Memories On The Hill - 2007 Release

[dachtera]

Greetings!

I am happy to announce I have a room full of DVD's for the 2007 DVD. They will be shipped up to Larson Welding this week, and will be available for pickup, mail-order as in the past, and also available ONLINE! - Information to follow soon with complete details for pricing, and availability. They are a limited release, with 1000 available, so be sure to get your order in as soon as I release the information later this week!

:picture:

[Darren Gunderson]

That is great news. I am really looking forward to seeing it. If we sent payment in before Christmas after the announcment came out in the WMSTR newsletter, is there still a record of those? I plan to be at the Steam up but if those that were ordered early were getting mailed I would made sure not to pick one up. I think my Dad also ordered his early and will be at steam up as well.

Darren

[cjmlarson]

That was my next question,we can buy them at steam right?

[M Kerkvliet]

That is great news. I am really looking forward to seeing it. If we sent payment in before Christmas after the announcment came out in the WMSTR newsletter, is there still a record of those? I plan to be at the Steam up but if those that were ordered early were getting mailed I would made sure not to pick one up. I think my Dad also ordered his early and will be at steam up as well.

Darren

Here is the information you all will need for purchasing a video. This comes from the perspective of the Board of Directors.

As many of you know, there was a transition to a new team for the video work for 2007 and future shows. This was done at the request of Jerry Swedburg, who had done the video for many years, and did a good job with it, but he wanted to step down. Tim Dachtera and Chris Moen graciously accepted the challenge and produced the 2007 video.

There has been some confusion, as there will always be when huge responsibilities like this change hands. Most of the confusion has dealt with simple logistics and was easily managed, however some has been a bit more challenging. First, let me explain some of the delay...

Tim and Chris had never shot a video of a steam show and were not exactly sure of the content. A show our size has enough activity to fill 10 hours of videotape. I think they actually shot close to 25 hours of video. That had to be edited down to approximately an hour for a marketable product. After that, the board wanted to see it before it went to press. It was excellent, but we wanted more dialogue. It took some time to come up with the verbiage to insert. I think we had 6 more long time Rollag folks screen it and add content. This process took another 4-6 weeks to complete. After that Tim and Chris had to do more editing and get the "final draft" ready for the production company to run with.

The final product is (in my opinion) a first class video, shot with professional equipment, edited on professional studio quality equipment, and the copies were made by a company in Minneapolis that makes DVD's and CD's for the recording industry. The packaging looks like something you would buy in a video store, and the DVD's are screen printed with photo quality art that Tim tells me is nothing short of amazing! All of this work, and we are able to keep the price at $15... the same it has always been.

Now that the delay is explained, we have to deal with the marketing.

In the past, the video was sold by "Tiger Productions". It was an "offshoot" of WMSTR that worked well at the time... that Swed and Elaine ran out of their home. The problem is, that with the Swedburg's wish to step down, it was too convoluted to try to run 2007 and future video work through Tiger Productions. We set up a new marketing vehicle for "out of season" sales that will be run directly by WMSTR. This will be done primarily on a new web site that will go live this coming weekend. There will be a link to the site from this forum, as well as from the Rollag.com site. From this site you will be able to order the 2007 video, as well as other things we will add later, like show books, buttons, plates... whatever we feel we can handle there. You will have many payment options, including a credit card if you have a Paypal account.

Markell Briden will be handling the shipping of all material ordered from that site. She will handle the inventory from her office in Fargo. If you are in the area, you can go by Larson Welding and pick up any merchandise directly from her there, and avoid shipping charges. The 2007 video will be available at the MSEA Spring Steam Up at Larson Welding on April 5th. She also has a few DVD's from previous years at the shop, but those will not be available on the web site as the inventory is not known.

To answer Darren's question...

We understand that some payments were sent for pre-ordered videos. The problem is, at this point we do not know where that payment was sent, and we have no record of it. Elaine told us that she was not sure what to do with any of the orders she had, so she sent the monies back to the people who ordered video's from them (Tiger Productions). If you fall into this category, please either acknowledge that you got your money returned, or get us some proof that you have paid for the video.

The WMSTR Board of Directors, sincerely apologizes for any confusion on this matter, and we assure you that things will run a lot smoother next year as we get through this transition. We hope that the new system we have in place will make things a lot easier for everyone, and provide a central purchasing point for all of your WMSTR related souvenirs!

For the time being, any video's you wish to order from previous years (2006 and older) you will need to contact Tiger Productions. There may be some time in the future when we can get the old video's into the new system, but for now, Tiger Productions will still handle them.

Thank you all for your understanding!

[M Kerkvliet]

We understand that some payments were sent for pre-ordered videos. The problem is, at this point we do not know where that payment was sent, and we have no record of it. Elaine told us that she was not sure what to do with any of the orders she had, so she sent the monies back to the people who ordered video's from them (Tiger Productions). If you fall into this category, please either acknowledge that you got your money returned, or get us some proof that you have paid for the video.



I have a little more information on this. Apparently Elaine DID NOT send back the orders she has. Actually, it depends on who you ask, as different people have gotten different information from her.

We will get this sorted out in the future, so please be patient. Nobody is going to have to pay twice... WE WILL get to the bottom of this eventually.

The most important thing to remember for the future is, that the WMSTR Media web site is the ONLY place to order the DVD from now until further notice. You have many payment options available on that site, including printing an order form and mailing a check. You can also walk in to Larson Welding and purchase a DVD there, and they will be available on the show grounds during the show. There may also be some available on work weekends during the show, as well as other WMSTR items, but that will be a hit and miss deal.

Thank you all for your understanding while we get this all sorted out.