[TheForge] ABANA membership

Tue Jul 9 14:25:59 2002

----- Original Message -----
From: "Dave Bendall" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, July 09, 2002 11:02 AM
Subject: [TheForge] ABANA membership


>      Look out, I just had an idea, sparked by several folks mention of
> what they feel they get by being members of ABANA- two magazines, and
> attending a conference every two years. Personally, I like the magazines
> just fine, but may not attend another conference. Therefore, my $45.00
> goes for a monthly magazine. All my other magazine subs. run $10.00 to
> $18.00 per year, with no conferences.
>      Some other organisations have different levels of memberships-
> cheapo magazine only, then the more expensive magazine plus discount on
> merchandise, and voting rights. Would it be practical for ABANA to offer
> similar levels of membership? All the apparent corruption in the ABANA
> board really irritates me, even more so when I consider that something
> like $27.00 to $35.00 of my membership fee is just wasted, unless I buy
> stuff from ABANA at a discount, and attend conferences regularly.  If I
> could just get the mags. and not foot the bill for the more questionable
> goings-on of ABANA, I'd sure prefer it.
>      Just my two cents. What do others think?
>      Dave Bendall in Phoenix
>
Dave Bendall,
As far as blacksmithing magazines go, I am interested in the ones that you
are getting for $10 / $18 per year. Can you send me information on those?
I know that "ANVIL" mag cost $50 / year and it is mostly horse shoeing.
The NOMMA magazine cost around $200 / year and is mostly fabricating.
"Hephaistos" from Germany cost $100 / year it's beautiful but all in German.
British Artist Blacksmiths Association offers a 'magazine only' deal but it
is only for people outside of the UK and it cost 38 pounds sterling (?)
The affiliate newsletters run $10 / $35 / year but you could hardly compare
even the best of those which are quarterly (4 times a year) to AR & HB.
Between these you get 8 magazines a year, for $45, not bad.  That's $5.62
per magazine from ABANA if you didn't count anything else.
For a strictly "HOW TO" publication these are available.
"IRONY" is $35 / year (4 issues)
"Blacksmith's Journal" is $37 / year (12 issues)
"Traditional Metalsmith" is $28 / year (4 issues)

Dave Mudge  [email protected]
http://lametalsmiths.org/news/
http://www.abana.org
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent
about things that matter"  Martin Luther King