, if nothing else, makes membership more than worthwhile.

You guys make some good points, both for and against. Thank you!

I certainly agree with the above post.

I attended a national convention a couple of years ago, and I got out of it what I put into it. I never was a real social person growing up and I had to learn the few social skills I now have, and I am still learning. But everyone I met was nice to me. I sometimes had to break away from groups so I would not miss the next activity. Stangers who were famous walked up to me to show me their correct handlings of effects. (Well, at least one guy did with a name of Howie, lol). Everyone there was willing to share. I'm looking forward to my next one.

Now I've worked hundreds of trade shows, and I use to make a point to meet other magicians working there. I hate to say some of the 'big names' do not realize it is the 'little names' who pay their bills.

Point: A lot of the 'big names' do not even belong to clubs, so the way they act would not make me quit a club. Like a convention, it would seem you get out of a club what you put in to it. Currently I am not active, so I am not getiing the full benifits of the club, but I am keeping my membership, for when I have more time.

ACE

I have decided to keep the I.B.M. membership, though I don't get to the meetings/lectures as often as I used to.

Love the magazine...and the web site perk. (don't like the long address though) It is easy for me to update with new information, links and photos.

I hope they have another convention in either KC or St. Louis soon.


Harris

I find this a common misconception at most national conventions. You have to remember that these conventions really drain the energy out of a person. What one may take for a lack of social skills or rudeness may be nothing more than sheer exhaustion, information overload or simply being overwhelmed with all that's happening. I never get around to talking to all of the people I hope to chat with and that doesn't include the people who want to chat with me.

You also need to remember that the "Names" are often smothered by people who want something from them or simply want to chat at times that are inconvenient. Often times, the "Names" are focused on working (They're not attending for the same reasons you may be), stressing over their dealer stalls, focused on an upcoming lecture or show, or other wise preoccupied.

At my last conference I watched a "Big Name" treat a respected lady with, what I thought was less than courteous behavior. I politely mentioned my observation to the "Name." He immediately acknowledged that he was exhausted, not feeling well and was caught at an off moment. He sought the darling lady out the next day, apologized and more than made up for his earlier behavior. He proved he was everything I knew him to be and my respect for him soared.

Sometimes, the "fans" can be rude, insensitive and demanding and this can raise the "Name's" defenses. The key for new attendees is to simply blend in, sit back and quietly observe. Eventually, the "clique" will see that you're not a threat or a pest and will usually welcome you with warmth and friendship.

Just remember that the "Names" are human, too, and you'll find doors opening for you everywhere.