George Geist Posted February 5, 2019 Share Posted February 5, 2019 Is this group still active? Went out to their shop last month and it was all locked up. Anything happening with these guys? George Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted February 7, 2019 Share Posted February 7, 2019 We took a vote, then had them gagged and locked in their shop. On 2/5/2019 at 9:25 AM, George Geist said: Anything happening with these guys? I'm pretty sure they're still trying to untie themselves. Sorry, I have no idea but I couldn't resist the locked shop straight line. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Einhorn Posted December 26, 2020 Share Posted December 26, 2020 I gave up trying to establish a blacksmithing school there. I was well on my way to acquiring/building the equipment for six forge stations, and the Steam show association was planning on building a school building, with plans with the Steam association on expanding the school and building to twelve teaching stations once classes showed success.... but two members of the ABANA board decided to take over and tell me what to spend MY MONEY AND TIME on for equipment and workstations, and told members not to pay any attention to any news/progress I was providing. And the one board member pushed people away from the forge, and one other member spent his time repairing all the equipment that the board member damaged each time the board member used the forge. It got to the point that I was spending most of my time just trying to deal with those two ABANA board members interference and being called names for not submitting to them, rather than spending time acquiring, building and reconditioning equipment for the school. Last I heard, two of the anvils that I purchased were still held by one of the ex-ABANA board members, rather than being returned to the Steam Show Association's blacksmith shop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George N. M. Posted December 26, 2020 Share Posted December 26, 2020 David: I'm sorry to hear of that experience. It is a shame that some people do not work well with others and strive for personal dominance rather than working towards a common goal. Too often, too many people have the attitude of, "Well, if everyone would just do it my way everyone would be happier." Often, the problem is not having a poor self image and confidence, it is the opposite, everyone has an inflated opinion of themselves and their ideas. Also, be able to work well with your hands and create wonderful things does not translate into other skills such as organization, working with people, financial planning, vision, etc.. BTW, how is your US Army travelling forge project going? "By hammer and hand all arts do stand." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted December 27, 2020 Share Posted December 27, 2020 I've run into folks wanting to take over projects being run by volunteers before; the Quote I liked was "Treat your Volunteers like dirt and watch them erode away." I've also run into the "We want you to do hundreds of hours of skilled work for no pay on a project We have selected!" Often projects doomed to failure when evaluated by folks who actually know stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SLAG Posted December 27, 2020 Share Posted December 27, 2020 George, David, T.P., and others. Your experience with ABANA is not unique. About twenty years ago a goodly number of us decamped form ABANA for similar reasons. They seemed to unilaterally want to rule the whole smithing community. We differed. SLAG. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anvil Posted December 28, 2020 Share Posted December 28, 2020 Somebody once told me that the best thing about ABANA was the "Anvils Ring" and the everyother year conference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irondragon Forge ClayWorks Posted December 29, 2020 Share Posted December 29, 2020 I also enjoyed The Hammers Blow from ABANA. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anvil Posted December 29, 2020 Share Posted December 29, 2020 I did too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlpservicesinc Posted December 29, 2020 Share Posted December 29, 2020 I think that with most organizations there is a lot to do with management. There was a scandal back when the 2020 conference was cancelled dealing with the payment of the fairgrounds. Which was handled extremely badly.. I get both sides of the arguement as to pay or don't pay but part of the major problem was ABANA put out for a fund raiser to help offset the costs. Took the money and then never wanted to pay the fair grounds.. That is where the gripe came in. The ABANA offices from what I understand are now moved to Johnstown PA.. That is where the conference is going to happen in 2021 and if you do get the anvils ring there was a flyer in there for the event. I am a huge fan of helping.. The largest problem I always face it "Helping in the right way" in other words figuring out :"HOW to help the person/people".. Any good teacher will work it that way because not everyone learns the same way.. Someone with knowledge and experience does not mean they will be a good teacher and this is often reflected in behavior. I can say from my own experiences that once there is a base line of knowledge with a student the expansion and ability comes quickly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George N. M. Posted December 30, 2020 Share Posted December 30, 2020 Awhile back I asked about the various blacksmithing conferences around and a number of people recommended Quad-State and various regional conferences but no body had any comments on the ABANA conference. My own impression is that the emphasis in ABANA is the "artist" part of the organization's title. Incidentally, every contact for use of a fairgrounds or a hotel for a conference or other event has, or should have, an "Act of God" clause in it which sets out what happens if the event can't be held through no fault of either the venue or the event organizer. In many cases, the parties just walk away because the venue couldn't be renting the venue to someone else because of the unforeseen situation, e.g. a pandemic. In other cases, there are "liquidated damages" which set out how much is due or not. That said, I have seen plenty of fair ground contracts which were very poorly drafted. Redrafting them was a common task for me when I was a county attorney. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand." "Contract" not "contact" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daswulf Posted December 30, 2020 Share Posted December 30, 2020 Seems like sometimes the wrong people are running the show and the right ones just can't. Looking forward to "trying" to make it to this new years event to meet Jennifer and experience it. Have only gone to a hand full of local PAABA events, which I can say are great and a great bunch of people hosting and running it. Unfortunately they've been shut down as well this year. I'm eying quadstate too this year if the cards allow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlpservicesinc Posted December 30, 2020 Share Posted December 30, 2020 54 minutes ago, George N. M. said: Awhile back I asked about the various blacksmithing conferences around and a number of people recommended Quad-State and various regional conferences but no body had any comments on the ABANA conference. My own impression is that the emphasis in ABANA is the "artist" part of the organization's title. Incidentally, every contact for use of a fairgrounds or a hotel for a conference or other event has, or should have, an "Act of God" clause in it which sets out what So this is where the management at ABANA came up with "Not to pay" the fairgrounds.. they said the very same thing. The problem was they elicited donations to recover the costs associated to the conference.. The People who donated were up in arms as were some of the people who were involved.. This really chapped many members and many left in disgust. The fairgrounds did store the ABANA trailer at the site for over a year.. Problem is much of it was mob mentality couple with disappointments with COVID.. It really ruined everyones taste.. 26 minutes ago, Daswulf said: Seems like sometimes the wrong people are running the show and the right ones just can't. Looking forward to "trying" to make it to this new years event to meet Jennifer and experience it. Have only gone to a hand full of local PAABA events, which I can say are great and a great bunch of people hosting and running it. Unfortunately they've been shut down as well this year. I'm eying quadstate too this year if the cards allow. Unless covid does it in again, I'll be there with the trailer.. If nothing else seeing the trailer in person is crazy worth it.. I will be demonstrating a whole bunch of things.. A hatchet, thumblatch and other items.. With any luck I will have the new shop up and running so will have some good forge time under my belt.. I haven't made anything in over a month now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daswulf Posted December 30, 2020 Share Posted December 30, 2020 Hanging out at your trailer would be well worth the couple hour drive. I'm not a comfortable spectator (always prefer to be doing something) but to see what you can do in person would be great. It's honestly been tough getting time for much of anything. A 9mo and almost 3yo together require a lot of attention plus their momma needing help and breaks when possible. I'm doing my best for the kids and Elizabeth, so everything depends on how they are doing. I've been majorly lacking in actual forging myself and miss it greatly. Most of what I've been doing is just quick sellable welded art. No play time at the forge or even creative me art time. I've got a back log a mile or two long. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Geist Posted June 11, 2021 Author Share Posted June 11, 2021 On 12/29/2020 at 6:11 PM, jlpservicesinc said: On 12/29/2020 at 6:11 PM, jlpservicesinc said: The ABANA offices from what I understand are now moved to Johnstown PA.. That is where the conference is going to happen in 2021 and if you do get the anvils ring there was a flyer in there for the event. Just saw the nice write up you got in the latest issue of Anvils Ring. Congrats George Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlpservicesinc Posted June 13, 2021 Share Posted June 13, 2021 Hi George, thanks for the kind words. I haven't even seen it yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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