it's such a shame about HAMSOC in my opinion. i'd just starting showing with them, had roped Internet_nobody along, too and i would've gladly joined if i knew they were that desperate. i didn't know anything was wrong until we phoned up to put show entries in and the BHA was no more!!
their website was a joke and they had no list of shows. they never advertised their shows through anything other than word of mouth it seems. It's a real shame because it means a lot of shows i could've gone to are cancelled (stafford, liverpool and perry barr for e.g.).
i really sympathised with their dilema over joining the NHC. if they'd joined then they wouldn't have been allowed to keep their shows in Liverpool, Stafford, Perry Barr etc. even though those areas are not served by the NHC and seemly there is no intenton to. It seems totally stupid. you can't show there even though we don't want to. i assume it's down the so many shows per year rule and you have to cancel some to make others. if they wanted to keep the shows, they therefore had to stay separate and that was their downfall because they couldn't get people to go to the shows. A lot of people avoided them because of some argument over the show pens they used. I have no idea about this as it was before my time, but i know there are some showers who would rather have poked their eye out than go a HAMSOC show
a crying shame if you ask me, anyway. seems to be that they collapsed just over silly rules and an argument