"Peter Wieck" ) writes:
I was curious about the way it was run so I talked to the group that
organized the event every year. You wouldn't believe the crap they have
to wade through to run a hamfest that size, even though the money raised
is used to provide emergency communications for the area.


THAT is the single largest obstacle to these events. It is not simply a
matter of finding a vacant bit of ground and throwing up a few signs.
In this lawsuit-happy society, there is Insurance (liability, property,
fire, and so forth), staffing, cleaning, trash-removal, contacting food
vendors (and verifying their insurance) and much, much more. Is
whatever equipment you are providing also insured? What about any
electrical devices? Fences? Guide ropes? ADA compliant? Sufficient
facilities? Will food be served? Are they insured? Licensed in *that*
township? Board-of-Health certificates? What about the servers? Any
contraband/knock-offs/unlicensed material being sold? Sales tax
collected?

And so forth. Not small. My wife's church (a very small one) carries a
$1,000,000 policy on any internal events held by non-church groups
_AND_ they insist that these groups also carry a *specific* policy for
the event.

So it is not just collecting table-fees and admission-fees.

I still think that closed-ended events for dedicated hobbyists are bad
ideas anyway, but I am not unsympathetic to the complications involved.

But in some ways, Dayton may be an exception, or at least one of a handful
of exceptions.

Dayton is big because it draws people, not just from the local area but
from far away. Costs go up as size goes up. I'm willing to accept
that some hamfests are "insider" events.

But you're right that hamfests should be used as a recruitment tool,
and certainly the smaller they get the more their survival requires
a wider swatch of the population.

The local hamfests here in Montreal do not publicize outside of
ham circles. At least, I don't see it and if I didn't know
about the ham clubs and the hamfests I'd not know that they were
happening. For most of a decade, I've at least posted to the local
buy and sell newsgroup when one of the hamfests is about to happen,
and less regularly I post about the others. I'm not sellng the hamfest,
but trying to get the word out.

I give the details, but also a spiel because I'm aware that people
who don't know need to be informed. I make the point that visiting
is a way of finding out about amateur radio, and that the hamfest
can be a valuable resource for non-ham. Shortwave listeners may
find things of interest, the electronic hobbyist will find things,
and of course in recent years computer types may find things.

And while few will see the message, relative speaking, it may be
the only time most of the readers see a mention of amateur radio
in that year. The way I see it, it's not just about selling tickets
to the hamfest, but it's an excuse to get amateur radio out into
the world.

When I was a kid, I found out about the hobby because there was
an article in a general purpose magazine. I found out that the
rules were about to change to allow people under fifteen to get
licenses in the local paper. But that sort of thing happens less
and less. At the very least, some promotion of the hamfest is
a means of letting new people see something about the hobby, and
maybe pursuing it further.

And sustainability is a factor. The biggest of the local hamfests
is fairly small. SOme years back, one had to cancel because they'd
not sold enough tables ahead of time, the next year they came back
in a much smaller space that doesn't allow for growth. Had they
been promoting the fleamarket outside ham circles ahead of time,
they could have attracted "fellow travellers", the SWLs and the
electronic hobbyists and even the computer types, to fill the empty
tables.

Michael VE2BVW