 | President's Letter to the Affiliates March 2006 |
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To start, a quick update on the ABANA Relief Fund, which closes March 15, 2006. The Central Office will accept checks after this date so it is not too late to help out! Contributions exceeded $20,000.00 at the end of January, 2006. The Gulf Coast Blacksmith Association and the Louisiana Blacksmith Association have been unable to locate almost 60 percent of their members yet. Some who have been contacted have either had their entire shops destroyed – or all their power tooling contaminated by water. The need is there and the dedicated Fund Committee members would like to exceed $30,000.00 to distribute where most needed. Your help can make that happen! Another opportunity that will directly affect your smithing future is coming soon. For years scientists have predicted that someday Mount Rainier, the volcano here in Washington State, would erupt. Well, the old mountain is starting to shake and quiver...not from volcanic forces, but from the excitement and activity that is building for the ABANA Seattle 2006 Conference! Pre-registration has shown outstanding enthusiasm for the ABANA Conference. At the end of January, ABANA’s Conference Office registration team had registered almost 200 attendees and had received over $100,000 in advance registration payments. Most amazing is the truly national representation of the registrants. The Seattle Conference will have among its numbers, attendees from all of the ABANA states. Dan Nauman has been soliciting conference auction items with great success. I am hoping you can make it to the conference; however, if you can’t, sending an auction item is the best way to show your support for ABANA! It appears to me that the uniqueness of this conference is causing the great interest in attending. The theme of the conference is ABANA’s presence on the Pacific Rim: "Fusion and Transformation in the Ring of Fire"– and that is exactly what is happening. The Opening Ceremony, featuring outstanding blacksmiths Brent Kington and Tom Joyce, will be held in the midst of a genuine Hawaiian luau, complete with one of the best Polynesian dance groups outside of the Islands. The Opening Ceremony on July 5th alone would be worth the trip! But the fun and learning will just be getting started. There will be tours of the most advanced metal labs in the United States, right here at the University of Washington; some thirty world-class demonstrators from around the Pacific Rim: Korea, Mexico, Chile and Japan will be here. There will be comprehensive and informative classes; coupled with a beautiful site on the water, making this a truly memorable conference and one not to miss! The social aspects of the conference are also unprecedented. Scott Lankton will be heading up entertainment and activities in the Beer Garden – probably with a lot of help from the Aussie Demo Team! Remember, this will feature "Blacksmith Karaoke," (bring 10 slides of your work), and a chance to tell about the work while the slides are shown in a social setting. The University of Washington chefs have come up with a great menu for the meals, which will be catered right to the site. From the time that you get to the site in the morning, there will be no reason to leave until the forging and the social activities wind down late at night...unless you decide you want to take a Duck Tour of Seattle or a tour to the exquisite Yellin Gates at the Seattle Art Museum with Clare Yellin as your tour guide! Or, like Don Shedlock, ABANA member from North Jupiter, Florida, have dinner with Conference Chair Jerry Kagele on top of the Space Needle! Jerry attended the SERB Conference last year and donated to their auction a dinner for two on top of the Space Needle– which has an absolutely breathless view of Puget Sound from its revolving restaurant. If you haven’t yet done so, go to the conference web site at: www.abanaseattle2006.com. The site has all the information that you will need, including shipping information about sending your auction items and gallery pieces. We even have John Hutchinson on hand to insure that shipments are received and stored safely! Jerry says he guarantees that anyone attending this conference will be truly Sleepless in Seattle by the time it is over! I hope to see all of you there.
Don Kemper
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