Steve McGrew shares his experience with putting on local events in his area.
Types of events:
We have, so far, just three kinds of events: hammer-ins, classes, and workshops.
Hammer-ins are open to the public to watch for free, but in order to cross the yellow tape and participate, they need to pay a fee and become members. We have two hammer-ins per year, and the fee pays for membership until the next hammer-in. The club doesn’t have a permanent facility, so hammer-ins are held at members’ shops; the club reimburses the shop owner for wear & tear and any supplies that are consumed.
Classes are conducted sometimes at a member’s shop under the auspices of the club, and sometimes just under the auspices of the club member who is conducting the class in his/her own shop. In the first case, students need to join the club to take the class. In the second case, the club member needs to deal with the insurance issues his/her self. On occasion we have had focused classes, publicized to the membership and to the community and organized by the club but conducted at members’ shops, for the purpose of raising funds for the club. These have been quite successful, at $50 per half-day class per student. The classes have ranged from introductory classes for young teens, to making calla lilies and various kinds of joinery.
Workshops are usually directed at club members who want to try out new techniques. We’ve had damascus workshops and a wedge joiner workshop. Typically participants just pay a fee that covers costs which might include a fee to a teacher, materials, and forge fuel. The workshops serve to build camaraderie and skills. Sometimes we have had workshops simply to make tools for the club — tongs, punches, chisels, fullers, and the like. The club pays for materials, participants donate their time.
Publicizing the events:
We maintain a mailing list of people who have participated in past events, or in classes given by members of Columbia Fire and Iron, or have bought forge coke or coal from me. Announcements are emailed out to everyone on the list for each new event.
We have occasionally put posters up in various places around the city to publicize our hammer-ins.
At the Interstate Fair where we do 10 days of demonstrating, we have a poster and flyers that attract a lot of people to our hammer-ins.
We have given some classes through the Museum of Arts and Culture, and the MAC notifies all the people on their mailing lists. The MAC also handles class registration and collection of fees.
For classes offered under the auspices of the club, we also email notices to homeschool organizations.
Plans for the future:
Our last hammer-in had too many attendees for the number of forges and anvils we could provide, so our next hammer-in will be structured as two days of morning & afternoon sessions, with a maximum of 24 people per session. We might have open forging in the evenings.
We are working toward getting free publicity for our events in the local arts & entertainment newspaper, and toward getting email lists for organizations like the Boy Scouts.
We hope to find a way to have a permanent facility for our events including a mentoring center, maybe via grants or charitable donations.