The Whole is greater than the sum of its parts…

Got thinking about my being a guest on the Relic Roundup the other night, and realized that I had a lot of notes, some scribbled, some neatly printed, that never got addressed. No fault of the program host for sure. Just the result of  only an hour show, call-ins, commercials and a glitch here and there.  There are, in my mind, so many issues that need to be addressed, discussed, and dealt with, and I wonder if they ever will be….

For whatever reason our hobby is always in a state of flux.  Always a fuzzy picture of who we are collectively, and seemingly a group of people who endorse the “every man for himself” theory. We seem to find ways to shoot ourselves in the foot when it matters most, and then move on, waiting for the next opportunity to do it again.  Our apparent main objective?  Outdoing the competition, and stopping at nothing to accomplish that, never mind the public’s view of how we go about it.

While I have no idea of how many of us there are in the country, I do think we are a large enough group to affect changes when needed IF we had some functional, professional group to represent us, and IF we weren’t a group of selfish, penny-pinching individuals. If you take offense at being called cheap, sorry.  It’s true. You will spend your hard-earned cash to purchase a top of the line detector, a digging tool, a sand scoop, or a camera to wear on your head, but if asked  to contribute $50 a year to promote, protect and preserve your pastime, you  turn a deaf ear..

Spend some time on the many hobby related websites and forums. Take note of which topics garner the most responses. Very few, if any, deal with areas being closed to detecting, or similar efforts that threaten the future of our pastime. I know it’s not a fun thing to “chat” about, but that’s where a national organization would come in. Right now we “supposedly” have the FMDAC, the  TASK FORCE, WWATS, and hell, let’s throw in the PLP, and the GPA.

Maybe it’s time for all of them to sit down, join forces under a single banner, and speak as one…..

Right now we seem to be more concerned with tomorrow’s hunt, tomorrow’s finds, and tomorrow’s new product, unaware that the other side is actively  working hard to put all of us out of business. Will we make the necessary changes, or will just be a group of people who metal detect, and who only care about what WE find, not what our fellow detectorists are facing or fighting.

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MORE ON THE WWATS EVENT

Received the following update on the forthcoming WWATS event from Keith Wills and wanted to share it here. This just might be a good  time for the various organizations to meet and come together? Just a thought….

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THANKS TO BOB SICKLER

I must apologize for not acknowledging Bob Sickler and his artwork (the banner on this blog).  A lot of you asked about it, and how I came up with it. Bottom line? I didn’t. My old friend  Bob simply did it for me because he wanted to, and I want to thank him here for doing so.

Bob has worked for many of the metal detector manufacturers over  the years, doing graphics, catalogs, logo’s etc., and his book “The Detectorist” is without a doubt one of the best metal detecting books on the market.

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CLOSING THOUGHTS…

I check out my Warsaw pal’s blog from time to time, and it’s sad to see someone so consumed with hatred toward those of us who metal detect.  Mr. Barford let me suggest reading Charles Dickens “A Christmas Carol” and

Merry Christmas from all us tekkies!

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