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Post by bentwingbird on Oct 17, 2007 21:34:39 GMT
Hello All, If you have had a chance yet to see who will be displaying at SMW this year, you may have noticed that there is no mention of the FAA SIG. I contacted Rob Monfea who confirmed that he had not received an annual return from them even after he tried to contact them subsequently, in addition their website is shut down. From the Committee's point of view the SIG is on twelve months notice. Now you may think that a SIG folding is no big deal, but like any SIG you belong to it is good to have friends who appreciate the same interest and maybe they are only a phone call or an e-mail away if you need help or to bring each other up to date with new products or just a general chat. O.K. maybe you're in a club, but it's good to have an alternative. The FAA goes back nearly 100 years, it has been involved with all the global conflicts plus our own some 25 years ago. It has it's share of notable pilots and squadrons. The possibilities for modelling subjects is vast and with the building of two new aircraft carriers it should be around for the foreseeable future. So, if like me you would like to see the SIG re-activated, I would like some names please, five will do it, Rob is lending his support so make that four. If you were a member of the SIG before,or if you would like to join please contact me
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Post by typhoon on Oct 17, 2007 21:57:30 GMT
Hi Alan,
I too have recently noticed that the FAA Sig website was no longer with us - I was hoping to search for some useful information.
I would be most interested in being a member of the FAA SIG so please count me in.
Dick Chatterton IPMS UK 10305
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Post by Ted Taylor on Oct 18, 2007 7:17:06 GMT
Hello All, If you have had a chance yet to see who will be displaying at SMW this year, you may have noticed that there is no mention of the FAA SIG. I contacted Rob Monfea who confirmed that he had not received an annual return from them even after he tried to contact them subsequently, in addition their website is shut down. From the Committee's point of view the SIG is on twelve months notice. Now you may think that a SIG folding is no big deal, but like any SIG you belong to it is good to have friends who appreciate the same interest and maybe they are only a phone call or an e-mail away if you need help or to bring each other up to date with new products or just a general chat. O.K. maybe you're in a club, but it's good to have an alternative. The FAA goes back nearly 100 years, it has been involved with all the global conflicts plus our own some 25 years ago. It has it's share of notable pilots and squadrons. The possibilities for modelling subjects is vast and with the building of two new aircraft carriers it should be around for the foreseeable future. So, if like me you would like to see the SIG re-activated, I would like some names please, five will do it, Rob is lending his support so make that four. If you were a member of the SIG before,or if you would like to join please contact me Alan I am a member and have the tea shirt to prove it Ted
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Post by bentwingbird on Oct 18, 2007 8:57:11 GMT
You are an early bird Ted, 7-17! the streets are hardly aired and you're on your PC, if you have a T shirt then you can be a "plankowner" as well. I will be down at Yeovilton this week end with a blurb of some kind to see if I can get any interest there.
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Post by Rob Monfea on Oct 18, 2007 15:23:17 GMT
Incidentally,
Happy Birthday Ted!
Rob M.
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Post by Thunderjug on Oct 18, 2007 16:17:20 GMT
Stick my name down Alan Chris Norfolk 8826
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Post by Rob Monfea on Oct 18, 2007 17:50:07 GMT
By my count, that makes 5. FAA SIG is legit again, pending paperwork (soon to be in your inbox Alan).
Members are initially as follows: Alan Carr - SIG Leader Ted Taylor - (never left) Rob Monfea Dick Chatterton Chris Norfolk
Cheers,
Rob M.
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Post by HarrierOne on Oct 18, 2007 17:55:29 GMT
Please add my name to the list too.
I've known Steve Hubbard the last leader of the FAA-SIG for many years and know that things haven't been too easy for him these past few years. Steve helped me a lot and so it's only right that I do something to help keep Steve's legacy going.
I can offer a 48th Sea Hornet, SHAR FA2 and Harrier T8 for any fledgiling display we may be able to squeeze into SMW.
Good luck Alan and the SIG!
Nick
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Post by Rob Monfea on Oct 18, 2007 18:02:22 GMT
Thanks for the support Nick,
Unfortuntely, SMW is already full for this year!
We have just had to rearrange some traders to give the Airliner SIG a single double depth table (and they wanted 18 feet)!
Really, this needs to be a year of consolidation for the FAA SIG and we'll get back on track in 2008.
Cheers,
Rob M.
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Post by bentwingbird on Oct 18, 2007 21:55:12 GMT
Thank you everyone for your support, I will be sending the forms back to Rob this week end to make the SIG official. Rob is right that nothing can be done at SMW this year but there is Milton Keynes next year, the FAA museum and plenty of shows before next SMW 2008. Although I started the thread I think a different leader would be best for the SIG, as you know I am involved with US Naval A/C and if anything happens to me for a no show, I know I can rely on two people to cover the stand, but if I was also responsible for the FAA as well, two displays are affected. I'm just getting the hang of the difference between an F-14A to an F-14B, but show me a Jaguar Mk2 3.4 1966 and a 340 1968, I can tell the difference in a twinkling, so knowledgeable on aircraft I ain't. Let's get it all up and running then have an election for a SIG leader, who will get my backing 100% Thanks again one and all it's great to have a fine SIG back again
Regards Alan
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Post by faasig on Oct 23, 2007 23:09:09 GMT
Hi Guys
My thanks to Nick Greenall who gave me the heads up on this thread. Here's my reply to Nick's email, it saves me typing it out again!
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Hiya Steve, Old Bentwingbird himself - Alan Carr - has noted that the FAA SIG is under 12 months notice and has started a list going to keep it alive. After everything you've put into it over the years and all the help you've given me, I've added my name to the list as I'd hate to see it fold; it's a great legacy for you which we need to keep going if possible. I haven't got a clue who'll take on the mantle; will you come out of retirement maybe? I'd love to offer myself but show visits will be fewer in the coming years and I get my new R hip in Feb so that rules out shows for me until mid-May. Plus the fact that I've got the small thing called the Harrier SIG to keep running!
Hi Nick Thanks for the info. I hate to be a kill-joy but that's exactly what happened when I took over 8 years ago, the SIG was going under and everyone, including me, voiced an opinion that we should save it, so I stepped up. Gradually, one by one, they all dropped away until only myself and Ted were left. No one helped out with the newsletter (much like the South London Scale Model Club!!!!) or the stand at shows (my wife and Ted excepted) or the website. The ONLY time anyone was even the least bit interested in the stand at a show was at SMW, and half the time it was because it was somewhere to sit over the weekend! (Or am I being too cynical?) Not one of them has been in touch lately (in the last year) to even enquire what was happening, even Ted, who has my phone numbers and private email address hasn't bothered. SLSMC was the same, I put in 23 years with the club, many of them as Sec, hundreds of newsletters and has anyone been in touch since April 2006? That's right, no one, not one single email or phone call. Don't get me wrong, I loved doing the FAA SIG and I'd really love to still be doing it but you just can't do it (and have a life) all on your own! I have no opinions (at the moment) on whether the SIG should resurface or not Nick, don't forget Martin ran the FAA SIG for years before I did and he ended up in EXACTLY the same position I did! If someone wants to step up to the plate good luck to them, I'm happy to give them any help I can. I would only reconsider running the SIG again if it was guaranteed I'd get some help this time, but I'm a bit too long in the tooth to think that would really happen. I'd be happy to resurface if I could believe what I've read on the forum but I think, sadly, it's more posturing than real commitment.
Steve.
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So there you have it guys, in the end I simply got tired of doing the whole thing all on my own. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed doing it, despite the fact it was costing me a small fortune and I do miss it. To give you some idea I deliberately missed last years SMW after 15 straight years and, instead, took the family away over Christmas (I felt my wife deserved more than two days stuck behind a table in a sodium lit hall) and I actually spent LESS to do that than it would have cost me for the weekend in Telford. I'd do it again but you just can't do it all alone.
Cheers, Steve Hubbard
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Post by faasig on Oct 23, 2007 23:15:07 GMT
If anyone wants to contact me direct the old FAA SIG email address is still operating, it is faasig@msn.com
Cheers, Steve.
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Post by HarrierOne on Oct 24, 2007 17:48:40 GMT
Chaps,
(Firstly, apologies to Alan Carr, the old was not meant in any derogatory way Alan! I'm really glad you triggered the re-birth of the SIG off with your posting. Secondly, I'm really pleased that Steve has put this up and joined the debate himself...)
I know exactly what Steve means when he says that one cannot run a SIG all on one's own and have a life. It is a HUGE commitment to try and keep the majority happy for the majority of the time and provide members with some membership benefits when you rarely get incoming offers of help or ideas from people to drive things forward. The times I've asked for input from harrier SIG members and got diddly squat back except from the odd one or two out of a membership of 50-ish are TNTM. I often ask, why do I bother. Well, I'm not going to answer that question here, but I am going to kick start a debate on the FAA-SIG's future that after all the ra-ra above seems to have run out of steam.
A SIG does not run itself and cannot be run by one person... If it wasn't for the sterling support I've had from Colin and Alastair Small, Stu Fone, Rob Monfea, Alfie Bass, Tom Zecha and Steve Hague in particular, plus Steve Hubbard, Tim Mansfield, Mike Chilestone, Ricardo Caballero, Rob Trewinnard-Boyle, Les Allen, Phil Cater, Evan Mayerle, Brad Hoskin, Nils Mathisrud and Perttu Karivalo, who all have supported the SIG not just at the odd show or SMW but in doing things behind the scenes for the benefit of everyone else, then I'd have packed it in way back. What have they contributed? Membership admin, arranged and run tours of bases, technical support, written articles, researched projects, photo-studies, made models, set-up/manned/struck-down displays, generated ideas - you name it!
Costs... It was only after three years when I realised the £0,000s (Yes, that is £-Thousands! Don't tell the other half, or I'm deadmeat!) it had cost me to run the SIG in that time that I decided the Harrier SIG had to charge nominal membership to cover the BASICS, but excl the cost of travel, accommoodation, etc., that shows bolt on.
Speaking with the SIG leader... Yes, I could be accused of not contacting Steve before now and asking him what more I could do to help. But, I have been in contact with Steve on and off throughout the year and had a view from him earlier on this year about what he was going to do. With (in no order of priority) the H-SIG, a new job that regularly chews up 10 hours a day, 2 house moves, serious family illnesses and a family life to fit in, there was not a prayer that I could take on the FAA-SIG. Yes, I mentioned Steve's thoughts to a few FAA-SIG members and dropped them the bait that a call to Steve wouldn't go amiss if they wanted to keep the SIG going. Despite being very well respected members of IPMS and long time members of the SIG their willingness to get involved is apparent from what Steve has said.
So, we are where we are.
Where does that leave my commitment to the FAA-SIG going forward?
Yes, I want to see the FAA-SIG back on the circuit. Yes, I'm prepared to commit articles - OK, currently they may be Sea or GR.9 Harrier focused!- and I'm prepared to commit models for shows, not just Harriers! I'm also happy to use the Harrier SIG network to help get benefits for FAA-SIG members too, be that with visits to bases or new trade products: things that will add real value and give people a return on their nominal (£5 for IPMS? £10 for non-IPMS?) membership fees.
But, I cannot commit the time to lead or run it, nor can I commit the funds to fund it. I would urge anyone taking it on to consider charging for membership. So, I am happy to speak whoever decides to take on the leadership about how we've made this work in the Harrier SIG and get some real unique benefits out to the membership.
Nor can I commit to doing every show in the calendar, or even more than 2 or 3 a year; I do have a hectic life out of IPMS with lots of other interests and family commitments. Indeed the Harrier SIG is now down to the following shows on a regular basis: Bolton, Fleet Air Arm Museum, SMW; with the possibility that in 2008 Cosford will replace FAAM.
The ideal solution... Would be to have a core of 5-6 people out of the likely to be 15+ membership who do provide constant support to the SIG in the way of articles, models, newsletters, website and manning shows, so that whoever takes on the mantle of leader is not left high and dry as Steve has been to try and do it all.
This means we all take on the accountability for doing a little bit each rather than waiting for 'our leader' to do it all or kick it off. If enough of us can commit to that and re-ignite the SIG then, who knows, we may even see Mr Hubbard back behind the stand again with the rest of us at a few shows!
Cheers,
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Post by Julien on Oct 25, 2007 13:27:05 GMT
Alan, as one of your USN SIG members you can put me down as well.
Cheers,
Julien
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Post by Pete Readman on Oct 26, 2007 13:18:09 GMT
Hi Alan, If you're reforming the FAA SIG, count me in. And if you want to consider a website, I can help with that. Cheers, Pete Readman Branch Sec IPMS Farnborough www.ipms-farnborough.co.uk/
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