Alex Bealer Blacksmith Association

Hi all,

I wanted to see if we can further discuss Dan Tull's suggestion about a fund-raising blacksmith auction we can use to increase our bank account and actually accomplish some of our goals. I, for one, think it's a great idea. But there are a few issues we need to discuss and resolve in order to make it a success:
We need to finish whatever paperwork is still outstanding to get our 501-c3 designation so that winning bidders will be able to deduct their contributions as a charitable donation. I know its a time-consuming project, so if we get at it now, it might be approved by fall festival time.

We need to find a suitable venue, some place that will have visitors likely to spend money--we blacksmiths usually don't have that much. So perhaps we need to piggy-back off one of the art-related festivals in the state. What would be a good one to approach? Or could we stage it ourselves? If so, we would have to find a location, get special insurance, and spend some money on promoting it, or find a source of public funding to help us. We could offer demonstrations that would educate the public about our craft and perhaps add to our membership as well as raise funds.

We need to think of special objects we can auction. I have some ideas for some garden art that I could use some help with. I came into some empty gas tanks (note to some, don't try to sell nitrous oxide hits at the Tabernacle concerts, your tanks will get confiscated!). They make neat garden bells and sound a bit like the ones on ocean buoys. I have four different sizes. I'll donate some tanks and we can make some sort of decorative frames for them. Any one with ideas, contact me and we can get together and work in my shop. Other things might include one-on-one classes with some of our very talented members. Or a beginner's tool set--again, we want to promote our craft. What ideas do you have? A large group project like the ring project could be the centerpiece of the auction.

The Folk School raised more than $15,000 from their blacksmith auction, and although I'm sure we couldn't do as well given the School's long history, with the right partner(s) we could make this an annual event.

Come on, give me your thoughts here or at the meeting. Let's see if we can make something happen this year.

It looks like the weather could be bad on Saturday and if it ices up, I may not make it to the meeting this Saturday. I hope someone will pick up these topics and talk at the meeting if I can't make it, and please, respond online here and let me know how the discussion went.

Linda

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By lindahr at 01/18/2008 - 11:41am | Project | ABBA Questions

snow
I hope the roads are passable in the morning. I took another vacation day to be there.

Linda - I guess it's my new found enthusiasm for blacksmithing but I'll help in any way I can with fundraising. The more I'm around blacksmiths and blacksmithing, the more I'm going to learn.

If the roads are passable I'll be there in the morning.

By Kevin Daniell at Fri, 01/18/2008 - 5:01pm | reply
New Year for ABBA
There are a couple things I want to comment about in Linda's posting.
1. I also would like to know where we are in getting our 501c-3 papers completed and filed. As a not-for profit group we do have doors open for us in many ways such as buying tools from different groups to build a working shop. Also if we have the paper work, we can apply for grants to possibly be given land or a building to form a place to work out of.

2. The OBG group did raise over $3000 this year at our annual auction. Doesn't sound like that much, but it covers most expenses for the next year.

3. If we do have a fund raiser, I think we should have a goal set aside to let everyone know what we are wanting to do with the monies raised.

Just some of my thoughts to piggy back on what Linda was saying.

Alfred

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By dan tull at 04/05/2008 - 7:28pm | Blacksmithing HowTo/Troubleshooting:

Good for you Dan.