[VFB] Swaps A-Plenty

[Jimmy D. Moore]

As far as I can remember, I've Meistered 9 swaps on the VFB.  The only problem I ever had was with the Blues Swap.  A side light of tying a fly for our favorite blues singer was to send in a CD with one of our favorite blues cuts.  My asst swapmeister was to take all these CD's and meld them into one master CD full of great blues music.  The swap went well except for that.  Alan Di Soma had already generously sent me a dozen Stevie Ray Vaughn CD's to to along with the flies when I sent them out and the master cut was just icing on the cake.   I tried countless times to get the "master cut" from the asst. SM, but to no avail.  Now that I think of it, I've never seen another post by him on the VFB!

JIMMY D’s  SWAPS - If you know of other swaps I've meistered, please let me know.  When my computer crashed back in the winter, I lost my listing.  This was after Jeff and Bob gave me a couple I'd forgotten about.  I thought it was 14 total.  

March Madness - My first and largest with some 41 participants
Colors I - College Colors -Flies tied using participants college colors. I judged and gave gifts.
Colors II - College Colors-  "       "      "            "              "         "
Retiree - Swap of VFB'ers retired from the workforce. Made bronze key chain medallion with swap and participants name engraved on it.
Ham Radio - Swap of ham radio operators, tying a fly indicative ot their "call letters"  mine is WB5RHT My fly was the RED  HOT  TAMALE
Chili Pepper - Fly tied with varying colors of the many kinds of chili peppers, plus we swapped a Chili Recipe. I gave a jar of my Hottern Hell Pickles to the first participant to get their flies in.
Blues - See above
Eagle Scout - New Swap - Have to be an Eagle, King's or Queen's Scout to participate
Courage - This was the swap I hosete whereby some 53 members of the VFB, FFW and HCFF email lists sent a specially tied fly to help bolster Jody's courage during her ordeal with breast cancer last year.
I forget whose idea it was originally, but could have been Bob Haering or Rick Zieger.  Anyway, this was a great swap - All the flies are mounted in a shadow box on the wall above Jody's desk

I guess I've been a pretty decent Swapmeister, for I've never had anyone yell at me, and when I host a new swap, I don't have any problem getting participants. I also participate in many swaps and try my best to get my flies in on time.

To me the key to being a good swapmeister is keeping all the participants informed, regularly while recruiting, and often during the swap to keep them reminded as to when flies are due. I always add something special to give the swappers.. Set a deadline for sign up and stick to it.  Same way with flies due date.  When flies are in, don't dilly dally, sort, package and get them into the mail "muy pronto".

Have a Great Day!

JIMMY  D