The FFF Buz Buszek award is presented annually to that person who has made significant contributions to the arts of fly tying. This list of past award winners is most impressive.
1970 Jacqueline Knight, 1971 A.I. Alexander, 1972 Dave Whitlock, 1973 George Grant, 1974 Ken Bay, 1975 E.H. “Polly” Rosborough, 1976 John Schollenberger, 1977 Andre Puyans, 1978 George Harvey, 1979 Everett Drake, 1980 Boyd Aigner, 1981 Doug Prince, 1982 Darwin Atkin, 1983 Art Flick, 1984 Frank Johnson, 1985 Bill Blackstone, 1986 Billy Munn, 1987 Dick Nelson, 1988 Bing Lempke, 1989 Jimmy Nix, 1990 Kent Bulfinch, 1991 Wayne Luallen, 1992 Stanley Walters, 1993 Chuck Echer, 1994 Royce Dam, 1995 Marvin Nolte, 1996 Ned Long, 1997 Judy Lehmberg, 1998 Jeff" Bear" Andrews, 1999 Al Beatty, 2000 Bob Jacklin, 2001 Bruce Staples, 2002 Helen Shaw Kessler, 2003 Bill Heckel, 2004 Chris Helm
If you could, whom would you nominate for the 2005 award?
I agree completely. That’s why I am asking the question of this worldwide forum. If nothing else, it helps identify the large number of great tyers across the globe.
If I had a vote, I would nominate Hans Weilenmann. How about them apples!
Here is the criteria direct from the FFF website:
BUZ BUSZEK MEMORIAL AWARD - An award plaque presented annually to that person who has made significant contributions to the arts of fly tying.
A. Must be an FFF member.
B. Can be an amateur or professional. (This is a difficult area. What an amateur does out of sheer love and enjoyment, a professional must do to make a living. Nevertheless, it is often the professional who, through their skills, offers more to the advancement of the art. Therefore, it will be necessary to make some judgment on intent. Obviously, if the primary intent is to teach and share knowledge, it should merit serious consideration.)
C. Areas for judgment are: tying skill, creativity or innovation, and sharing knowledge by teaching or publication.
D. Advancement of the arts need not be on a national scale, it can be at local or regional levels.
E. Participation in the FFF is not a prerequisite, but any such activity as benefits the Federation should be highly regarded.
F. Achievements and contributions should promote the advancement of the arts and qualification should be superior to other candidates.
Since it is an FFF Award, it only seems natural that they would restrict it to an FFF member.
I think I’d nominate Al Campbell. He has taught tying likely to more tyers around the world than almost anyone. His lessons have been in hard copy magazines and here at FAOL. He has always been helpful to young & old regardless of their skill level and has promoted the craft wherever he has gone.
I must admit to being caught off guard by the FFF bashing? What’s behind the angst? While I don’t know him, Mr. Campbell sounds like a very nice fellow. Has he requested that FAOL administrators publically aire his ethics disagreement with FFF? Since Mr. Castwell has clearly stated that FAOL is too small to manage an award like the Buz Buszek, why knock the FFF for establishing quidelines for the numerous awards they can (and do) manage? I am a FFF member, am I not welcome on FAOL?
I will be the first to say that the FFF organisation has way too many annual ‘awards’, and that political motivations steer many of the decisions who ends up winning an award. Most of the process, and the outcomes, passes me by.
Having said that, I rate the Buszek award highly as this is a very much peer driven nomination process. Tiers nominate a tier.
While I sometimes question the restriction to selecting only a member who holds a current FFF membership, this does not diminish that each of the past recipients who I know personally, or have known personally, (25 out of the 35 individuals) were IMNSHO deserving winners.
Al would be an excellent winner of the 2005 award, I think we all know that, hence my seconding of Ronn’s original post. That this will not come to pass based on the rules in place takes nothing away from that fact, or the imense respect I have for Al the person, and Al the teacher.
If the criteria for the Buzek award mean anything, and I quote “C. Areas for judgment are: tying skill, creativity or innovation, and sharing knowledge by teaching or publication”, then Hans should have won it by now. While the past award winners are certainly a great pantheon of tiers, they’ve got nothing on Hans when it comes to sharing knowledge by teaching or publication. I might have to join this deal just to nominate Hans. Anyone can write a book, but Hans helps everyone on several sites day in, day out, and asks little in return. Al Campbell in another one, but if he’s on the outs with the FFF, that’s probably the way he wants it.
Eric
I am new to FFF and have yet to encounter the “elitism” you’ve mentioned ? and hope I never do.
I am not familiar with the certification program and the impact it has had on guides? fees. I?ve only used a guide one time, last summer (my first trip to Yellowstone). While the guide was expensive (I don?t know if he was certified or not), it was a very good experience. Unfortunately, my small bag of shells limits opportunities in this area.
I find this sport of ours filled with unique and often conflicting viewpoints. I guess its all part of the diversity of life. For most of the 30-years I?ve been fly fishing and tying, I?ve had to listen to bait and spin fishers argue that fly fishing is an elitist sport. I?ve also come across many fly tiers that believe that dressing Atlantic salmon flies is an elitist pursuit within the tying fraternity. FFF and TU have their differences. Some like belonging to organizations and some don?t.
Please understand that I don?t intend to use FAOL to promote FFF one way or another. I joined their ranks because I liked the local chapter and have enjoyed being mentored by several Buz Buszek Award winners. The one thing I will aggressively defend is the right of any organization to establish its own rules. I will also defend the rights of organization members to seek change from within. However, I?ve never understood why folks that (not members of a particular organization) feel so compelled to seek change from without. Mr. Castwell, if you are an FFF member seeking to rally change from within, I applaud your efforts and would like more information so I can factor it into my own opinions. If you are not an FFF member, what?s the point?
I apologize if starting this thread has struck a nerve with those not pleased with FFF. My intent was to get the names of deserving tiers listed as potential Buz Buszek Award recipients. Maybe it would have been better if I eliminated the FFF references and simply asked for the names of tiers that exhibit the attributes of the Buz Buszek Award (sans FFF membership).
Accordingly, I would also nominate Has Wielenmann. He has clearly established his tremendous tying skill, creativity, innovation, and willingness to share his knowledge by teaching and publication. I recently attended the East Idaho Fly Tying Expo and took a class with Mr. Wayne Luallen, a Bus Buszek Award winner. He spoke very highly of Hans and his contributions to fly tying. When I was searching for a new vise, Hans willing to respond to each of my emails with very helpful information and advice. I thought it was very cool to have someone of Hans? worldwide tying reputation communicate one-on-one with a hick from Arizona.
PS ? I would really appreciate hearing your opinions regarding how FFF could improve. As a new member, I am more than willing to work toward changes that will improve FFF and help make it more inclusive. Thanks.
I’m not going to rehash the whole long deal here again, but JC and I were FFF members,
very active, and we did try over a period of at least 2 years to change FFF from within.
When that not only failed, but got worse,
including threats against us, we resigned.
Got it now?
We both support the changes the new CEO is trying to make - FFF can be a significant player in bringing new people to fly fishing, educating kids and working to conserve the waters. We sincerely hope it happens.
How are Buzek award winners nominated? Is there a committee? And how are they voted on? I assume by the membership. I’m looking at the list and Poul Jorgensen is not on it. Not a member? If he was, the nominating committee needs to be retired.
Eric
The FFF website has all the nomination criteria. You can checkout the details there.
I will certainly agree with you (and others) that the list of previous winners, while impressive, does not include all the greats. Poul Jorgensen, Mike Martinek, Bill Hunter, etc…
I’m guessing that Poul Jorgensen was not a member of FFF, thus he didn’t qualify according to the criteria stated above. If he was a member and hasn’t won that award, that says it all.
