[TheForge] "Official" News from ABANA

[plumdon at aol.com]

I think Kirsten's suggestions below are excellent and I would be vry 
supportive of that approach. And yes, Kirsten I took note of your 
message as soon as I received it. Much of the conversation however, has 
been geared toward how ABANA might put on a less expensive conference.

I may be overly optomistic but I like to thin that Clare's note on the 
ABANA website was a sincered call for suggestions. I also feel quite 
certain that our conversations here are being viewed by several ABANA 
directors. One hopes, therefore, that over the next weeks or months 
they will consider all options and alternatives. Including the many 
that have been so far presented here. I suspect there will be much 
debate, controversy, haranguing and acrimony at the board. Our site 
actually affords a very effective medium to express our opinions. More 
so than any other ABANA related site that I know of. I think we should 
continue to present our suggestions as they occur to us.

I doubt any sudden, startling changes will occur. But hopefully, change 
WILL occure that will benefit the larger majority of our interests. It 
would appear change will HAVE to occur. We need to help make sure it is 
the RIGHT changes.

It would be great to see ABANA supporth those regional conferences with 
coverage, as Kirsten mentions. Particularly two or three that would 
provide geographic proximity to the largest concentrations of members 
or blacksmiths. Also followup pics and text in the AR. Perhaps they 
might even provide a demonstrator or two if requested.

I hope it might also be considered that if ABANA no longer provides the 
conferences (which is a huge effort) that there would be a significant 
decrease in their responsibilities. Enough so that they could reduce 
the size of the board and perhaps streamline their operations.

I would aslo like to echo thanks to Dave Mudge for providing responses 
that help us better understand the complexities and difficulties of 
conference presentation and the intricacies of ABANA.

-----Original Message-----
From: bkmetal at mwt.net
To: theforge at mailman.qth.net
Sent: Wed, 21 Feb 2007 7:14 AM
Subject: [TheForge] "Official" News from ABANA

I already posted this suggestion for 2008 conference alternatives once, 
but nobody noticed. So I'm trying again. 
 
I suggested that for 2008, the board recognize 3 or so outstanding 
regional conferences (at least one in Canada) and give them substantial 
coverage and free advertising in the magazines. I would also suggest, 
for those recognized conferences, extra funding for teaching stations 
or for some type of education program that reaches out to high school 
kids and tech schools. 
 
This would be in place of a major North American conference. That would 
give ABANA time to decide if National conferences are still relevant or 
if it makes more sense to give extra support to the regional ones. 
 
It will also give ABANA time to develop a plan for letting affiliates 
take over the national conference, if ABANA decides to keep one. The 
plan would obviously include detailed budgets and financial reporting 
guidelines. 
-Kirsten 
www.kirstenskiles.com  
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