Phil Armitage wrote:
Phil,
Instead of another worn out cheap shot at the AFA, why don't you start your "Journey" now and come along with us and see for yourself just exactly what the Association and it's Certification has to offer. You may be surprised to find out that the study of lower limb physiology includes so much more than "what a lever is".
John

Phil Armitage wrote:
Phil,
The two are only mutually exclusive if you wish them to be......

Danvers, thanks for the kind words
Martin Kenny wrote:
Martin there is no need to appologize, but you do have to understand where I am comming from. You have been out of the AFA limelight for the length of my membership in the AFA. First of all let me say I understand, once my term as WSFA President is up I intend to take a long rest from leadership, not to say I am going to drop the committee that I chair for the AFA or that I will become inactive, but I am going to sevearly curtail what I do for farrier orginizations for awhile.

With all of that said, you can have the mad skills needed to be a leader but if you don't understand the orginization and you aren't willing to get back in, learn how it works and who you are dealing with you are going to be sevearly handicaped when you walk through the door. As a member of the AFA I have done all I can to premote harmony in leadership and membership. Part of the reason Rick Garrison my immediate predisescor on the board reorginization committee and I worked so hard to get the things past to reduce the board and limit the terms of leadership was becuse we were sick and tired of the varrious accusations towards the AFA's leadership and management. We were tired of hearing that the board didn't care and that Presidents ran roughshod over the association. So we made a concious decision and effort to get the things changed where the board members had more of a stake, were more accountable, and had true control of the the direction of the AFA and it's programs. So that the President of the AFA the leadership quarom was more responsiable for the management of the orginization and making sure that the programs the AFA had in place were working properly. Now I do have to admit that all of that hasn't come to fruition as of yet, the President has made decisions that I find questionable and I don't think that he has a grasp on the new leadership format. But as the members of the AFA we need to understand that the Presidnet is the last of the "old" system. He didn't have the bennifits of learning the system that the current President Elect, Vice Presidnet and all future leaders of the AFA will have. The President was baptized by fire and is doing the best that any person can do under the circumstances I'm sure. The point is that leaders of the orginization need to be willing to understand the orginization, it's members and the trade itself in order to be effective and as a member of the AFA I don't see that comming from you.



It is but it isn't.

Martin Kenny wrote:
Luckly for me all of the people on the list that I presented don't share the same attitude. I have talked horseshoeing and theroy with everyone that I listed at one time or another and have gotten something out of each conversation. Maybe one day I will list out what I have learned from each but thats for another day.

The sad thing that many farriers don't get is that there is more learning that takes place in the trade show and lounge than in the lectures. I know not necesarley the best advertising ploy but it does play in to the "commumunication" tenent of the orginization. Martin, I compleatly understand the social phobia mind set, because I have it too. It's real nice to go to lectures etc at convention and when your done go to the room and chill, but in the leadership aspect and other aspects it is better if you want to lead or be part of something to get out there and mix with people in the trade.


First of all under the bylaws I am ineleigiable to run for any executive office, but even if I could, I am not of an age that I think appropriate. I started out in AFA politics when I was comming out of a divorce and I needed to fill a void. Since then I have remarried and I now have more time with my child as well. I think that what I am doing for the AFA right now is fine for a person in my situation. The Leaders of the AFA need to be older, established people, not folks with children at home, mortgage worries etc.

For me - the most educational convention was Houston. I remember a hospitality room with free whiskey. The older hands found good chairs and held court. I was fairly new to the business and I learned more listening to the old hands than I did in the lectures.