To: The members of the Blade Forums
From: The Directors of the Knifemakers Guild
After a search of our records it has come to light that Mr. Robertson is not now and has not been a Member of the Knifemakers Guild in any capacity for quite some time, not as an Associate or an Honorary Member.
Post #98 Les Robertson
Since Gil is the President of the Guild, yes it is his duty and his obligation to be accountable to the membership. As an Honorary Member....I am part of that membership. As such I asked him to respond to this thread.....as well as the other Board members. I demanded nothing.....I asked.
Nevertheless, we would like to take this opportunity to respond to the members of this Forum with regard to the many questions and good suggestions that have been offered here.
As in any form of representative governance an organization finds itself having to live with the successes and failures of its past while trying to move forward in serving its members and customers. The Knifemakers Guild is no different than any organization that has evolved over time under a diverse and voluntary leadership. The fact that we have survived and often thrived into our 40th year is a testament to the vision of our founding members and the dedication of our membership and leadership that has sustained us over those many years. Currently the Guild, like everyone else, is striving to adapt to the ever-changing marketplace and secure our place within it. One of the biggest challenges of leadership is to find a balance between honoring tradition while embracing new innovations in technology, communications and the delivery of services. The present membership and leadership of the Guild are working hard to do these things. Sometimes because the possibilities are so vast, fresh eyes can see opportunities that may not be readily apparent from within and it is in that regard that this forum has been very enlightening.
We would like to thank the members of the forum for your concern and interest in the Knifemakers Guild. Wed also like to thank Mike Carter, Harry Mathews, A.T. Barr and the other Guild members for participation in the discussion and for clearing up a number of issues and misconceptions about the Guild.
We also thank the Forum for many good ideas on how we might be able to improve our services to our members and customers, like taking advantage of new technologies to provide greater visibility for the Guild while offering better and cheaper communications and advertising possibilities. Suggestions have been made on how we might better serve our members with beneficial educational instruction on business management specifically geared to knife making. Youve been very helpful in pointing out aspects of other shows around the country that you have found to be beneficial and that might add value or excitement to ours. Youve offered ideas on how to improve our website and make it easier for our members to aid us in promoting our organization and our show. Youve offered ideas about educational opportunities that we can provide to our customers to make them better more knowledgeable consumers, which is a benefit to us all. Some of the ideas that have come forth have been discussed internally before and were already being implemented. Well be working on how best to incorporate some of these other ideas into our organization. Some of them can be done easily and quickly like starting a Guild presence on Face Book - which weve already started. Others will take some time or can be implemented as funding becomes available and others may not work for us at all. Thanks for all your input.
Although the Knifemakers Guild is interested in growth and 300 to 400 table shows may again be in our future, for next year we will be increasing our show size to 150 tables and we expect to grow at a manageable pace. The Guilds new home is the Seelbach Hilton Hotel in Louisville, KY and the hotel has been beautifully and totally restored to the grandeur of its storied past. The management and staff have been wonderful, responsive and warmly welcoming to us and our customers and we have negotiated very favorable rates that are guaranteed for the next four years. The necessities for long term contracts have been discussed somewhat in this forum as well. The Guilds move to this new location was designed to take advantage of a more favorable geographical proximity to the countrys major population centers. The response to the move has been very positive and the demand for table space has been stronger than we had immediately expected and speaks well for our prospects for future growth. No organization can just snap their fingers or wish itself into a 300 or 400 table show and make it work instantly, so if we build in that direction it may take time and thats fine with us for now. The Guild has many Top Makers among our ranks and were working together through the cooperation of our members and the sharing of experience and knowledge to nurture our members who will be the Top Makers of the future.
It has been suggested that the Knifemakers Guild join forces with the ABS to put on a joint show and how great (but unlikely) it would be to happen or even be discussed. The Presidents of both the Knifemakers Guild and the ABS did discus the possibilities of holding a joint show three years ago, with favorable feelings being expressed by both presidents. At the time the Guild was still contractually obligated in Orlando and was not free yet to make a move and the ABS was pursuing options for their own show and the timing just didnt work out. There was no animosity or rancor involved and perhaps it may work out someday.
For those of you that may have had a less than positive experience in dealing with the Guild sometime in the past, we apologize and would ask you to give us another try if you are still interested in membership.
Once again the Board of Directors of the Knifemakers Guild would like to thank all of you for your concern and suggestions. If in the future you have questions about the Knifemakers Guild or you would like to offer other helpful ideas you can contact us directly through our website and our forums or personally via our contact information available on the Guild website at
www.knifemakersguild.com.
Best regards from The Board of Directors of the Knifemakers Guild
www.knifemakersguild.com
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