[TheForge] Attracting new members

[Vincent Nakovics]

I feel for you Bruce. It’s hard work, and thankless for the most part, to keep a group going. FB presence and probably Instagram are essential these days. I remember when I switched to an e-newsletter, many weren’t happy, but they didn’t want to pay for it either, so… We only handed out print copies at meetings and only until they ran out. So gathering by what you said you should only need two or three.
The time consuming job of the newsletter editor. My experience, basically you have to be willing to write it yourself. It’s wonderful when members give you something, but I basically wrote it, or badgered someone for an article. We had plenty of people with talent and no one wanted to do demo’s – they were embarrassed, shy, had inferior complexes and the list goes on. But… this is part of it. Yes the newsletter editor gets involved because hopefully the guy will write an article before giving his demo. In the 7 or 8 years I think I managed this about four times. The rest I did – I did interviews, showcased people’s work, talked and talked and talked about BSing and the future of it with old and young.  It was much more than I wanted, but I kept at it.

Now in your case someone will have to pick up the banner and run with it until your editor gets his affairs in order.  How many core people do you have? Divide all the work between them. Everyone has a forte, some even know it. Ask someone to start up an Instagram page, another FB – promote, promote, promote. Wear the group T-shirt, hat, and logo around – people will ask you about it. Shoot I got stopped the other day here in Albania wearing my 2010 ABANA shirt. First time in 9 years, but hey it sparked an interest. The kid (30 year old) is coming over tonight. My forge here in Albania isn’t what I had in VA, nor has it been well maintained in the past three years because of an injury to my arm, but I will give him a chance to see if he is interested. Who knows, maybe it will be the start of something.  You get my point.

There is a segment of our society who believe that you can be a better BS by learning off of YouTube alone than attending our groups. This has been coming down the pike for years. I was told this by a woman running the Blacksmith museum in Slovenia of all places. They don’t believe they need anyone’s help. Of course they spend a good amount of time reinventing the wheel, even with YouTube. This is another place that you need to have a page. A separate volunteer would be nice because it is a lot of work maintaining a page there. But people will find you through it. Pinterest is another, but lesser used venue.

Then once you have them in front of you I have to tell you. You can only talk about horseshoes, nails, tools etc so much and you will lose them. Yes they need the basics, but you need to have projects, both singular and group projects for people to work on. More complex projects that require. Now because of the nature of our projects members of these projects need to be motivated to get their own set ups and work with the people of their group between meetings. If your group has a forge to meet at.

I have to admit I am a bit surprised your group has this problem because I always found tons of useful information in your newsletters.

If I can help out in someway don’t hesitate to ask. I will tell you I am busy from now until the third week in May, but email if and if I can do help you out I certainly will.  I am still living in that great socialist state of Albania so I won’t be stopping by anytime soon. 😊

Good luck! Hope my babble helped.

Vince Nakovics
  Author, Blacksmith, Sailor

Website<https://vincenakovics.com/>