Increasing attendence at conferences

[easilyconfused]

My 2 cents would be advertising. Having the meeting/hammer-in at the same time every time is good for those who know when it is, but then you run into the problem of having the same people there. To get new people into it, you need to remember the best advertising tool there is, word of mouth. If you are at a demo and there are some new voluteers, or somebody comes by that is intersted, tell them about the upcoming meeting. It doesn't cost you anything and the odds are, tell enough people about it and some will come out of intrest.

[primtechsmith]

Ed well put! I second the coffee motion!

Peyton

[mcraigl]

Ah.... As Mike-hr put it... Midnight Madness is the BEST!!!. Mike, show them a picture of the dragon that you made durring midnight madness last summer... Camping on the grounds is indeed a great thing. I felt a little sorry at the last hammer in for all the folks that were staying in hotels in town. Heck, they were missing out on all the fun. Folks have given some good points already. Though I don't think my waistline really needs any more dooughnut Ed. One other thing along the same vien as advertising and word of mouth. I've only recently begun to discover that there's a lot of other "groups" of folks out there that are into doing traditional stuff. So what if you did some research and contacted your local mountain man / rondevous club, and the "hit and miss engine club", and the threshing bee club, and the old tractor dudes, and oh heck I dunno but I got a feelin the list goes on. The point being a lot of these folks might need some blacksmithing done once in a while besides the possibility that they might be real interested in bs'ing in and of it's own. How cool woud it be to hook a big 'ol hit and miss up to the flat belt running a power hammer and a hammer-in. I'd be in line for that one for sure. Anyway there's my 30 cents.

[ApprenticeMan]

Increase advertising in highly populated, and rural areas, and make it as cheap as possible to go to.

[ThomasPowers]

For meetings "same bat time, same bat place"! Makes it easier to tell folks you meet who are interested rather than "I don't know exactly when and where the next one is I'll have to check the news letter when it comes out" (and at least one org I belonged to the newsletter would sometimes get to my place *after* the meeting date...)

SOFA has open forging before/after the meetings---encourages new people who don't have a shop yet to attend and try out things.

SWABA has a potluck lunch after the meetings to encourage folks to stay around and talk awhile---important in a state where the drive time can be substantial to get to a meeting!

Try to get people to carpool, saves gas and encourtages regular attendence, the MOB used to make a day of it, stopping at a big fleamarket along the way to the SOFA meetings

Be open and friendly---it's easy to get into an "old boys club" mentality; but some of the "weirdo's" with weird ideas, clothes, piercings are actually nice talented folk and they *WILL* be the next generation of smiths! You can "bring them into the fold" or exclude them and gradually fade away. Look at the average age of your group---where are the "young turks" to keep you on your toes?

Community Outreach: do you do demos at county and state fairs? Do the local librarians know where to guide people who "want to make swords"? Do the local historical re-enactment groups know about your organization?

Web Presence---more a factor for the young people but it is how many people start looking for something these days.

Thomas

[ApprenticeMan]

Hey I take "weirdos" VERY offensively! I don't look that weird do i?(this a joke, THIS IS ONLY A JOKE, we now return you to your regular programming)

[ThomasPowers]

ApprenticeMan---I guess you have never seen a picture of me with my beard braided with very small anvils hanging from it (anvil earrings in fact) wearing my disreputable red hat with horns and a tail on it. You will have to work a lot harder to look weird!

Thomas

[ApprenticeMan]

Originally Posted by ThomasPowers

ApprenticeMan---I guess you have never seen a picture of me with my beard braided with very small anvils hanging from it (anvil earrings in fact) wearing my disreputable red hat with horns and a tail on it. You will have to work a lot harder to look weird!

Thomas

I humbly bow to thee, my master.