Beginners...Join your states association!

[adamstaxidermy]

Friendly advice to all beginners……Join your State Taxidermy Association and attend their annual convention, even if you don't intend to compete. Joining your State Taxidermy Association and attending the conventions will help you to improve your skills much more quickly than trying to learn all on your own. I waited about 7 years to Join my state association because I felt that I wasn't “good enough” yet, and wouldn't fit in. Nothing could have been farther from the truth.
Not only will you be able to attend the informative seminars at the conventions, but if you make an ounce of effort, you will make many great friends that are in the same business, most willing to help fellow members with tips and answers to questions. Getting to know suppliers and other members helps create your own professional network of people that can help you in many different aspects of your business, not only from a Skill's standpoint. Joining your state association is the best money you can spend to invest in your future as a taxidermist, either as a business or a hobby.

[silverman]

How does a person get ahold of them? I live in upstate N.Y..

[adamstaxidermy]

At the top of this page, click on "Associations" and it should give you a listing of all state associations. The Ney York Convention is April 12~15th. There is contact information listed.

[silverman]

 Thanks for the info !

[gary04]

I just join last week looking forward to going to the conventions I have them all make down on my calendar for the ones that are close enough for me to drive to.  This is a great site with alot of great help and information.  Thanks

[George Roof]

I know I'm risking the rath of some of you and I'd be the very last person to discourage ANYONE from joining their state or local association.  It can be an invaluble tool and the friendships you form can be lifelong.

HOWEVER, beginners need to understand that associations are not the fast lane to learning the basics of taxidermy. Conventions have increasingly become a method of alienating those who DON'T compete.  Even here, I see routine admonishments for people to "enter a competition".  That's akin to sending a kid from a commune to Parris Island for Marine Corps boot camp.  The shock, IF YOU SURVIVE, will mold you forever.  But some of you get offended just by comments I and Mr. T. make. How do you think you're going to take someone telling you that the piece you just completed that your husband/wife/mother/sister/aunt told you was perfect in every way gets hammered?  Cally Morris once remarked at a seminar at the Nationals that he could tell instantly when the doors opened at the competition room by the groans and wailing would hear.

So BEFORE you "join" anything, you owe yourself the responsibility to know the terminology and to know the very basics of what you're doing. No one wants someone snickering about your work on public view. Competition may help your advertising and will certainly improve your technique,but it won't make you a nickel. The time required for a "competition piece" would break you if you did it to every piece and you wouldn't have any customers to deal with.

So,by all means, join your state and local associations,but be mindful that they cannot teach you talent and you should be educated enough to firmly understand things you're being told.

[silverman]

Very well said George.I would just like to see what happens at these and catch a few seminars and see some of the wonderful work several of you do.It looks like fun !!

[adamstaxidermy]

I attended our state convention three years before entering my first competition. Although I learned more from competing than from just attending, meeting people and forming friendships with others in the business has been well worth the price of the membership. When I did compete, I was extremely realistic about my expectations. The white ribbons that I received are in a closet, never to be seen again. However, the critiques are in the shop and I read them regularly. Although some of the items listed would be difficult to implement into my customer mounts at an economical price, Other items that I learned, I can apply with no additional time or effort, just to spend the same amount of time, but the right way. These are things like ear position, eyelid shape, Nose Color , etc. If you compete, be realistic and remember that it is much easier to impress a customer than it is to impress another taxidermist. If you don't compete, be a sponge, and suck up all the other positive things there are to gain during the time spent at the convention

[silverman]

Thanks alot for the info and the encouragement !!

[ARBowhunter]

i just started taxidermy about 4 months ago, completed 4 mounts, and just joined my state association. out convention is in february and I am entering my latest mount. I can't wait to meet new folks and sit in on the seminars. anything to help me improve is well worth the price. i am excited and extremly nervous to have my work judged, but im going into this for the learning experience rather than winning ribbons.

[mr.T aka mr. friendly]

The associations are for beginners as well, not only just for pro's.

[George Roof]

I never meant to imply any differently Paul, but this ain't my first rodeo. Beginners need to hear what to expect. I'm an extrovert and can't keep my mouth shut. I refused to be a wallflower at my first convention. Yet I KNOW how little coffee klatches form and how a beginner can be made to feel alone -even when its unintended. At every convention I worked I made a conscious effort to drag the new people into the mix. I hope all the associations do that but by telling the new guy to recognize this as human nature helps. That way THEY can play an aggressive role in insuring their first experience is a good one. (And you show veterans spread out and help them- ESPECIALLY in the barroom.)

[adamstaxidermy]

I was pretty intimidated at my first convention. I didn't know a single person in the building, and really had no idea what to expect, or how everything worked. I would suggest to all state associations (and have suggsted to my own state association) that special badges or special "New Member" meetings be held at your state conventions to welcome the new members. As members of your respective boards or associations, make a concious effort to recognize and welcome all new members. Make sure they feel welcome. It will benifit the association by being able to help retain new members, and it will benifit the new member by helping them get the most out of the convention.

[mr.T aka mr. friendly]

I didn't intend to go against your post George, don't take it that way, I am only saying, beginners shy away from conventions "thinking" that they are not good enough, the associations are there for them! Not just for the pro's. It is food that they can eat, if they only come and grab it! they just have to be brave, it isn't as scary as they "think" it is, it is a gold mine if they only get on their horse, ride out West, and bring a shovel and start digging, join in, go out on a limb, nothing ventured, nothing gained, they have to take the first step, they have to horn in, they have to want it. Being shy and setting at home gets us no where.

[adamstaxidermy]

Very well stated Mr. T. I was the bad example of that for my first seven years.