Old Town and other small boat builders of the Penobscot River valley webinar

[Benson Gray]

The WCHA’s ongoing experiments with new ideas will include a free webinar this Wednesday, February 22nd starting at 8:00 PM Eastern time. This presentation will start with the native birch bark builders then move up through the major wood/canvas builders (Gerrish, Thatcher, Morris, Carleton, White, Old Town, Penobscot, etc.) to the more modern materials like molded plywood, fiberglass, vacuum molding (Royalex/ABS), and rotational molding. The focus will be on the Old Town Canoe Company since they have been in business the longest and have the most information available. This will be a thirty minute version of the presentation that I will be giving at the WCHA Assembly this summer with some time for a group discussion at the end. Please register at https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/644374456 if you would like to join us. We hope to record this session so it may be available later for anyone who can't attend on Wednesday. Please reply here if you have any questions or suggestions for other webinars. Thanks,

Benson

 

[ken.kelly]

webinar

I'm in - curious to see what it is like. Thanks Benson

 

[JClearwater]

I would love to join in but I have a meeting Wednesday night that I likely can't get out of. Please record it so people like me can see it another time. An excellent idea, I might add, that will generate a lot of interest I'm sure.

Jim C.

 

[Mark Adams]

I'm signed up, and am looking forward to it.

 

[Mike Darga]

I just signed up as well. This sounds like a great idea. Should be very interesting.

Mike

 

[Benson Gray]

The slides are available at http://www.canoehullabaloo.com/images/Penobscot-Canoe-Builders-2.pdf if anyone wants them.

Benson

 

[MikeCav]

Great job, Benson! Good to see the use of technology as a way to share knowledge.

 

[Paul Miller]

DIDO,

This can be a great tool to share all aspects of our passion.

Thanks,

Paul

 

[Mike Darga]

Great job Benson very informative. Hope you do this again. Mike

 

[Mark Adams]

I thoroughly enjoyed it. I look forward to more.

 

[Fitz]

Well Done.

Thoroughly enjoyable and beats anything on the idiot box.

I didn't think of it until it was too late, but a few posts on venues like the WoodenBoat Forum and a few other places and I suspect you would have had a very large audience. Ken's letter in the Journal this month didn't mention electronic ways of attracting members, but a few things like this could go a long ways I suspect.

Thanks Benson,

Fitz.

 

[Benson Gray]

You are all most welcome and I appreciate your participation. It appears that this experiment was a success and better advertising should help build more interest in the next one. I was able to get a full audio / video recording as well but it is over 28 MB so may not be easy to download. Thanks,

Benson

 

[Greg Nolan]

I would say this experiment was quite a success. I signed in about 3 minutes late (which caused no problem), and except for my tardiness, everything went well. Benson's presentation and choice of illustrative material was first rate; the question/answer portion seemed to work well, and my question sent in near the end was apparently received promptly -- and was answered well. I think we have a new feature which will be useful for our current members, and likely will serve as a draw for new members. A job well done!!

 

[Rob Stevens]

Kudos, Benson. I enjoyed the presentation. Do you know how many people participated/listened in?

 

[Benson Gray]

Do you know how many people participated/listened in?

Yes, 45 clicked on the registration link, 25 actually registered, and 21 attended. More details are available in the report attached below. Who wants to present the next one?

Benson

 

[pklonowski]

How could we do this as a guided tour of (for example) Ralph Frese's canoe collection, or one of the Canoe Museums? I suppose doing it live would have all kinds of challenges that I don't foresee. Just a thought....

 

[Benson Gray]

How could we do this as a guided tour

This is an interesting thought but everyone would probably have motion sickness before it was over. There are huge differences between a professional video production and an amateur with a hand held camera in available light. I've seen enough of Ralph's collection and most canoe museums to know that these would not be easy places for anyone to make a good video. Getting a reliable and fast wireless network connection in a warehouse could be a challenge as well. It might be worth a try as an experiment. I am will take care of the webinar side if you or someone else wants to arrange the tour and video camera work. Let me know if you want to set it up,

Benson