[TheForge] Re: ABANA conference program problems

[Chris Worsley]

Mike -
I watched your demo in '84 and still remember the crab! How's that for 
your fandom?
The thing I liked about the conferences from those days (Ripley WV and 
DePere WI)  is that they were so much smaller, one could see it all and 
not have to make choices, perhaps missing something good.
In the evenings we sat under a tree with folks like Judd Nelson and 
heard about adding carbon to a piece of steel by cooking it in the forge 
with chicken bones.  Who talks about that any more?
Todays 6 ring circus conferences don't have the same appeal for me.
Chris
AZ

Mike Spencer wrote:

>Ralph quoth:
>
>  
>
>>Having volunteered to do it twice and in putting over 600 hours into the
>>planning of the Kentucky conference with Dave Koenig...
>>...
>>I was receiving requests for tools and materials (from demonstrators) the
>>day before demos in Kentucky...
>>    
>>
>
>Well, having been a demonstrator just once ('84), I have to say that I
>was blown away by how smooth the volunteers made it for me.  Every
>tool and stock item I had asked for was on the bench and a gopher
>showed up to ask if it was all okay.  Some one tool wasn't quite what
>I had expected and the gopher went off immediately to look for a
>substitute.  I had a gopher during the demo who hustled to fix a
>problem that arose.  I had asked for a striker.  He showed up early
>and was better at striking than I was at using him.  I only regret
>that I was so focused on the work (perhaps to fend of stage fright and
>the dazzlement of stardom, however fleeting :-) that I failed to give
>him credit and tell the crowd how wonderful he was to work with.
>
>So, Ralph, in this world where corporations put megabucks into
>engineering fast food joints, supermarkets and malls to get the
>sucke... er, customers in, shucked and out without a hitch, the
>spectators may take for granted a conference that works or a demo that
>goes smoothly as a consequence of all that hustling and planning.  But
>the demonstrators notice.  They surely do.
>
>
>
>- Mike
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>