Main Discussion Area > Bow of the Month Contest
Is BOM melting down?
tattoo dave:
Well I guess I'll throw in my 2 cents. First I'll say I haven't read every single post, so sorry if this has already been discussed. But may I point out the other "elephant" in the room. I've read a couple post basically stating they didn't feel good enough or felt as though they didn't have enough experience to submit a bow. This sounds a lot like the recent discussion of the PA bow trade mess. Meaning there has been in the past few years a fair amount of discouragement to new bow makers in both the trade and the BOM. When I started on this forum, nobody seemed to care if you made 100 bows or 1, you could submit to BOM.
So, I guess I feel about BOM the same as I do about the bow trade. Let's encourage everyone to join in. It's been said already, the more entries the better! Let's get back to an attitude of the more experienced helping the less experienced and simply enjoying one of our favorite past times together. The reason I have always loved this forum is that it does feel like family. Time to rally the troops and get everybody playing ball together again.
There...I'm done. Maybe there was more than 2 cents. ;)
Tattoo dave
make-n-break:
Del made a comment on the first page that resonates with me. I haven't read all the comments either so sorry if it's been beat to death. Limiting the contest to subscribers is counter productive to the magazine. There are so many good bowyers, so many good bows, so many people that want to enter but don't want to be obligated to subscribe. I think it would benefit the magazine and forum ten-fold to have a new bow style from a new bowyer and a new story/method every month.
As far as the competitive/difficult odds part, as in very experience bowyers vs new bowyers, I don't think that should matter or spark discouragement at all. Maybe it's just my personality type, but I don't get embarrassed or ashamed whatsoever. If my work is not winning material, oh well!! Gives me encouragement to try again. If another bowyer wins, I'd just want to admire and compliment their work. Not a moment of sleep lost.
I am exclusicely dedicated to this site. I don't use any other archery or primitive sites. I try to contribute as much as I can by actively posting bows, jigs, arrows, trades, comments, and compliments... But with that said, I don't want to feel obligated to subscribe to the magazine to enter BOM even though I'd love to participate.
I don't think the vises comments apply to everyone. I'm extremely disciplined with my "vises" and live my life on a very calculated budget so I can retire young and happy. No beer other than special occasions, no smokes, no internet in my home (other than phone), no magazines, no mainstream TV. I account for every penny spent, not out of starvation, but as a business owner, entrepreneur, and hopefully-young-retiree. What small amount I do allow for "fun money" is spent keeping my hobby alive. I'd rather watch from afar.
Drewster:
I'm new to this whole bow building business too......three years experience building self bows and a couple of years on this forum. It has been a valuable resource for knowledge and camaraderie within the bowyer community. I have enjoyed and learned much from the BOM competitions.
But, my last entry for BOM was evidently lost in cyber space. I never heard from anyone or saw it listed in the monthly contests. Guess I should have followed up on it but it did kinda indicate that someone in the process must have dropped the ball. Perhaps there are problems behind the scenes that I'm not privy to but I would hate to see the BOM program dropped. And I would hate to see those that often win to drop out. Those bowyers win for a reason and their work is certainly an inspiration and set a worthy bar for which to attain.
Someone please keep this thing going and all of us pitch in to help make it happen with our support.
steve b.:
I'm only commenting because I was asked to. Actually, I'm not sure what the question is, so I'll cover what I think is obvious.
1. The magazine thing is not an issue for me. I'd order the magazine regardless of BOM but when I've seen it on the news rack it looks a little skimpy for the price.
2. I love looking at any kind of handmade, custom work, whether wood, metal, or whatever and I appreciate what some guys put into their primitive bows. But its not my thing to dress them up, especially for a contest. Its a little like lipstick on a pig to me. I just want a bow that hunts, that is as plain and simple as possible. It never occurred to me to enter BOM and I've never voted for one. Still, I have nothing against it other than I'd like to see the whole movement lean toward hunting with primitive bows and away from the bows themselves, especially when it promotes non-trophy hunting.
3. Frankly, the other issue brought up about the hats, the timing of the contest, the possible biases, etc. are also issues with me to one degree or another and would be the straw that pushed me out, if I were on the fence.
mstrick96:
Here's my two cents.
In my case, I love to see the bows that win, but don't enter because my bows don't have a chance since I still consider myself to be a beginner. The bows in the contest looks to me like they are in the professional category.
As far as voting, we are all busy with lots of things going on. I wouldn't quite call it "apathy", more like "distraction".
One suggestion..... Perhaps there could be categories based on experience. Novice, intermediate, advanced and professional? Maybe based on number of bows built? Once a bowyer wins a number of times in a category, they would be automatically advanced to the next category? Maybe 5 wins?
This way, the categories would serve two purposes... Give more bowyers an opportunity to win the BOM and also provide a peer reviewed way for bowyers to advance through the the ranks.
As far as needing to needing to be a subscriber to enter the BOM, I really don't think that is an unreasonable requirement. Producing a magazine is costly and subscribers are needed to offset the costs. On the other hand, though, would allowing more bowyers to enter the contest help to increase the number of subscribers? I think it might.
Are more volunteers needed to help with the workload of PA and the magazine? Maybe having additional volunteers would provide the workforce to try out some new ideas?
Just a few random thoughts.....
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