[TheForge] Clubs and the internet.

[Jerry Frost]

I've been thinking along those lines since before I was 
approached to help organize the club. The trouble is 
going to be getting the members to use the stuff. I set 
up a Yahoo group right off and there are 16 members 
counting my wife and if there's a message every couple 
weeks except from me it's a busy week.

We only have a couple internet savy members Will 
Hightower being one of the few. Out of the 16 subbed on 
I've had to talk around six through the process of 
registering with Yahoo and clicking the accept link in 
the invite message. Still, there are members on the 
list and the word is getting out.

I volunteered to publish the Newsletter as soon as I 
heard and at the last meeting I wasn't fast enough 
refusing, so I'm the club's "Coordinator." Coordinator 
is as close as anyone wanted to get to a president and 
club officers are directors. We're pretty lucky, we 
already have myself, three directors and a treasurer. I 
think we'll be taking a number of features from the 
NJBA bylaws, they're loosly organized with sub 
chapters.

At some point I'm going to suggest we spend the $500 
deal Roger Degner is offering clubs for a copy of his 
entire collection of DVDs. I've seen a few and while 
they fall pretty short of professional productions 
they're worth WAY more than he asks, even without the 
club discount.

We video taped the demos at the last meeting and I hope 
they'll be worth making copies. It takes some practice 
to get the angles and lighting for decent videos but 
we'll get it. Webcasting meetings will take more 
bandwidth than most people have but I'm sure it'll only 
be a few years before that changes. I'm thinking we 
should record and podcast the meetings too, especially 
seeing as we don't have anyone taking minutes. The 
least I'll do is record and transcribe minutes for the 
newsletter.

The newsletter will be available online as well as in 
print. The big advantage to the online version will be 
color pics and live links.

I don't know if Alaska is the right place to try making 
a blacksmith organization a truly online club but just 
maybe being spread over such nearly impossible 
distances is what it'll take. If that's the case then 
it makes sense to imagine small spread out clubs all 
over the continent to network. I mean heck, if Phil and 
Jake the Russian in Galena can participate then so can 
someone anywhere.

For me personally I just want to get together with 
blacksmiths once in a while. If we have to build a club 
to do it. . . Well, okay. <grin>

Frosty
-------------------------------
If it ain't forged
it ain't real.
Wrought iron is.
The FrostWorks

Meadow Lakes, AK.

http://www.artmetalradio.com/

From: "Jerry Smith" 
<jerry_smith at anvilsandinkstudios.com>



> Frosty,
>
> How about webcasting your meeting and also setting up
> a round robin use of CD's or DVD's made from those
> meetings? I am member of the ABA here in the states,
> and loosely associated with a couple of Canadian
> groups. Last year it took a good while to get to the
> annual meeting, this year my arthritis is bother my
> left foot too much to make me a happy camper for
> travel in our present weather.
>
> Let's bring our meetings in to the modern age!
>
> Jerry
>