EMAIL ARCHIVE > NOVEMBER 17, 2024

International Netsuke Society Members and Friends –

It’s been just over a month since the successful conclusion of our 2024 INS Conference. Those of us who were able to join enjoyed a few beautiful Fall days – and more than a few beautiful netsuke and sagemono – in Boston, Massachusetts. Many, many thanks to Marsha Vargas Handley, Dave Butsumyo, Adrian Heindrichs, and others, for the tireless hours spent organizing and refining the program and Conference. Our upcoming Winter Journal will contain a complete report and some of the content from this event. You won’t want to miss it!

As part of the official INS business meeting, the members present approved the Board’s nomination of new Board positions, including myself as the new organization President. I am incredibly honored and humbled to take on this role. I am very aware of the commitment and contributions of my predecessors in this role – not least of whom is Marsha as immediate Past President, who has been with this organization since the beginning, and has taken two turns as President and led the organization for over a decade. While these are impossibly large shoes to fill – I wouldn’t even try – I pledge to do my best to preserve and enhance the impact of the INS as the preeminent institution devoted to the appreciation and celebration of our most beloved art forms!

In Boston, the membership also approved the following Board members and officers of the Society –

• Steve Koppich, Board member
• Chip Lutton, President
• Sue Romaine, Vice President
• Rosemary Bandini, Vice President
• Marsha Vargas Handley, Treasurer
• David Butsumyo, Secretary

Continuing Board members: Jean-Yves Boutoudou, Alan Fisher, Adrian Heindrichs, Jay Hopkins, Makiko Komada, Gopi Nayar

In just the few weeks we’ve had together as a new working group, I can tell you that my fellow Board members care about our community and are ready to spend time and energy to serve it. The Society has important opportunities in front of it, and collectively your Board is excited to help do the work and serve the INS.

At the top of our immediate agenda as a Board are –

As Steve Koppich already informed you, we are actively searching for a new editor of the Journal to replace the soon-to-be-retired Linda Meredith. Steve will also be helping Linda and a new editor transition the Journal through the next year, including print and digital enhancements. He would love to hear from you with content ideas and other suggestions.

We have established a working Board committee to focus on membership and experience. Sue Romaine has volunteered to chair this effort. Initially, the committee will be surveying the membership for their feedback and using that feedback to establish what actions we can take to support our existing members and encourage new memberships. If you have any suggestions or thoughts, please contact Sue.

During the Boston convention, we announced (preliminarily) that our next INS conference will be held in Brussels, Belgium in 2026. We have a long, long ways to go, but if you have ideas or availability to help with that, please contact Adrian Heindrichs.

A number of our members have identified the opportunities we have to integrate content across our primary outlets (Journal, membership fora, and convention) and to expand our visibility online as well as on social networks. We will make this a priority going forward and will be asking for membership ideas and help.

Next year – 2025 – will be the 50th year anniversary of the founding of INS! The areas highlighted above are top of mind for your Board as we move into our 50th year as an organization. But we are also aware that a lot has changed in the world since 1975! Social media, digital videos, on-line and electronic auctions – even the WWW itself - these changes create opportunity to modernize and update this Society so it continues to serve netsuke and sagemono appreciation for another 50 years.

I speak for our entire Board when I say – “we are here at your service.” Please share your ideas, interests, and wishes for what the INS can do. We may not be able to take it all on – right away – but we are seriously devoted to the vitality of this great Society that has brought each of us education, entertainment, friendship, and joy over so many years.

I – and each of the people named above – look forward to hearing from you at any time, for any reason. Please reach out!

Best,

Chip Lutton