Swaps - Again

At the request of a 'swap administrator', I am posting this here:

I am speaking only for myself although I think my opinion is shared: If anyone thinks he or she may not be able to adhere to the general rules and time frames set for a swap, maybe they should not sign on. If, however, that person does sign on, he or she should at least communicate any delay or inability to fulfill the commitment with the swapmeister as soon as that inability is known.
Participating and having to tye flies for a swap is enjoyable and almost always rewarding. It is not a penalty. Generally swaps offer more than enough time, from sign-on to completion date, to get the flies to the swapmeister. Yes, sometimes life gets in the way and swaps take a back seat. However, late mailings or dropping out at the last minute is simply a matter of forgetfulness and not caring about the other participants.
I think almost all swappers will understand this post but some may find it objectionable and just maybe that's why swaps appear to be going the way of the dodo bird.

Just my humble opinion.

Allan

Back in the winter of 06/07 I was in 15 different swaps and wouldn't you know it, I forgot about 1! Shame on me and the swapmeister was very forgiving. Later I had to back out of a swap because of a back problem and could not sit for any length of time, the swapmeister had everyone tie a fly for me anyway!
The last fly swap I was in was a 2 material swap (Allan, your fly is in the center of the shadow box I made for them!) and it was a total SNAFU!! Tiers were let in after the sign up dead line, someone wanted to change the rules and the deadline was moved because people were late.
Right about that time there was a Material Swap box that went missing and a second box that took threats to get moving!!
Maybe this winter I'll host a 1 material swap. It'll be strictly by the rules, now hanky panky, but you've got plenty of time to think about it.

That also applies to the Swapmeister.

My son and I began tying flies about this time last year. So we are both beginning tiers. Earlier this year we had the opportunity to join in on a swap from another Board with the intent of not so much "contributing" to the swap, but we (myself in particular) saw it as a way to get our tying critiqued. So we volunteered to participate as long as they understood what they were likely to be getting from us. To which we were heartily welcomed and encouraged to participate. In the end this swapmeister organized a number of swaps on a couple of different Boards, and I participated in three of them, while my son only did one. We tied at least a dozen flies for each swap, and sent them in way before any of the deadlines. That was months ago, and we still have not received any flies back, had any critique of our tying provided to us, nor even had any word from the swapmeister.

In fairness to him, he had some real health issues come up, and for all I know he's back in the hospital or worse. So please recognize that I'm not bringing this experience up to "point fingers", as I harbor no ill will towards him. A couple dozen flies don't mean a thing when you consider someones welfare.

But I think this experience clearly illustrates that there is responsibility on both sides of the equation. And despite the validity of the reason, our experience has made me wary, and caused my son to have absolutely no interest in participating in another swap.

Which validates in some way your comments Allan. One bad experience, regardless of who is to "blame" can sour someone from ever participating again. And without participants, there is no swap.

---David

I love swaps. Had a break from fishing for a fair while and when I came back I came in full-on and found I needed to really up my game so joined swaps on various forums and my tying has improved in leaps and bounds. I may be an old codger, but I,m always willing to learn and I,m learning lots from swaps so I,m definitely For one!

Hi Guys,

Let me say again, there ARE TIMES when a person's life gets in the way of his/her participation in a 'swap' he or she has commited to. All of us (general statement) can empathize with that. Is it not too much to ask that that person COMMUNICATE to let the other swappers know that he/she will not be able to complete the swap because of a problem (no details are necessary)? Sure, it happens and I for one, if notified 5, 10, 15 or so days in to the swap have no problem. I do have a problem when, right near or on the due date, a swapper posts that he/she has had a problem for the last 4 weeks and could not tye the flies. Now that swapper has not had a problem posting about everything else but posting information about not fulfilling his swap commitment was not possible?

I think those of you who've been in a few swaps and received such information know what I'm talking about. Well, don't be discouraged. I think there are enough tyers looking for quality swaps they can participate in with tyers who feel as responsible as they are. They'll appear and the better the participation and the more successful they are, they will become more frequent again. At least I hope so.

Allan