Re: monthly Colorado Tesla Coilers & HV meets (fwd)

[Steven Roys <sroys@xxxxxxxx>]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2004 13:52:05 -0800
From: Richard Hull <rhull@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: High Voltage list <hvlist@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: monthly Colorado Tesla Coilers & HV meets (fwd)

Meetings are a great idea!  We have been holding them regularly here since
about 1985.  They occur more or less monthly as scheduling permits.  Our
meeting last about 6 hours, but some join myself and Tim Raney for breakfast
and the meeting for them might go 10 hours.  Our official meeting time is
always 12 noon on a Sunday sometime during the month.  Breakfast is at a
local restaurant from 9-10am.  We adjorn to my lab for setup and informal
chats.  At noon, the demos and micro fleamarket begins based on what has
been brought, if anyhting, for sale.

We were distantly started in 1980 by three people as the Robot Builders of
Richmond.  We morphed to the Tesla coil builders of Richmond (TCBOR) by 1988
with about 7 members.  This grew to about 18 members in 1994.  The activity
included just about anything that zapped, sputtered or popped.
Electrostatics, Tesla coils, repulsion coils, etc.

I coined the word Teslathon back in 1989 and we have held one every year
since then where up to 60 people gather from around the country to share all
manner of scientific weirdness.

Our Report and Educational videotapes began in late 1989 and countinued to
2000 as the Tesla coil Builders of Richomond.

We morphed again as we expanded into the area of anything high energy,
physics and chemistry related.  The current name of our group is HEAS or
High Energy Amateur Science.  Lasers, optics,  nuclear projects, Tesla
coils, Van Degraffs, repulsion coils, water arc projectors, insturmentation,
insteresting chemical processes, element collecting, rock collecting etc are
now all legitimate topics for show and tells here.  Almost all the projects
are high voltage related, still.

In this fashion we now have a large following of over 25 people.  Most only
make 2-3 meetings a year, as they live up to 200 miles away, but that hard
core of 10-12 people remain that show up at virtually every meeting.  One
regular attendee TR Leary, drives every month the 120 miles from VA Beach.

You will find in a group that there are the "spark plugs"......These are the
folks who started and maintain the groups continuity.  They will be there as
long as there are meetings.  This is, PROVIDED the following rules are
followed:

1. Never get political
2. Never have officers
3. Never collect dues
4. Always allow the flow of the meeting to go with the most voiciferous and
productive members.

Number one is the reason almost all groups fail.  Number two is another
source of strife over the management of things. Number three opens the door
for money issues which is never a good thing.  Number 4 is the way of the
world.  The biggest mouth provided it is backed by action and a resolute
nature arises and bonds the group with continuous action and vigor.  Without
this, the group is a prune-whip society doomed by its own lack of momentum.
The "Spark Plugs" arise and the wall flowers, if they are of the right
stuff, will ascert themselves in time.  It is important to identify and
nuture the wall flowers for hidden energies may lie just below the surface.

The titular head of the group is inevitably the guy whose house is used the
most for meetings.  He is almost always the founder of the group.  This
doesn't me he is the defacto commander and best guy there.  The group will
recognize its own MC through deed and activity.  It is just that the
originator is usually this guy.  Again, he may not be the best guy there, he
may not be the most prolific or scientifically active, he may not even be
the smartest, but he has the drive to push and inspire the group and most in
the group recognize this and yield to it.

I have seen it all in the 20 years of monthly meetings and the best flow is
the NATURAL FLOW and this will arise naturally and be catered to if quickly
recognized by the MC or the group will fade out.

I would recommend that any on this list find at least one other guy in the
place they live and get together regularly to push the envelope as a team.
It will stimulate and enrich your scientific and social life.

Note:  It was only in 2001 that we dropped the name Teslathon for a our
yearly bash.  It is now "The High Eenrgy Amateur Science Conference".
Sounds high falootin', but is the same old Teslathon that is always was.
Good folks, good science, good fleamarket, and a great social event.

Richard Hull


----- Original Message -----
From: "High Voltage list" <hvlist@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <hvlist@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, January 25, 2004 7:06 PM
Subject: monthly Colorado Tesla Coilers & HV meets (fwd)


> Original poster: Steven Roys <sroys@xxxxxxxx>
>
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Sun, 25 Jan 2004 10:22:25 -0700
> From: Gomez <gomez@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: Colorado Tesla Coilers <gnats@xxxxxxxxxx>,
>      High Voltage list <hvlist@xxxxxxxxxx>,
>      the _new_ DMSC list <dmsc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: monthly Colorado Tesla Coilers & HV meets
>
>   OK, it's official: as of February, the monthly Tesla Coil and high
> voltage parties at my place will be on the _second_ Sunday of each
> month.
>
>   This month, we'll have the meeting at the usual date, time, place
> which, um, I just realized is TODAY.  5pm.  Yoiks, I'm still waking up.
>
>   Anyway, next meeting is in two weeks, on Sunday, February 8.
>
>   - B(G)L
>
> ...............................................
> Call me old-fashioned, but I want to read email
> with an email client, news with a newsreader,
> and browse with a browser.  A Swiss army knife
> is no substitute for a toolbox.
>
>