 | President's Letter to the Affiliates February 2003 |
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Dear ABANA Affiliates, What's new with ABANA? If you have a computer as well as a hammer, (a tempting and dangerous combination), I suggest that you go to the ABANA website and see what you can find. The minutes of the November 2002 board meeting in Richmond, Kentucky are there. If you are interested, you can see what we do for three or four days. Yawn. There is also a supplier directory with around 700 entries, information and links to schools, scholarship applications, events, news announcements, photos, and a lot more. Check it out. I mentioned low voter turnout in my last message, and it occurred to me that if only a couple hundred members bother to vote, and it costs the association close to $3,000.00 to print and mail the 5000 ballots, then this means that it cost you nearly $15.00 per vote! Whoa! Please take five minutes and vote next time. If everyone voted, it would only cost ABANA about sixty cents each. It's your association and your choice. Thanks. Right now, our geographical representation is pretty good. We Have board members from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, North Carolina, Florida, Louisiana, Texas, California, Washington, Alaska, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, and Canada. On a related subject I want to strongly urge any member with ACCOUNTING EXPERIENCE to run for the board, and for the membership to elect such a person. This is one of the most important issues facing you in ABANA's future. I have praised the yeoman's work of your Treasurer, Will Hightower. He won't be in the job forever (it only seems like it some days) and of all the possible serious issues facing our future, this one is huge. It is critical to have someone on the board to begin learning this job and be ready to step up to the Treasurer's plate when the time comes. Please if you are such a person, or know one, ABANA really needs you. On March 16, 2003 ABANA will celebrate its 30th Anniversary! What if each ABANA member could get another blacksmith who is not an ABANA member to join? What a great birthday present that would be…to double our membership! Affiliates can do it if anyone can! Of course the real purpose of our group is blacksmithing, not finances. The money needs to be managed simply to insure the long-term prosperity of blacksmiths. Let's get out there and forge some steel! To quote the late Don Hawley, the esteemed hammerman from California, "forging hot steel is the second best feeling in the world." The 2004 Conference is in the final throes of negotiations. By the time you read this I have to believe that the exact time and place will be carved in iron and up on the web site. If you can't see it there, feel free to pick up the phone and call me. Or call one of your other directors for the latest facts or rumors! For now, think Bluegrass in the summer of 2004. Good forging!
Scott Lankton
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