On Jun 8, 2004, at 10:20 PM, Dick Bentley wrote:
> I'd like to list the factors that led
> to the downsizing of the event:
>
> 1. Steadily rising costs of hiring a hall that would
> attract the commercial vendors needed to make the
> event profitable.
Yeah, this also lead to a number of goofy hamfest locations which kinda
shattered the back of the hamfest -- both vendors and attendees who
were coming from miles had one bad experience and didn't want to come
back.
> 2. ARC managment insistence that the HamFestival not
> drain the ARC Trust fund.
Sorta compounds problem #1, especially after a bad year.
> 3. Absolute apathy on the part of the Atlanta ham
> community with regard to helping to run or even attend
> the event.
It's been my experience in any organization that the hardest part is to
get people to do things. Usually you end up with a core of about 2-10%
of the organization that do 90% of the work.
> One year we received numerous complaints
> about not receiving a written invitation to attend in
> the mail. Some hams wanted to be invited to attend
> but couldn't be bothered helping to make the event
> happen. With declining attendance, commercial vendors
> could no longer be promised the minimum 5,000 to
> 10,000 attendees they felt necessary to justify the
> expense of appearing at the show.
Doggone chicken and egg situation -- vendors want lots of attendees,
attendees want lots of vendors. The whole deal can implode very
quickly, but is very hard to build back.
> Rather than criticizing the event, I think we ought to
> be applauding the efforts of the Talipsky's KI4Y and
> N3ACK, Charles W4CHG, the ARC management and
> volunteers for continuing to carry the torch forward
> and we ought to reward with our business vendors such
> as Ham Radio Outlet, Kenwood, Wireman, Rosewood, etc.
> who have stuck with the show.
Hear, hear.
Bill Coleman, AA4LR, PP-ASEL Mail: aa4lr@arrl.net
Quote: "Not within a thousand years will man ever fly!"
-- Wilbur Wright, 1901
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