Back from Tunbridge

I can second that. Although we were only their on Saturday it was a really good and inspirational event. I liked the format and vision for the future that Carl spoke about in the keynote address and which can hopefully come to fruition through the membership plan. Especially the thoughts about smaller regional meetings and the leverage possibilities available through organization. I am anxious to hear how that meeting went as we were unable to participate on Sunday.
As far as the weather was concerned my good wife reminds me on occasion that when living in Vermont if you let the weather interfere with your plans you won’t end up doing anything at all.
Anyway it was good in a different way as seems to be the case each year. Let’s find a way to keep it up, make it solvent and grow and encourage Carl and Lisa in the process. Thanks to all the teachers and volunteers who did their thing to make the event a success.

I could see before I went how much work and planning had gone into the event so although I was certainly impressed I was not surprised to see how nicely everything came together, including plan B on Friday. I was very pleased to see how excellent the presentations/workshops were and I really had underestimated how extensive and involved the community of interest was up in that part of the country. It was most gratifying to see such a large number of young folks with such passion and sense of purpose striving to place meaningful work with draft animals at their center. What a nice trip.

Thanks Mark, I had a lot of fun too! By the end of the day on Saturday I was feeling a little worn out and wondering if we would rally for an obstacle course. Jason Glick, John Plowden and his crew, and Ben Johnson, and many others were ready to play on Sunday morning and that was great. I have been to a fair number of conferences and field days, and this is the only event I can think of where every year I have added to the list of folks I call friends, and doubly the relationships I started in Tunbridge have all gotten richer with each year.

Special thanks to all the folks who worked to make the teamster breakfast, coffee, and all the meals great; and not just because I was hungry and some else fed me (which I greatly appreciate), but because for me a lot of the fun is sitting down with folks and visiting at “the tent”

Great job, Carl and Lisa, and everyone.

@Carl Russell 21448 wrote:

…. I’d travel 5 hours in any direction from here with my horses to do that….I love you folks, Carl

Only five hours? It should be more than that if you really love us;)

Honestly Carl, the feeling is mutual!

We’re back home in PA and really enjoyed a fantastic outing.
We met so many of our old friends and made some new ones.
We want to thank Carl and Lisa for the tremendous amount of work that
they put out for this. Unbelievable what they have done with this!
There was so much to learn from so many knowledgeable people, good conversations, great food and plenty of it.
Just wish Carl could get friendlier with the weatherman so we could have nicer weather.
Thanks again Carl and Lisa and all your helpers for putting so much of yourselves into this.
Howie and Betty

@Carl Russell 21448 wrote:

I’m finally back, but yet to unpack completely. Truck is running like it sucked a rod on the final approach up the hill to our house. Oh well at least I won’t have to haul anything for a few weeks.

Anyway, thanks to all of you who volunteered, presented, and generally help to make this such a good event. I really like Mark’s comments yesterday describing NEAPFD as a professional conference. It really explains a lot about the attendance levels. Every year there are about the same amount of people, all of whom are very serious and focused on the content that is available. We know that this crowd is not made of money, and at the urging of several folks to try to make it affordable to attract more people, we have kept the gates fees lower than they actually should be.

When I think of this as a professional conference, which has always been the emphasis, and take into consideration that we get about the same number of serious attendees every year, and not many off the street, I wonder if those who have attended would pay $50/day. If we had been collecting $50/person/day then we would be having a completely different conversation about the future of this event and the network that it has highlighted.

All-in-all I am extremely proud to have been involved with all of you to create the event we just experienced last weekend. The weather was a challenge, but everyone was there to get the most out of it. It was so inspiring for me to be a part of a group of people who thrive on overcoming challenges by thinking on their feet with fierce determination to enjoy themselves and relationships with those around them. Thank you so much for that, all of you.

As far as Sunday, we are very sorry that we had the agenda that we did, because the obstacle course was really enjoyable. It would have been extra-frickin’ groovy to just continue all day. I really believe in having the serious exchange NEAPFD is know for, not to say there wasn’t serious exchange at the OC, but it would be very fun to have a whole day dedicated to exercises like that, scoot loads, distance pulls etc. I’d travel 5 hours in any direction from here with my horses to do that. I finally got a chance to go through at 6 pm when I skidded the logs back to behind the horse barns. Thanks Donn, Jason, John and others who got that started, I really wish we didn’t have to cut that short.

Now for sleep, staying on the farm for a few weeks, working not only the horses, but the under-worked steers, getting some soil turned, garlic planted, wood out, and then some livestock slaughtered before snow-fall.

I love you folks, Carl

I had a great time, and learned a lot, as I did last year. I don’t mean to be overly critical, and I do know how much work goes into putting on such an event, but if you were going to be charging upwards of $50, I would expect a few things to be done differently if I were to pay that price. I understand that many of the speakers are not professional conference presenters, and some of the charm of the field days lies in the style that they do offer. Still, a little bit more organization in some areas would make for a more equitable experience for all, IMO. For example, at one discussion, the presenters did not start on time, far from it. There were over a dozen attendees present, yet the presenters were holding out, hoping for more, very few which ever materialized. The dozen of us paid our gate fees, and were there on time. Why were we punished waiting for those who didn’t bother? Some better moderation in this respect would be in order if the fee were higher, IMO. Also, some of the presentations were rather limited in viewing area. For the lucky few who were able to gather closely around and see what was going on, it was great, but others in the rear could not always get in close, and they missed out on some great stuff. Here too, someone more experienced with moderating on a professional level might have been able to organize viewing arrangements to benefit all who were paying to see what was going on. The informal style of some of the presentations is great. I really love it, and it works for me for $20. If I miss out on some parts, or get slightly inconvenienced, it’s not the end of the world. For $50 I’d want a bit more for my money. JMO. I hope the feedback helps.

There are some good points to consider here, but the reality of some of these types of demonstrations is you need to get a close look to see clearly what is going on, and space is limited. But the presentations were not rushed, and it was possible to step up and ask the presenters to repeat it. One way to capture some of the details would be to create a video of some of the demos where those types of details were important. You do not need to hire a professional videographer, you can make a pretty decent video and voice over for $250 worth of equipment and minimal skills. Consider keeping the price at $20 and make the demo videos available on DAP on a pay per view basis. $5 or $10 per demo/workshop might add up. I do not think it is particularly difficult to set something like that up.