[K3pzn-board] RE: [PVRC] CANCELLED: FARfest at the Howard County Fairgrounds

Thu, 1 Apr 2004 15:27:27 -0500

Greetings Board Members,

	I don't want to agree with Frank again, (Just Kidding), however, I
really do have to agree with him. Our hamfest is just that, our hamfest. We
currently have the capability to manage the hamfest and I think that joining
with another club would just create the problems that members have seen in
the past. 

	We have a great hamfest and I think we still can handle putting it
on at this time. So, I would say that I am very sorry to see the issues that
FAR is currently facing, but we must think of our own club first and all
other organizations second.

	Lets keep focused on OUR projects and the REQUIREMENTS to complete
them before we look at stretching ourselves even farther Lets face it, we
ALL are stretched to the maximum. So even if I agreed that we should do it,
I would decline because we have so many irons in the fire now.

Regards,
Doug Kearney N5LBJ 

-----Original Message-----
From: Frank Rodski [mailto:[email protected]] 
Sent: Wednesday, March 31, 2004 15:17
To: Stephen C Beckman; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected];
[email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected];
[email protected]
Subject: RE: [PVRC] CANCELLED: FARfest at the Howard County Fairgrounds

Keith et al.

I was involved with or hamfest from before day 1 and was part of the
founding group. We started out with one group who could not get off the
ground (and made some enemies to this day and lost some members) and then
teamed up with the Penn-Mar group. I was one of the two active liaisons with
he other club.  In the beginning, Penn-Mar helped but picked choice jobs and
some of their leaders seemed to have a problem each hamfest and bailed early
or didn't show at all leaving the CCARC reps to do where several hats. By
the time the money was declining, Penn-Mar hadn't been pulling their share
for years. I don't know if you were active in the club when I wrote the Dear
John letter to Penn-Mar, but it was painful.

You say as a member of FAR, we are duty bound to help?  Why? We don't get a
cut. They never helped us. In fact what have we EVER got from FAR? NOTHING.
And there has been some question for years as to the up and up of some of
their programs.

They had a location, reputation, money and lost out. They then teamed up
with the Columbia group, another good hamfest with a good name ... but have
lost their way AGAIN. Ask yourself why.  A word to ponder is sustainability,
given the format, size, acting supporting members, etc.
When I say grow our Hamfest, I don't mean to the proportions that
Gaithersburg used to be, but the nice size with a few more than we used to
have (about double our current size in tailgaters and attendees). That is a
manageable size for us, with no baloney from another group.  Beside, the Ag
center as it is configured at the moment will not support a hamfest of the
size Gaterburg used to be or not even the size that Columbia used to be.
That means limited revenues would have to be shared between possibly several
clubs.

We just about manage with our own membership (with the BoD members doing
most of the work and planning). In my opinion it is in our best interest to
work hard at our own hamfest and reap the benefits thereof.  As much as I
would like to think just how friendly other clubs and hams are, I think we
need to be realistic. None has ever volunteered to help at ours even after
we helped at theirs. Very rarely (maybe never) has another club stepped
forward to help us with any of our events.

In any event, we don't have enough help to put on a hamfest of that size and
neither do they or they wouldn't be folding. If we want to sustain our
momentum ...we cannot bite off more than we can chew. Let their experience
be a lesson for us. We currently have enough new projects now without adding
anything additional.

Been there.  Done that.

73, Frank K3MTT

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]]On Behalf Of Keith Krichinsky
Sent: Thursday, April 01, 2004 9:51 AM
To: [email protected]; [email protected]
Subject: [K3pzn-board] RE: [PVRC] CANCELLED: FARfest at the Howard County
Fairgrounds

I'm reading this a little differently, let us contact FAR and ask them to
"join forces" with us.  THIS COULD BE THE EXPANSION OPPORTUNITY WE ARE
LOOKING FOR.  It would be good for both organizations.  They have the name
and reputation, we have the location.  As a member club of FAR, is it not
our duty to help them out?

Discussions please, Gentlemen.

73,

Keith Krichinsky - KB3HHK