[TheForge] Abana conference

[Chuck Robinson]

Hey Ries,

My suggestion for video recording the regional conferences should be 
possible without breaking the ABANA Budget.
 I believe that several years after recording as many conferences as 
possible, they would be a revenue you making activity for ABANA.

The basic problem that I see is that the present way of holding large 
expensive conferences isn't working anymore. The  fact that only about 10% 
of our ABANA membership are willing or able to attend means that 90% of our 
membership don't support or receive any benefit from the conferences.

I am the ABANA affiliate liaison on the Gulf coast blacksmith's Association. 
The GCBA  has 125 members, of which including myself, only three are members 
of ABANA. One of these ABANA members does not plan to renew his membership.

When I question my members  as to why they don't want to be ABANA members. 
They tell me that ABANA has no relevance for them as far as blacksmithing is 
concerned.

ABANA membership is too expensive for the benefits they receive from it. 
Most of The articles in the Anvils Ring show projects that are well beyond 
their capabilities to make.

I first joined ABANA in 1973.  The earlier newsletters  weren't nearly as 
polished as the current ones are, but they presented a lot of useful 
information and tips that the average blacksmith would be interested in.

The conferences are generally, too far away and way too expensive for them 
to attend.  So they basically get zero benefit from the ABANA conferences.
Our library however, has most of Roger's Conference Videos, and they are 
very popular with our members.
Chuck


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "ries" <ries at riesniemi.com>
To: "Sponsored by ABANA" <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Thursday, March 01, 2007 11:00 AM
Subject: Re: [TheForge] Abana conference


>
> On Mar 1, 2007, at 8:52 AM, Chuck Robinson wrote:
>
> I would like to make any alternate proposal to having a 2008 ABANA 
> conference.
>
> Since the last few ABANA conferences have been extremely expensive,  and 
> under attended by the it's members,  I would suggest ABANA use  some of 
> the funds it intended to use for the next conference, to  instead purchase 
> high-quality video making equipment.
> It would be used to make DVDs of the regional conferences put on by 
> affiliate groups throughout the country. It might also be possible to 
> send several people to international blacksmith and conferences to  record 
> them .
> I have been extremely impressed with the  wonderful job that Roger  Degner 
> of the Upper Midwest Blacksmith's Association has done in  recording the 
> conferences that he has attended and produced DVDs of,  that have 
> valuable instructional material in them.  They are  available to 
> individuals for a very nominal cost.
> Granted the videos aren't the same as being there, but they are  orders of 
> magnitude better than missing the Demos, when you can't  attend in person.
> I would strongly suggest that ABANA contact Rodger for advice on how  he 
> does it.
> Chuck
>
>
> Chuck- the whole problem is they dont have the seed money- the  general 
> idea of how it usually works is that the conference makes a  slight 
> profit- say 50 grand or so- then that gets used for deposits,  startup 
> costs, and so on for the next one.
> The conference itself is supposed to be self supporting- the fees  coming 
> in pay for the expenses going out.
> But this time, Seattle didnt make any money- in fact, it probably  lost 
> money.
> So there is no pot of money to buy video equipment.
> Roger does indeed work closely with Abana, and he does great things.  Long 
> term, it would be great if Abana helped Roger more, and Roger  made more 
> Abana videos available- in addition to the ones from abana  conferences he 
> already has.
>
>
> Ries Niemi
> Industrial Artist
> http://www.riesniemi.com/
>
>
>
>
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