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[April & Bill Clemens]

Roger,

It's under Latest News on the main page.  Here's the text:

February 17, 2007

Updated President's Message - 2008 Conference

    Whoever said "the more things change . the more they stay the same"
doesn't know the plights of non-profit organizations. Because what I want to
talk about is this - ABANA must change its focus to be relevant for another
34 years. ABANA has come to that fork in the road - where do we go from
here? Or as Yogi Berra would say - "When you come to a fork in the road,
take it." We are taking it, grasping it and coming up with some difficult
decisions.

    ABANA has been producing conferences every other year for decades now.
Well the time has come to reevaluate how we do these events. We, the ABANA
Board, have decided not to have a conference for 2008. This decision did not
come overnight. After months of discussions and negotiating a formal motion
was made on February 9 "that ABANA not have its biennial conference in
2008." On February 13, the motion passed by a vote of 14-0.

    As painful as this decision was I know it cannot compare to the
disappointment of individuals of the Northeast Blacksmith Association (NBA).
Since the Fall of 2004 the NBA put a great deal of time and energy into the
possibility of having the conference at the State University of New York at
New Paltz. Jonathan Nedbor and the Steering Committee of NBA are to be
commended for all the work they have done.

    So why aren't we having a Conference? What's the deal? Is ABANA going
bankrupt? Let me start by answering the last question first - NO. Though I
wish the financial situation were stronger, we are not going bankrupt. To
put things in a simple nutshell here is a quick summary of the conferences.
They have become too expensive. They cost hundreds of thousands of dollars,
which is too much! That doesn't even include the thousands of hours from all
of the volunteers. For many years ABANA has supplemented its budget by
living off the profit from previous Conferences. We can no longer do that.
The Seattle Conference was not the financial success of previous
Conferences. It probably lost money. We still do not know the final tally,
because there is an outstanding invoice from the University of Washington.
When we do know the accounting figures, they will be posted on the ABANA
website.

    So why no Conference.

    First there is the Money -
    The costs to put on a Conference have skyrocketed to somewhere in the
vicinity of $400,000. With those figures the average conference expense
including transportation would be in the $1,000 per person range. The
majority of our members cannot afford to pay that. Of course we all agree
that costs must be trimmed. We need to look at other locations such as
fairgrounds. The college campus environment has gotten too expensive. The
number of demonstrators has gone through the roof.

    Second there is the Conference Chair -
    Every Conference needs to have someone in charge to do the negotiations,
troubleshoot, make decisions, etc. This is a full-time job! Past Chairs who
have held this position have burned out - just ask Dave Koenig and Bill
Callaway. And did I mention that this job pays nothing?! No one wanted to
step up and be Chairman for the 2008 Conference.

    Third there is the Membership -
    The membership has declined in recent months. A year ago the number
totaled 4815. Today it is 4468. Our budget figures are based on a membership
of approximately 5000. Without that number there would be practically no
funds to pay for seed money or pre-conference expenses. Another factor to
consider regarding membership is the number of attendees to our biennial
Conferences. Seattle had 575 paid attendees, which equates to less than 14%
of our membership. This has been a consistent percentage over the last
several Conferences. That low figure is another indication that we are
definitely not meeting the needs of our members.

    Fourth there is the Central Office -
    LeeAnn Mitchell performed many duties on the three previous conferences
- La Crosse, Richmond, and Seattle. She worked tirelessly at each of these
events putting in many hours of "volunteer" work. Much was asked of her and
she did it - beautifully. There is new a Central Office Administrator,
Heather Hutton of Knoxville, Tennessee. She has many strengths and will be a
valuable asset to ABANA, but her experience in working with large
conferences has not been tested. Without a Conference Chair this would be an
impossible task for the new Central Office.

    So where do we go from here? This is a question that I asked in my
message to the affiliates. I know that many of you like me look forward to
getting together with old friends. For that reason alone the idea of not
having the Conference will be a great disappointment. The first ABANA
Conference I attended was Birmingham in 1988 - Sloss Furnace. The sharing
and camaraderie alone won me over. There will be other Conferences, but we
need a new model. I want to continue this dialog in future letters. Please
let me know your thoughts. ALL suggestions are germane. There are no stupid
ideas.

    The more things change . the more we need to change .

    Clare Yellin, ABANA President
    clyellin at mac.com