[aprssig] APRS at Dayton

[John Ackermann N8UR]

I live in Dayton, but I'm not actively involved in DARA (Hamvention's
sponsor), so I don't have much firsthand knowledge...

In the last two years there's been a dramatic shift in how Hamvention
operates.  For a long time it had been run in a way that displaced
volunteer labor with paid staff.  That made things run well, but as I
understand it the show was actually losing money.  A new team came on
board last year and shifted back to much more of a volunteer-based
effort.  There have been some rough spots along the way, and not
everything is running like clockwork, but the show's finances have
started to come around, the hams in DARA have started feeling like a
part of the show again, and there's a level of enthusiasm that was not
there in the past several years.

I can't speak to the mail and web problems, but I'm forwarding your
email to a couple of folks who ought to hear your comments (given how
busy they are getting ready for the show, I'm hesitant to publish their
addresses and add to the flood).

73,
John
----

scott at opentrac.org said the following on 05/14/2006 08:19 PM:
>>I don't know what the plans are for this year; I know that the Dayton
>>Microcomputer Association is managing wired drops to booths (for a
>>fairly hefty fee), but I don't know if anyone is going to 
>>turn that into
>>Wi-Fi.
> 
> 
> How hefty?  How do I get in touch with them?  And how is anyone supposed to
> find out about it?
> 
> For such a large and well-established event, I'm really not impressed with
> the organization.  Mail to all of their email addresses was bouncing for
> days, it took weeks to get a booth assignment and when I did I only got
> assigned one booth when I'd paid for two, and roughly half of my inquiries
> (including all those about Internet access) have been completely ignored.
> The website is downright awful.  Considering that they must take in better
> than a million bucks a year in tickets, exhibit booths, and flea market
> spaces, you'd think they could afford to spend a couple grand on a decent
> website.
> 
> Scott
> N1VG