Hi Nick,Yes we can work with the ARRL.. In fact we do!!We have the honor for our next hamfest to be the ARRL TEXAS STATE CONVENTION !! (how ya like dem apples?) (its on the website)( http://www.houstonhamfest.org )
Larger audience? YES, of course, we are always looking for other interesting things that could draw to our hamfest.. We have had the MAKERS FAIR folks, the LEGO folks, and even ROBOT WARSwe encourage computer clubs, and so many other things .. Not to mention Astronauts and Space weather and so many really cool thingsYOUR IDEAS??? What do you want for family activities? A bouncy house??Fort worth Hamfest has (from my unerstanding) quilting classes and other LADY things.. I dont have a clue how to see if that is even possible??YOUR IDEAS??? Invite the local media? YES, they always come!!! A catchy name? there already is hamvention, hamcation, hamcom, and lots of others..I am not good at this, what do you recommend??? IN Advance? Yes of course, we work on renting the facilities a year or more inadvance to make sure we have a venue. A few of us are always working on it year round, and we start having planning meetings 6 months in advance to get all the people andjobs lined up.. Some from the last one may not be here this year and lots of new folks want to be involved.. 6 months is the time we start getting the groups together (NOW) Other Groups??? This is and always has been (since the beginning) a good idea.BUT, not apparently as easy as everyone thinks. Our official BVARC stance is we welcome PARTNERS in the Houstonhamfest... As far as I know, there are not any other area ham clubs that have a bank accountwith enough funds to make a dent in what BVARC pays out to put on this event.. The Makers Fair folks had a large budget at one time (they had a show at George R Brown(very very expensive) but they seem to have dissolved or split or something.. we let them exhibit in the past at our shows for free, just to try to increaseattendance.. We give ANY ham club a free table with the promise they will actually man the table and promote ham radio .. Most of the time the club tables we give away are vacant during the show... Everyone seems to say contact Dayton (or other big shows) for tips and advice.I have been to Dayton many times (at Hara) and I always SPY to see what they are doing and we are not. Anthony just got back from Huntsville, and many othersALWAYS CRITIQUE the other shows, in an attempt to use the good and bad to help our own show.. LEAP OF FAITH... (Sat and Sun) Anything we look up to as a better show, seems to always be a SATURDAY / SUNDAY show... Ours is Friday set up and a fewsmall friday events (spaghetti supper) and the main show on Saturday.. Its pretty hard for us to put our heads (budget) around opening on Sunday as well since most of our vendors are packed up and goneby two o clock on Saturday.. Faith? if we scheduled a Sat/Sun show, would our vendors stay for sunday?I personally think the biggest difference between US and THEM is the 2 day show. If anyone else believes it, the leap of faith would be expensive.. And maybe the end of BVARC (financially) thanks for your input, it is very valuable..! Eddie Runner (NU5K) Houston HamFest BVARC Life Member Dont forget to look in on http://www.houstonhamfest.org there is much information currently displayed on our past shows, and willbe replaced with information on our nest show as decisions are made. On Friday, August 26, 2022 at 09:47:49 AM CDT, [email protected] <[email protected]> wrote: Hi, I’m coming in to the conversation late so these ideas may have been discussed before but I’ll through in my thoughts anyway. Have we looked at working with ARRL to tie an annual regional or divisional meeting to the Houston Hamfest? May be to late to include this year, but could work for future event. This would bring in some interesting speakers and free advertising. Could we work with other non-ham organizations and business in the area that might be willing to donate prizes or exhibits that would be of interest to a larger audience? Maybe NASA or SpaceX could provide some seminars or exhibits. County or state emergency services and demos. Set up some events or tours for non-ham activities that would make it more of a family event. There are lots of activities for the whole family locally Advertise it in all the ham magazines well ahead of time. Give people from outside the area a chance to plan for the event. Invite the local media to the event and play up what will be there. (Newest radios, demonstrations, local celebrities) Give it a unique name. Hamcom and Hamvention sound like a big deal I’d want to attend. Greater Houston Hamfest sounds like a local event just for locals. I went to the Dallas Hamcom for years and it was always played up as a national or international event. People started planning for the next year while they were there. Is the Houston event date set a year in advance? I do think getting a group together made up of representatives from all the local clubs would help pulling everything together and bring in new ideas. Dallas and Dayton both have permanent committees planning and supporting their events. (Maybe even contact them and ask for some advice and ideas). Just some ideas. Nick, KE5QY From: BVARC On Behalf Of Eddie Runner via BVARC Sent: Friday, August 26, 2022 9:04 AM To: BRAZOS VALLEY AMATEUR RADIO CLUB <[email protected]> Cc: Eddie Runner <[email protected]>; Christopher Boone <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [BVARC] Greater Houston Hamfest ALL PARTNERSHIPS ARE POSSIBLE AND NEGOTIABLE.. Chris are you volunteering to join the BVARC permanent home committee?? (finding a clubhouse)... Eddie (NU5K) On Friday, August 26, 2022 at 08:16:00 AM CDT, Christopher Boone via BVARC <[email protected]> wrote: JP brings up an excellent idea. I'd like to remind everybody that HamCom in Dallas was an independent organization made up of members from various clubs that formed a corporation to run the hamfest. Perhaps this is something to look at in Houston. Form a corporation as a non-profit group and have members of the various clubs on the board. It needs to be a metro-wide area group. Houston is always been lacking compared to the DFW area in amateur activities, which I don't understand why. Even my good friend and silent key Andy McAllister once said " Houston hams suck." The old Houston Amateur Radio Club used to have bi-monthly auctions at its clubhouse on OST. Sadly that club went under and the property was sold. Which was a damn shame because it was a very nice clubhouse with a fully operational HF station. And unfortunately that just proved Andy's statement. I think it's time to change that. Chris WB5ITT Texas State Employees ARS, T-SEARS On Fri, Aug 26, 2022, 8:04 AM JP Pritchard via BVARC <[email protected]> wrote: Dear friends, It is heartening to see the club get off to an earlier that usual start in planning for the hamfest, and of course the expected calls for ideas and actual real volunteers. Finding reliable volunteers is always a problem because most of us already have full plates, with work, family, etc. So here's an old idea, submitted for yet another round of retorts that resurface every time someone makes a suggestion --"But we've already tried that." I suggest we offer to partner with the other clubs in the metro to help make it a true "Greater Houston Hamfest." It does work when applied to Field Day. Why not try again to apply it to the hamfest? Net income from the event might be divided according to a formula that reflects two factors -- each club's membership headcount, and each club's actual participation (expressed in numbers of participating volunteers). Such a system would give all clubs a stake in the success of the event. I'm now feeling verklempt, so this is your chance to discuss among yourselves. Or not. 73, JP, K5JPP ________________________________________________ Brazos Valley Amateur Radio Club BVARC mailing list [email protected] http://mail.bvarc.org/mailman/listinfo/bvarc_bvarc.org Publicly available archives are available here: https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ ________________________________________________ Brazos Valley Amateur Radio Club BVARC mailing list [email protected] http://mail.bvarc.org/mailman/listinfo/bvarc_bvarc.org Publicly available archives are available here: https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
________________________________________________ Brazos Valley Amateur Radio Club BVARC mailing list [email protected] http://mail.bvarc.org/mailman/listinfo/bvarc_bvarc.org Publicly available archives are available here: https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
