Well, that was the fun part. The other secretarial duties were perhaps rather less creative, but in terms of the smooth running of the society and ensuring our income considerably more demanding. The national secretary position continued in 2000 to subsume aspects of the role intended in last year’s constitutional amendments to devolve onto the newly created post of membership secretary, including the annual invoicing of renewals in May, while we can all be very grateful to Daniela Kaleva for her work in sending welcome letters to new members, fielding address changes and maintaining the Society’s all-important individual members’ database—no small task. The bi-annual preparation of the Annotated Membership List was this year undertaken by Daniela, Chris Wainwright and myself, and involved, particularly for Chris, a major input of time and effort in inputting and checking the contact details and research interests of members. The Society’s fourth AML was also capably produced by Kwikkopy, Unley SA. Members’ research details are now entered into the database itself, so can be printed out on each member’s renewal form each year, and edited and kept up-to-date by that member. In the process, the database was itself also upgraded substantially in terms of its useability, as a result of which we have recently been able, for instance, to email all MSA members with important updates. As South Australian member Chris Wainwright generously agreed to take on the role of Membership Secretary for the incoming, Sydney-based executive in 2000/1, he also kindly agreed to ease into the role during the September-November period of 2000, which transition he accomplished with his usual unfussed professionalism and attention to detail. It remains to me only to warmly thank Daniela for her generous assistance with administration of the individual membership in 1999 and 2000, and for the first time for a National Secretary, hand over reporting on the state of the MSA’s individual membership, this year, to Chris Wainwright.

Finally, a word about the institutional membership of the MSA, which remains stable and strong, with some 167 copies of MA 22, and almost as many issues of our Newsletters, being sent to libraries and other institutions throughout Australia and around the world this year. The maintenance of the institutional database, invoicing members, checking payments is one of the most complex and frustrating ills to which the national secretary is heir, and was greatly complicated in the past by a Byzantine filing system and inadequately detailed database. Worst of all, as noted already in the President’s report, the late delivery of MA each year caused communication difficulties with our subscribers and endless amounts of additional correspondence, headaches and ultimately lost income for MSA—a situation we look forward to seeing relieved if MA 23 can be released within its stated issue year of 2000. Again, however, I can report considerably progress has been made this year in updating and greatly expanding the database, which will now permit us far better control over charges (complicated this year by the introduction of the GST!), billing and receipting procedures. I wish the incoming secretary in particular every success with this challenge, and hope that this facet of Kathy’s work is ultimately as rewarding as it has been for me, and, I hope, a littte easier. I’ll think of Kathy every time, I log on next year and find my email inbox unaccountably, and perhaps a just little disappointingly, empty.

It remains only for me to state what a pleasure it has been to work for the MSA, with our national committee, with Daniela and Chris, our capable Membership Secretaries, various subcommittees and the many chapter representatives and members with whom we’ve had such fruitful and productive interactions over the last two years. Jennie Shaw, in particular, has been a great strength to the Society, and helped in many roles, as Craig has already noted. I’d particularly like to thank Brett Chapman, our magnificent website coordinator, Sandra McColl and Paul Watt, our Musicology Australia editors, and the several conference convenors with which the executive has so happily and productively dealt over the past two years and to whose achievements—in their undertaking what is the real task of the MSA, of bringing together Australian scholars, showcasing and disseminating the outcomes of their work—we executives, we mere bureaucrats, humbly bow. Most of all I wish to thank Craig and Jula for what I believe has been a great team and to whom the geographical divide has meant nothing, in fact, had many positive aspects in ensuring an equitable balance of duties and perspectives—Craig for his guidance and advice and for generously shouldering the very considerable burden of national and international mailouts, Jula for her professionalism and financial skill which has taken considerable administrative weight from my shoulders and made time available for such initiatives as upgrading databases and logos. Whatever the government of this country may throw at our universities, musicology in Australia remains a vibrant area of cultural discourse, and the MSA reflects it. The society is well set up, with good internal communications, a solid and expanding membership base and wide outreach beyond our shores, a new website, excellent, energetic appointments in its editorial teams, and a fresh new image with which to face the challenges of music research in the 21st century.