[photo-3d] Promoting stereo through local efforts....

["Dr. George A. Themelis" <drt-3d@xxxxxxx>]

Even in this age of the Internet, I think local
stereo clubs are very important for stereo and the
participation is very rewarding... There is a great
feeling in meeting people person to person, exchanging
ideas, stereo images, looking at stereo equipment,
the interaction... a mini NSA convention taking place
every month.  It is fantastic!

It seems to me that we have two models of local stereo
organizations:

1) Traditional stereo clubs with well-defined membership
and officers, meeting once a month, during the week, for
2 hours or so, publish a newsletter, hold stereo image
competitions.

2) Non-traditional "clubs" with no or loose membership 
requirements, no officers but a small group of volunteers,
meet 4 times a year, during the weekend, usually for more
than 2 hours, do not publish a newsletter but perhaps mail
meeting notices, do not hold stereo image competitions.

Which model will work "better" for a given location is
an open question for me.  Also the definition of "better"
is in question too.  Perhaps no. 2 is better for the
"general public" or people with no strong interest in
stereo, while no. 1 could be better with more active 
stereo photographers.

"New England" is blessed to have some very well-known
and active stereo members... like Paul Wing, Jon Golden,
Ron Labbe and many others.  This might partially explain
the success they have in terms of attendance.  Compare
this with Cleveland... Other than DrT :) one could be
hard pressed to think of a stereo photographer in this
area.  We started in 1997 with a mass mailing, based
on a database of names and addresses generously provided
to us by Reel 3-D.  The people who attended our first
meeting, formed the core of the club.  Through the
years we have lost a few members and gained a few more
but membership and attendance is fairly steady.  We
are now making an effort to reach more people because
we suspect that there are more stereo enthusiasts in
our area who have not heard of our club.  We are now
trying to put announcements in newspapers and other
publications before each meetings.

So, if Cleveland did it, most other large cities
could do it too... Cities like Pittsburgh, Columbus OH,
Minneapolis/St. Paul (I know there is some activity
in Mpls through NSA regional meetings but I believe
this region could easily support monthly stereo 
meetings as I know dozens of stereo photographers 
there...)

Jon asked for ideas to promote these local activities.

First, it is up to local stereo clubs to actively
promote themselves locally, through ads in papers, etc.

Second, we should encourage more places to start
local clubs, like Pittsburgh, Minneapolis, etc.

Third, we should maintain a web page with the listing
of all stereo organizations.  I know that Alex Klein
started this in www.stereoscopy.com but I don't know
how successful this effort has been.  The information
there gets easily outdated and I have seen no attempt
to advertise it.  People often write to me to ask about
a stereo club in their area.  We need an updated listing
somewhere in the internet.  It would be nice to have
someone in charge of forming and maintaining such listing.
Once this listing is up and running, we can put a link
to it in our stereo web pages.

Paul Talbot's Find a 3D photo friend is a good idea
but I think we need something more open and somehow
organized.  There might be several stereo enthusiasts
in one location but all we need is the name of the
most active person  In every major city/area in the 
USA for example we can assign one contact.  For example, 
Pittsburgh -> Mark Dottle.  This should be in a plain list
where everybody can access.

The Reel 3-D catalog continues to be one of the most
important stereo publications. Through this catalog
and with direct referrals from David and Susan, a good
number of people contact me every year.  Just the other
day I got a call from a local person asking for stereo
camera repairs.  Perhaps Reel 3-D can include a listing
of local stereo organizations/contacts with the name and 
phone call of a person to contact per location.

George Themelis


 

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