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BMA
Black Music Association

Second Annual Conference
Sheraton Washington Hotel
Weekend June 26-30, 1980

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE*
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"THE FINAL CALL"

The BMA has laid a few cornerstones since our first edition of "InnverVisions". I consider the White House Celebration a cornerstone because it focused a level of national and international attention on us that could not been achieved by any other single American institution..and that is good. When I say brought attention upon the BMA, I mean you the communicators, press and air personalities, you the artists, writers, producers, publishers, you the retailers, wholesalers, mom and pop stores, you the record executive... You the BMA! We went to Washington to celebrate and to acknowledge one common denominator... Black Music.

On June 8-11 in Philadelphia, the second cornerstone was laid… The BMA Founders' Conference, and again it was Black Music that brought us together. The attendance reflected every compartment of the Music and Record Industry. Some came to lend their sincere talent, energies and support to the survival of the one thing our people have given to the world – our music. Others were there having already diagnosed the BMA as terminal... waiting to see how it would die. And there were still others who came "Just in case we make it." NARM, RIAA, CMA and NATRA were all conceived about the same time. NARM, RIAA, and CMA have grown into the most powerful trade groups within the industry because they received support and respect from their constituencies.

Some twenty odd years later NATRA has a new name, a new style and now it is a four room house, room for everybody, room for us all. But we must heed this, the final call to unity. We must develop avenues by which the artist, the communicator, the merchandiser, and the record executive can create and maintain better standards within the industry... and we must be responsible to the community which we service, the community who supports the artist, listens to the air personalities, goes to the record store, and buys the product. We the BMA have a responsibility to our community. The communities that you and I were born in, the communities that have been the birth place for Black Music, the communities that are dying while the record industry flourishes. We no longer have time for mistrust, or deceit. We have no time for jealousies or lies. We only have time for the business of survival, because otherwise we will only have ourselves to blame.

The Black Music Association has put the wheels in motion, the foundation has been laid. Are you ready to play your part? Are you going to sit on the sidelines and "wait to see" or are you ready to take part in your own salvation?

Just how far DO YOU WANT TO GO? It is your decision....

*Excerpts taken from the President's Welcoming Address before the June Founders' Conference.

Kenneth Gamble
President, BMA

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[[cutoff]]ENDA GRACIA
[[cutoff]]ecutive Director
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KENNETH GAMBLE
President, BMA
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JULES MALAMUD
Senior Vice President
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