Is BOM melting down?

[Pat B]

When Don started BOM it was more of a showcase for presenting your bow to the other members and not necessarily a competition. It has become more of a competition over the last few years and it seems that fewer folks are participating. Whether that be the reason or just a coincidence I don't know. I submit bows I've completed not to try to win BOM but to contribute to PA. I've won BOM 3 times over the years I've been on PA but I don't submit bows to BOM to win it.
 BOM has been a pretty good draw for this message board and for subscriptions. It has also brought many folks into our bow building community. To me, the last being the most important. Winning a hat is nice but how many hats do any of us actually need. Being published in the magazine and on the PA message board should be plenty of a reward for doing what we love to do.

[Dvshunter]

I truely hope thst bom continues. I have never won and am often discouraged, but it inky inspires  me to try and build better. That is the reason that i hope those of you that have won will continue to post you bows and enter them in the contest. A win without the best entered is not truely a bow of the ,onth, just a best bow that was entered. Dont lower the bar for the sake of others. Our society  already does t b st enough.

[Knoll]

Dont lower the bar for the sake of others.

Once in a while we agree.   

[Onebowonder]

Read this and went out and bought a new subscription.  Let mine lapse years ago because of a fight with trying to get issues that were never mailed to me or somehow 'LOST' in the mail.  I've held out long enough and have been on-the-fense about re-upping my subscription for a long time.  I know I missed some things I'd have liked to have had.  Heck, they may screw me over again, but I guess they deserve another try...

OneBow

BTW - ...though I have NO expectation of building anything that ever could win, I'll even get an entry into the BOM well photographed and entered this year.

[Marc St Louis]

If you have problems getting your subscription then the e-mag is an option, those never get lost in the mail. 

It is a fact that the mag has gone to subscription only so those that were getting it off a newsstand will no longer be able to

[JW_Halverson]

If you have problems getting your subscription then the e-mag is an option, those never get lost in the mail. 

It is a fact that the mag has gone to subscription only so those that were getting it off a newsstand will no longer be able to

Didn't they just get a new distribution contract with a large expansion into WalMart and several other national chains?  Dropping over the counter distribution sounds like a risky option, like giving up on finding new consumers. Hope they have a better grasp of the situation than I do, but it's their business and not mine.

[Marc St Louis]

If you have problems getting your subscription then the e-mag is an option, those never get lost in the mail. 

It is a fact that the mag has gone to subscription only so those that were getting it off a newsstand will no longer be able to

Didn't they just get a new distribution contract with a large expansion into WalMart and several other national chains?  Dropping over the counter distribution sounds like a risky option, like giving up on finding new consumers. Hope they have a better grasp of the situation than I do, but it's their business and not mine.

News to me.  Last I heard over the counter was history.  Apparently there is very little money in it. 

This is part of a reply from Customer Service to someone who was trying to register an account a week ago, I was asked to help

We pulled out of the newsstands in November with our Dec/Jan issue and have gone to subscription only

[loefflerchuck]

To keep it very simple, back when all bows submitted to PA site were entered in the contest it was more fun. 60 instead of 4 made it seem like more of a event.

[Dragoness]

I'm one of the newbies who ain't ever posted a bow yet but enjoy watching a lot!
it's sure hard for most to compete against the beauties that some of you "elephants" keep coming, but i think that if people like you simson, stop entering their work, that won't get the BOM nowhere, just makes it less interesting.
every time i see the new top notch bows it inspires me a lot for my own work. even though i won't ever reach a state to create such masterpieces, it's not at all discouraging - it awakens the appetite for carving!

I agree with you Derrik. More competition, not less, is needed. And it's the up-building kind of competition that inspires people to get excited and improve their own work. I'm a newbie too, and haven't even scratched the surface yet, but seeing what can be done with time and dedication is very motivational.

Here are my thoughts on the situation:
-Participation in BOM is going to fuel interest, which will then fuel more participation. We need the dedicated regulars to make that happen.
-Another important factor is going to be consistancy. I run an online business, and I have learned that for people to remember you, you have to stay fresh in their mind and keep their attention. That means posting like clockwork. Pretty soon people find themselves checking their inbox or social media on a certain day for your latest news. Maintain a presence.
-As far as contestants go, I think it would be wise to allow all. Limiting the contest to subscribers is doing nothing but limiting the scope and reach of the BOM contest. By including more contestants, and possibly offering a subscription to new winners, you will increase interest in the magazine, and therefore increase subscriptions. Boom.

[bjrogg]

Hi guys I'm new to site and new subscriber. I didn't reply to this post before because I didn't think I really had a right to and maybe I still don't but this is how I feel about bom.
 For the time I have visited this site I really enjoyed it. It has good set up and really great people I like the rules I think it keeps the forum from becoming one of those reality TV shows were every body just fights and argues and you don't even know what show is about anymore. I also think it keeps "my kind of people" on it. Maybe that isn't all inclusive but I think still lot of variety and I like my kind of people.
 I subscribed not to be able to enter bom but to be able to view bom!! I will probably try to enter some of my stuff not really expecting to win but I do feel even as a newbie I might have some ideas to show that others hadn't thought of. I really don't want bom to go away or the great ones to quit posting I want and love to see lots of really great works of shooting art!! I don't know if rules should allow non subscribers to enter but I doubt it would decrease subscribers. I do think it would increase enteries to bom. I also personally have I very hard time posting pictures to site. I admit I'm not very good on computer but I have lots of pictures I'd love to share and I'm not sure if I can even figure out how to post pictures to bom. I Thank You all for this site, post, and magazine I sure hope none of it goes away.
Brian
 

[tattoo dave]

Well I guess I'll throw in my 2 cents. First I'll say I haven't read every single post, so sorry if this has already been discussed. But may I point out the other "elephant" in the room. I've read a couple post basically stating they didn't feel good enough or felt as though they didn't have enough experience to submit a bow. This sounds a lot like the recent discussion of the PA bow trade mess. Meaning there has been in the past few years a fair amount of discouragement to new bow makers in both the trade and the BOM. When I started on this forum, nobody seemed to care if you made 100 bows or 1, you could submit to BOM.

So, I guess I feel about BOM the same as I do about the bow trade. Let's encourage everyone to join in. It's been said already, the more entries the better! Let's get back to an attitude of the more experienced helping the less experienced and simply enjoying one of our favorite past times together. The reason I have always loved this forum is that it does feel like family. Time to rally the troops and get everybody playing ball together again.

There...I'm done. Maybe there was more than 2 cents.

Tattoo dave

[make-n-break]

Del made a comment on the first page that resonates with me. I haven't read all the comments either so sorry if it's been beat to death. Limiting the contest to subscribers is counter productive to the magazine. There are so many good bowyers, so many good bows, so many people that want to enter but don't want to be obligated to subscribe. I think it would benefit the magazine and forum ten-fold to have a new bow style from a new bowyer and a new story/method every month.

As far as the competitive/difficult odds part, as in very experience bowyers vs new bowyers, I don't think that should matter or spark discouragement at all. Maybe it's just my personality type, but I don't get embarrassed or ashamed whatsoever. If my work is not winning material, oh well!! Gives me encouragement to try again. If another bowyer wins, I'd just want to admire and compliment their work. Not a moment of sleep lost. 

I am exclusicely dedicated to this site. I don't use any other archery or primitive sites. I try to contribute as much as I can by actively posting bows, jigs, arrows, trades, comments, and compliments... But with that said, I don't want to feel obligated to subscribe to the magazine to enter BOM even though I'd love to participate.

I don't think the vises comments apply to everyone. I'm extremely disciplined with my "vises" and live my life on a very calculated budget so I can retire young and happy. No beer other than special occasions, no smokes, no internet in my home (other than phone), no magazines, no mainstream TV. I account for every penny spent, not out of starvation, but as a business owner, entrepreneur, and hopefully-young-retiree. What small amount I do allow for "fun money" is spent keeping my hobby alive. I'd rather watch from afar.

[Drewster]

I'm new to this whole bow building business too......three years experience building self bows and a couple of years on this forum.  It has been a valuable resource for knowledge and camaraderie within the bowyer community.  I have enjoyed and learned much from the BOM competitions.

But, my last entry for BOM was evidently lost in cyber space.  I never heard from anyone or saw it listed in the monthly contests.  Guess I should have followed up on it but it did kinda indicate that someone in the process must have dropped the ball.  Perhaps there are problems behind the scenes that I'm not privy to but I would hate to see the BOM program dropped.  And I would hate to see those that often win to drop out.  Those bowyers win for a reason and their work is certainly an inspiration and set a worthy bar for which to attain.

Someone please keep this thing going and all of us pitch in to help make it happen with our support.

[steve b.]

I'm only commenting because I was asked to.  Actually, I'm not sure what the question is, so I'll cover what I think is obvious.

1.  The magazine thing is not an issue for me.  I'd order the magazine regardless of BOM but when I've seen it on the news rack it looks a little skimpy for the price.

2.  I love looking at any kind of handmade, custom work, whether wood, metal, or whatever and I appreciate what some guys put into their primitive bows.  But its not my thing to dress them up, especially for a contest.  Its a little like lipstick on a pig to me.  I just want a bow that hunts, that is as plain and simple as possible.  It never occurred to me to enter BOM and I've never voted for one.  Still, I have nothing against it other than I'd like to see the whole movement lean toward hunting with primitive bows and away from the bows themselves, especially when it promotes non-trophy hunting.

3.  Frankly, the other issue brought up about the hats, the timing of the contest, the possible biases, etc.  are also issues with me to one degree or another and would be the straw that pushed me out, if I were on the fence.

[mstrick96]

Here's my two cents. 

In my case, I love to see the bows that win, but don't enter because my bows don't have a chance since I still consider myself to be a beginner.  The bows in the contest looks to me like they are in the professional category.

As far as voting, we are all busy with lots of things going on.  I wouldn't quite call it "apathy", more like "distraction". 

One suggestion.....  Perhaps there could be categories based on experience.  Novice, intermediate, advanced and professional?    Maybe based on number of bows built?  Once a bowyer wins a number of times in a category, they would be automatically advanced to the next category?  Maybe 5 wins? 

This way, the categories would serve two purposes...  Give more bowyers an opportunity to win the BOM and also provide a peer reviewed way for bowyers to advance through the the ranks.

As far as needing to needing to be a subscriber to enter the BOM, I really don't think that is an unreasonable requirement.  Producing a magazine is costly and subscribers are needed to offset the costs.  On the other hand, though, would allowing more bowyers to enter the contest help to increase the number of subscribers?   I think it might.

Are more volunteers needed to help with the workload of PA and the magazine?  Maybe having additional volunteers would provide the workforce to try out some new ideas?

Just a few random thoughts.....