Reflections on the 2004 annual FABA conference - Bill Robertson, President

Wow, the 2004 FABA conference at Tanah Keeta was a great time for all! All those who helped with this year's event are to be truly commended. Even four hurricanes (two of which were direct hits) could not stop the SE region members (some of whom had damage to their own homes and no power or phones for weeks) from pulling together and putting on a great conference. And, although the attendance was down from past years as we expected it might be, the auction brought in $4,500. Thanks for all your great donations. It was worth the drive down just to see Clyde Payton's winning bid on the night's highest priced item, the iron table made by Juan Holbrook. I had no idea Clyde's wallet would open up that wide.

The conference site was spread out over a 650 acre site of sand and pine trees (some of which were still standing) and, with the breeze and dry hot air you felt like you were right on the beach. There was a good turn out of tail-gaters and tool vendors. We thank Kayne and Son and Tom Clark for taking the time to come down. The demonstrations were great, the classes were well equipped with the forges and vise stands that were fabricated at previous SE regional meetings for the event and Tim Ryan executed another spectacular anvil shoot. Again, I salute the SE region for a great conference.



More Reflections on the conference - Charlie Stemmann

The FABA Annual Conference was held this year at Tanah Keeta Boy Scout Camp in Jupiter, FL. For those of you who might have missed this event& well& you missed a great time! Not only did we have awesome demonstrations by Jim Hirsoulas, Chris Winterstien, Erik Velleca& but we had Dr. Tim Ryan for the (as usual) hilarious auction! The anvil shoot was even. There were tailgates, great food and wonderful classes.

I would like to say thank you to everyone on the Southeast conference committee, for a job well done. Also those who helped do the setup and the tear down. They had the site ready to go by 12:00 noon Friday. The conference went off without any major hitches. Sunday afternoon the site was completely cleaned up and packed by 2:30 pm.

The people on the commitee are: Keith and Nadine Andrews, Pete Brandenburg, Andrew Hoffacker, John O'Brien and Shirley Brinkman , Anne and Ray Reynolds, Pete Yockey and Charlie Stemmann. In addition, there were many people not on the official committee that gave of their time and expertise some of whom were: Ed Aaron, Keith Andrews, Dot Butler, Jan Dion, Lynn Emrich, Jim Fagan, Mandy and Dick Logan, Dick and Marilyn Loughlin, Mike McCoy, Sarah McMurray, Don and Colleen Shedlock, John Struthers and Kim Wendt. And many more FABA friends pitched in! All these people did a fantastic job and I thank them very much for what they have done.

and even More Reflections (okay - pictures) - Steve Bloom

The 2004 Conference ran despite hurricanes and was, as always, a blast.....

There were classes in bladesmithing with John Butler....
 
campsets creation....


blacksmithing classes with Patty Draper, Willard Smith, Juan Holbrook or Steve Kalb...
 
 
Traditional smithing with Chris Winterstein...
 
Classes like Candle Making (Luann Nixon), Beading
 
Jewelry (Jan Dion) and Copper Flowers (Rick Jay)
 
as well as demonstrations by Jim Hrisoulas (Anglo-Saxon blades)and Rob Gardner and Eric Velleca (architectural forgings). We also were treated to and/or had our pockets picked by Tim Ryan


On a much sadder note, we said farewell to folks who will be missed - Ben Wiseman, Jay Reakirt, and J.C. Hawkins. A memorial service was held for Dr. Hawkins with the sad duties overseen by Clyde Payton and Sketter Prather with J.C.'s family in attendance
 

 
We also received word soon after the conference that Jerry Grice and Cordelia Daniels had also passed away. All will be missed.

I (and, I'm sure, everyone who attended) who like to send a heart-felt 'Thank you!' to the folks who struggled to put the conference together. The area was essentially ground-zero twice and the amount of damage was only exceeded by the sheer effort put in to repair that damage for the conference. Chainsaws are not usual tools used when hosting a conference but this conference required them.

I want to thank Dot Butler and Kim Wendt for sending me the pictures but I'm responsible for the verbage surrounding them

We are already planning the 2005 Conference at Barberville, so mark those calendars!