Bill, I don't want you to hesitate! I want your input!
and thank you for it. And your right, I don't want to be defensive or arguementative.. But on the other hand, I did tell Mike (the hamfest chairman) that I wanted to start EARLY (NOW!!!) in the planning for next years show and I think I did tell him I might not be nice about how I go about it.. ha ha No (kidding) I am always a nice guy, but I do want to criticize the things that went wrong and grow the things that went right!! We already know 95% of our club members and 99% of other hams probably wont help us at all, it is just the way life is. But we are going to push for and ask for folks to help us anyway!! At least the last two shows (maybe more) were seriously about to NOT HAPPEN at all… A few years ago the Volunteer Chairman quit right before the show. Several folks (several times) wanted to help with the hamfest website and just as they get started they quit and dissapear leaving stuff in dis array… It is so frustrating!! This year the show was so close to not happening that the website was basicly CLOSED for most of last year. People started calling me in October asking if the show was going to occur this year, I had to be honest and say " I DON’T KNOW"… Mike Hartwig, our show chairman and our club president has been working at his job in Dallas and trying to commute down here for planning meetings and and club business.. is that easy? Heck no, but there is no one stepping up to take his place. I am not trying to be defensive, I am just trying to point out how we need help!! We can all sit around and say WE NEED BIG VENDORS…. DUH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We need people calling those vendors, emailing those vendors, keeping up with who to talk to, when to plan with them, what are their needs when attending our show, and so on.. We need to do this with litterlly hundreds of companies just to make sure we have a few good ones… We did it a little in the past but not this year. Oh, and we also need to ask these many vendors for help in the door prize and promotional materials department.. For next year we do have someone new to do this task, we are already getting together a list of companies and marketing plans for tempting the big guys to come to ur next shows. you know the Hamfest buys most of its own prizes??? When I got very involved in the planning side, I was amazed that more prizes were not donated by companies .. In most of the industries I have been involved with in my life many companies DONATE to the charity (the hamfest is a 501C non profit).. For a while when we could afford it, I made sure my little company donated BIG prizes to the hamfest, for several years my company would dontate a transcciever to the hamfest. Of course we also dontated to museum ships, field day, and some local schools, police charities and a bunch of other things. But my little business has had to slim down a bit in the last few years and I am only donating my time now.. (trying to do the best I can) For next year, we already have some NEW folks that are stepping up in a big way to help us grow. We have some early plans that are just getting uinderway and want to encourage IDEAS and VOLUNTEERS.. I hope none of the current volunteers and door prize donators are not offended, or frustrated or anything other negetive by my posts.. the few donations, and the precious volunteers that that did make it possible for this show to happen are my heros!! We not only want the fantastic great ideas, but we want solutions on how to achieve these things.! And yes, brainstorming is good! ha ha Thanks again Bill.. This is more people saying more about the hamfest that ALL LAST YEAR!!! Eddie Runner (NU5K) From: BVARC [mailto:bvarc-boun...@bvarc.org] On Behalf Of William Crews via BVARC Sent: Monday, March 25, 2019 12:42 PM To: Eddie Runner; BRAZOS VALLEY AMATEUR RADIO CLUB Cc: William Crews Subject: Re: [BVARC] Greater Houston Hamfest Eddie, Hesitated to make a comment on the attendance at the hamfest because I was sure that it was going to be taken negatively and those hard working hams that produced the event would immediately turn defensive. And that's what happened. Why can't there be accusation free discussion on how to make things better for attendees? Isn't this a forum? Does a commenter need to take a position on the planning committee before his/ her opinion is considered? Why not seek opinions as a brain storming session without feeling attacked. Bill W2WHC On Mon, Mar 25, 2019, 12:32 PM Eddie Runner via BVARC <bvarc@bvarc.org> wrote: Howard, of course we all know BIG retailers and MAJOR Brands would attract more people to our hamfest. But just how do you think we can attract these guys to our hamfest? What are YOUR ideas Howard? We had Icom a couple years ago, We had FLex Radio for several years, we had Alinco and GRE for a few years… we had Main Trading a few times we had HamThreads a few years in a row, none of those were here this year or last year.. I don’t know why? Did we forget to buy them dinner? Did we have bad breath? In the past, we had Austin Ham Radio store, he DIED, we had Houston Amateur Radio, they went out of biz, This year we did have Expert Linear, and the Sign Man, we did have the suspender man, we did have EPO! We are very happy they came. Howard, don't let your being stuck at home without a ride hinder your ability to get involved, Last year we were lucky to have Scott Royall as a BVARC board member (he died in office last year), if you don't know Scott he had Muscular Distrophy ( I think that’s what it was) and he was stuck in a wheel chair with a service dog and a nurse, he could only talk through his computer in a computerized voice.. but when Scott though his ham club needed him he stepped right up (rolled up) and volunteered, he was voted in as a board member and was very influential during his service. Thanks for the input Next year is already in the planning stages. Eddie (NU6K) From: BVARC [mailto:bvarc-boun...@bvarc.org] On Behalf Of D. Howard Bingham via BVARC Sent: Sunday, March 24, 2019 8:39 AM To: BRAZOS VALLEY AMATEUR RADIO CLUB Cc: D. Howard Bingham; Howard Bingham Subject: Re: [BVARC] Greater Houston Hamfest Big name retailers, or better yet MAJOR BRANDS would likely attract more to Hamfest. It's been several years since I last attended, being I don't have reliable transportation, is an issue for myself. Howard Bingham KE5APJ -- On 3/23/2019 7:10 PM, gmuller885 via BVARC wrote: Having been a worker at the ham fest for some yrs I was wondering where the crowd was? There were a lot of empty tables. The eyeball qso's were great but no big retailers. Sent via the Samsung Galaxy S8+, an AT&T 5G Evolution smartphone -------- Original message -------- From: Mike Hardwick via BVARC <mailto:bvarc@bvarc.org> <bvarc@bvarc.org> Date: 3/23/19 3:32 PM (GMT-06:00) To: BRAZOS VALLEY AMATEUR RADIO CLUB <mailto:bvarc@bvarc.org> <bvarc@bvarc.org> Cc: Mike Hardwick <mailto:n5...@att.net> <n5...@att.net> Subject: [BVARC] Greater Houston Hamfest I want to thank everyone for a great 2019 HamFest. With everyone’s hard work the HamFest was successful and everyone had a wonderful time. Mike Hardwick, N5VCX President Brazos Valley Amateur Radio Club _______________________________________________ BVARC mailing list Radio,Radio,Radio We are a radio Club! Talk it up! On the air about every event, every meeting, every net, every time, talk about the club, ham fests, events and people. BVARC@bvarc.org http://mail.bvarc.org/mailman/listinfo/bvarc_bvarc.org Message delivered to bcrew...@gmail.com
_______________________________________________ BVARC mailing list Radio,Radio,Radio We are a radio Club! Talk it up! On the air about every event, every meeting, every net, every time, talk about the club, ham fests, events and people. BVARC@bvarc.org http://mail.bvarc.org/mailman/listinfo/bvarc_bvarc.org Message delivered to arch...@mail-archive.com
