[TheForge] ABANA Dilema

Tue Oct 23 13:58:16 EDT 2007

Walter:

As I said earlier, I've only been an ABANA member for
26 years, and I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed,
but you said:

"As a national organization, representing the
interests of professionals and amateurs equally,...". 
How does ABANA represent our interests?

Before anyone berates me for not contributing to
ABANA, I think I've written three articles for the
Anvil's Ring, and 4-5 articles for the Hammer's Blow,
and I donated four hand forged pairs of tongs for
Brian Gilbert to give to folks that submitted articles
to the Hammer's Blow.

Phil
--- wmullett at bright.net wrote:

> Good post Ries.  I'm always amazed at how "cheap" we
> blacksmiths are.  Maybe it's because we are always
> looking at how we can make something out of scrap.
> 
> ABANA provides a whole lot more for us than
> publications.  But if you ONLY look at the
> publication value, these publications are at least
> equal to an over the counter cost.
> 
> It is foolish, though, to be equating the value of
> ABANA with the publications.  As a national
> organization, representing the interests of
> professionals and amateurs equally, ABANA is a
> bargain and maybe part of its problem is that its
> dues are too low.  My national architectural
> membership (AIA) costs me several hundred dollars a
> year and I only get 12 issues of its publication.
> Its value also is not in the publications and that's
> why I'm a member.   
> 
> Sure, ABANA has problems but it's a voluntary
> organization and if you want more out of it, you
> need to participate more.
> 
> Interesting ... we have people who complain about
> our $20 WRABA membership who say "the publications
> not worth the dues".  They still seem to find a way
> to show up to our open hammer-ins though. These
> people never contribute. 
> 
> --------
> From: ries <ries at riesniemi.com>
> Date: Mon Oct 22, 3:41 PM
> To: Sponsored by ABANA <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
> Subject: Re: [TheForge] ABANA Dilema
> 
> If you go to the Abana website, you can look at the
> financial  
> statements.
> The last one I found says it costs around $210,000
> to publish the two  
> magazines.
> Then, they spend another $100,000 or so a year on
> scholarships,  
> insurance, office expenses, and paying the one full
> time employee.
> So at the end of the day, there is not some huge
> slush fund to waste  
> on girls, parties, and trips to the casino.
> Plus, due to whatever reasons (this is a giant
> subject for heated  
> discussion all on its own)
> the last conference in Seattle lost money.
> The University of Washington claims we still owe em
> something like  
> $60,000.
> 
> The all volunteer board does the best they can- and
> we can all tell  
> em how to do it differently, I am sure.
> But there aint no padding of expenses or swindling
> going on here- it  
> costs money to be real today, to be legal, to file
> tax returns, to  
> host conferences and publish two magazines.
> 
> Each of us is certainly free to decide that we dont
> want to support  
> abana, or that we arent getting enough back for our
> dues.
> 
> Me, I send in my money strictly because I believe in
> the  
> organisation- the two magazines are strictly a
> bonus, if you ask me.
> I spend more on one halfway decent (not gourmet)
> meal for my family  
> of four at a restaurant.
> 
> Toby Hickman put it quite nicely,  I, thought, over
> on the Poaba  
> discussion board-
> ""I don”t know about any one else but all I want
> from my  
> blacksmithing orginization is a good rag and a place
> to drink beer  
> and talk to other blacksmiths.""
> 
>
http://poaba.wordpress.com/2007/08/23/intro-to-poabas-blog-site/
> 
> Me, I am in total agreement with him, and $55 seems
> like a mighty  
> small price to pay for that.
> 
> Nomma, for example, costs a minimum of $300 a year-
> $415 for a  
> fabricator- and their parties are nowhere near as
> good as an Abana  
> conference.
> 
> ries
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Oct 22, 2007, at 10:54 AM, Phil wrote:
> 
> I've been a member of ABANA since 1981.  I got my
> ABANA membership renewal in the mail the other day,
> $55 for the coming year.  I like reading the
> Hammer's
> Blow.  The Anvil's ring has gotten a bit too artsy
> for
> my taste, and it's hard to find the articles cause
> of
> all the advertisements.  But anyway, I was weighing
> whether I wanted to renew or not.  I was thinking
> $55
> a year is a lot for two quarterly publications. 
> Then
> it occurred to me that ABANA doesn't do conferences
> anymore.  The ABANA web-site is basically unchanged
> for the last few years.  Then I started thinking
> about
> the numbers, 5000 people spending $55 a year, that's
> $275,000.  Wow, that's a lot to publish two
> quarterly
> journals.  Then a friend of mine pointed out to me
> that the Anvil's Ring has ad revenue as well.  Where
> does all that money go anyway?
> 
> 
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> 
> Ries Niemi
> Industrial Artist
> http://www.riesniemi.com/
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
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> 
> 

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