a show of my own

[Bunsey]

map is done... see map thread for, well, the map :P

[Carrington]

I attend every northern show and, as you all probably know, show syrians. In my experience there are usually between 65 and 100 entries on the bench for syrians. I wouldn't therefore consider these shows to be small. I recently judged at a Midlands show and was surprised to see less entries than at a typical northern show.

With regards to the Harry Hamster competition, only 6 shows are taken into account for the end result so it is irrelevant how many shows are attended by any exhibitor. Northern will have 10 shows this year as traditionally we miss Februrary and of course the Harrogate show was an NHC show, not a Northern show.

The Lymm show (which I organise) is on 25th May as you are all aware and we will also be having a show in November at the same venue. This venue is easily accessible from the M6 for Midland members and even those further afield so hopefully some of you will be able to attend.

I sympathise with you Bunsey, it usually takes me quite a while to get to shows from Manchester so I know where you are coming from on this. If you want to set up your own show, you need to speak to Pete Logsdail.

[babyboos]

in HAMSOC days we had two shows a year in the whole of Scotland and one of those was organised by me in Edinburgh every year - Northern told me they will consider a show up here if they ever get more Scottish members Sadly that doesn't seem to be happening in a hurry

[Spuds Mum]

Its like the chicken and the egg though isn't it? I'm sure the hamster clubs get a lot of their membership from people coming to shows and displays - ergo - none in Scotland = less Scottish members.
Its such a shame - I do think though when you look at the map, the Northern club has an immense area to cover.

Maybe you could join the club under 100 different pseudonyms Babyboos?

[Matty Day]

or maybe it would be better to have a scotish hamster club just a thought?

[Spuds Mum]

Originally Posted by Matty Day

or maybe it would be better to have a scotish hamster club just a thought?

I'm sure if there were enough members to set one up Matty that it would have been considered. The clubs have to be able to be viable, and that means enough people to undertake all the work that comes with running a club I'm sure. But getting enough members to actually run a club for Scotland when there are possibly not enough to make a show worthwhile may be a deterrent!

[babyboos]

Yeah I did consider this there are a few of us up here - mostly everyone serious about hamsters is a member of HC too - it is was like a big HC reunion at the shows. And we got a lot of interest in HAMSOC at the shows but sadly the club did not keep members - renewal rates were low - clubs need dedicated committee members and a good journal etc every month or whatever to keep the people coming back. Even if we had a club up here we would need some trained judges to make the shows element official and I don't know anyone willing to take on the headache or responsibility of running a club anyway - I work now (started back this week) and have a wee boy and a house and hamstery to run so no way would I have the time to do everything involved. I had planned to throw myself into doing something about HAMSOC whilst on maternity leave but sadly I never got chance as it all went pear-shaped in October last year.

[Bunsey]

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

[Bunsey]

i thought i'd just post where i'm up to with this. Sue Kilburn said that to have a northern show in staffs requires permission of the midland. which i'm thinking i can basically go whistle for

so it's either host one in an area i don't know for the northern, or try to get the permission for a midland show at the AGM which means cancelling one of the other midland shows because i can't have it as an extra. another thing i can go whistle for.

so all in all.... no go show.

[Holly]

Originally Posted by Bourne Valley Hams

I think you may find that having yet another Northern show may cause some friction with there only being 7 Midland Shows and 10 Southern/SOE shows.

If there are 3 less Midland shows why can't you host another Midland show, Bunsey? Have it just over the "border". How many Northern shows are there (she asks, too lazy to go and find a show list ).