wwhite1973 wrote:
I stand corrected but that is still a very low percentage considering how long the AFA has been around.
I don’t know about that. Considering the fact that farriers as a species are rugged individualists with a strong helping of leave me the frack alone thrown in I think that it is doing OK. Could it be doing a lot better, you bet it could. But it still has a lot of stuff to figure out and when you have as many competing voices on the BOD it takes a while to filter out the garbage.
wwhite1973 wrote:
We will be. We aren't that naive and believe it or not most of us believe that CE should be a big part of the farrier industry but not run by some state beauracrat that knows nothing about horseshoeing.
I do not believe that any proposal that has been put forth has suggested that the government be involved in CE. No other profession has the government involved in the administration of CE why on earth would anyone thing that this model should change for Farriery?
wwhite1973 wrote:
It isn't about insecurity, it is about the way we are treated. I understand what you are saying and yes I have met many who are kind and willing to help anyone they can but I have to admit that there are some who are a little upset with the AFA right now.
Look, the fact of the matter is that there are jerks in every group and that those jerks can give the group a bad name. There is nothing that can be done to prevent this from happening. People that let a couple of jerks color their perspective of a whole group when there are also examples of positive and supportive individuals are simple looking for a reason to be angry at the group. The AFA as an organization has a very positive mandate from its membership and that is something that most of those complaining about the organization choose to ignore.
wwhite1973 wrote:
Quite frankly it is hard to decifer what is the truth and what is the fiction. I don't think manipulation into beleiving anything or gullibility either one were involved. Most of the farriers around here believe it was a manipulation of the AFA to increase its membership. Right wrong or indifferent that is how they feel and by all appearances it did look like a dictatorship to them and to some of their members as well.
If you read that do***entation of what was actually discussed and proposed there is a very different picture to be seen. What the American Farriers Journal, the BWFA, the Guild and the Farrier School owners did was to take snippets out of context and whip up a furor using the most inflammatory language that they could to frame the issue. What is interesting is that when you seek the truth you find out that all of these organizations have a hard-on for the AFA and have a substantial interest in weakening the AFA by any means necessary. They would all like to paint the AFA in the worst possible light as an organization and that has driven their editorial content. If you have read the “Caldwell Report” you can see the road map of assumption, misrepresentation and deception that those three groups followed in laid out in black and white.
I contacted Charlie Caldwell and discussed his report with him in depth. It turns out that his report had been submitted as his final exam for his horse shoeing school. At the time he wrote it he had never earned a dime from shoeing a horse. Because he saw what was being done with what he submitted as a tongue in cheek and very subjective review of the whole issue and he agreed that how his report was being used was wrong he joined with me to write a review of his original report. That review was posted on this forum some time ago right before the AFA BOD mid-year meeting. If you need copies of both his report and the review contact me privately.
The lack of journalistic integrity and the lack of simple honesty on behalf of the BWFA, the Guild and the horse shoeing school owners about this issue have been astounding to me. What has been more astounding has been how many people that I believe to be inherently intelligent have swallowed this manure as if they were babies being spoon fed pabulum.
wwhite1973 wrote:
The presentation by the AFA was defitinately lacking.
On this I agree completely. The dog used them in a big way and didn’t even say thank you.
wwhite1973 wrote:
What the AFA does for its membership I have admitted is none of the outsiders business, however if they only have an active membership of only 10% of the farriers in the US, I think it is arguable as to whether they are a good example of a leadership role.
Had the AFA’s task force done its job the AFA would have been engaged in strong and appropriate leadership on this issue. As it is you couldn’t even use what was done to clean your rear end. When examining an issue of such significance you need to have rock solid do***entation and research. Who knows, maybe the AFA will learn something from this debacle.