[TheForge] "Official" news from ABANA

[dann at wctatel.net]

My first book on blacksmithing was Alex Bealer's "The Art of
Blacksmithing".  His book isn't a great -HOW TO- book, rather it SELLS THE
DREAM of working metal the old way, rather than the Cut and Paste kind of
blacksmithing done in weld shops.

My local EAA chapter has 50+ members.  As a group, "we" have about 10
flying Experimental Airplanes, and dreams of finishing more.  I'd bet that
fewer than 1 in five EAA members actually completes and fly their own
plane.  ABANA probably has figures on the membership, what percentage is
full time -artist blacksmiths- some of which hold down paying full time
metal working jobs.
I'd guess that the majority are part time, or hobby smiths, like the
demonstrator working the next stall from me at the 2006 Des Moines Ren
Faire.  His paying day job was work in a shop that did mass production of
plant hanger- Shepard’s hooks for Wal-Mart.

For me ABANA is about sharing the dream, and the demonstrations at
conferences give us a quickie  -how to- try this at home.

Remember the old phrase " Runs like a Swiss Watch “ My grandmother bought
her grandsons a 17 jewel Swiss watches, about the time the paradigm was
changing to cheap digital watches.  I've worn a series of digital Timex
watches. From disuse, rather than use, my Swiss watch is still lost.

Based on Dave's statements, the membership attendance has plummeted for
the last 3 ABANA conferences.  The Feb 13th unanimous vote by the ABANA
board to cancel the 2008 Convention, documents that the ABANA board knows
that the paradigm for the large glitzy ABANA conferences isn't working.

My 50-cent opinion is that ABANA original grew up based on a -how to-
artist blacksmith- mission statement. As ABANA matured during the last 35
years, somehow that got morphed into -high roller- expensive conventions
that the bulk of the membership can't economically afford to attend.

There have already been some thoughtful ideas. Jerry offered to chair a
new kind of event in Ohio for 2008.   If the projected gate  costs were
reasonable, I, for one, would send in my advance ticket money for seed
funds.

Maybe we could lease the generator from the SCA for 2008 and hold it on 
their favorite site.  How much are SCA dues anyway.  I have been working
with a group of  viking era re-enactors.

Dann




> On 2/19/07, Dan Scheid <damales at earthlink.net> wrote:
>>
>> Dave as a horseshoer and a SCA member I think of making things portable.
>> Right now I'm living on 40 acre with out a land power line we have a
>> 100KVA
>> 3phase generator that will run all day and all night at about 3 gal/hour
>> producing over 150 Amps at 440. This cost us $10K. Buy that and put it
>> on a
>> $2K Simi trailer then all you need is to ship to site. Add your
>> compressor
>> and you have both power and air. In one neat bundle.  Up front cost
>> might be
>> more but after 1 conference it would be paid for.
>> Most SCA wars host over 5k person work because the groups have spent
>> years
>> buy the stuff they need to run the wars and the SCA is a NON-profit
>> group so
>> if they can legally own stuff so can ABANA.
>> Dan Scheid
>> /
>
> Yep. And, we'd be able to take advantage of the fact that if we allow
> various groups to be in charge of their areas, then they're in charge
> of their equipment, too.
>
> Tell you what, Dave ;-) You guys give me, say, $100,000 budget, and
> I'll take the chair, and put on a conference. But, I get to keep
> anything of the $100,000 I don't spend. I think I can guarantee you an
> excellent conference, one which will bring in lots of members, that
> people will love and be talking about for years.
>
> --
> Saint Phlip
>
> Heat it up
> Hit it hard
> Repent as necessary.
>
> Priorities:
>
> It's the smith who makes the tools, not the tools which make the smith.
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