[TheForge] Re:ABANA Kagele

[GHS]

Historically it can not be denied that ABANA has played an important role.
That does not mean that bad things can not happen to it.

The noise occasionally made on this list about ABANA does, I think,  
show an attitude that the board is increasingly distant from the larger 
group.

I know, run for the board or shut up! Sorry I can't do that I let my 
membership lapse, nor do  I have the wits about me.
I realized that, as has been mentioned, there are now many other sources 
for the information and camaraderie.
Some of these sources are closer at hand and benefit far more from my 
support than would ABANA, therefore my resources and time go there.

This said, I have no ax to grind on this. It does appear to me that 
ABANA may need to redefine itself somehow.

At one time the local chapters needed the guidance and  insight of the 
parent group.
Those chapters are now affiliates. This was an obvious and healthy 
progression, not at all unlike what we go through every time one of our 
children matures.

There once was a time when ABANA was the font of wisdom for the 
blacksmithing community, and the means for us all to communicate, and 
organize.
The Internet, with its websites and numerous active discussion lists 
along with new publishing and newly resurrected historic publishing has 
made ABANA's role less central.

ABANA  is still , at least in the US, the premier event provider. 
Although, there is an observable trend toward very impressive local and 
regional events.

Do we owe ABANA a debt of gratitude? Certainly we owe the original 
visionaries who put it into place and nurtured it a great deal.  How 
much loyalty is owed to the organization beyond that point, I think, 
should be examined.

This  garbage surfaces year after year. For the most part the whole 
community, members and bystanders alike, just ignores it and lets the 
flies handle the problem. This does not bode well for ABANA. 
Organizations both need to be ,and be perceived to be, useful and 
worthwhile or they crumble. Churches, empires, service organizations are 
all alike in this.  Without the belief of their constituency , they are 
, sooner or later, toast.

This particular piece of offal smells no more or less than those others 
heaped at ABANA's door step. I will not question the integrity or the 
current board or its members individually. That is not my place.
 As a member of the blacksmithing community it is my place and my 
concern to voice the fact that more and more ABANA is being deemed 
outdated , useless, or distant.

It can not afford to let any of those perceptions go unanswered.

Mike Graf