Reading Bob,

I'm a little nostalgic about the HSN.

Why on this list there is rarely t "Wow there is a new Cone..." what
do you think about ?

Hey, this guy goes there to collect, what's he is going to bring us ?

What about this shell ? And what about this one ?

Seems this list is about the problems of collecting,

no longer the shells, the discoveries, the excitement...

Guido













On 27 Dec 2005, at 07:14, Bob Dayle wrote:

> The 'demise of shell clubs' thread has been very informative.
> Several postings
> have suggested that they knew the causes, although this problem is
> hardly a
> one-size-fits-all situation. Although I have been associated with
> only two
> shell clubs in the past twenty years, their situations could hardly
> be more
> divergent.
>
> The rise and decline of the Hawaiian Malacological Society is
> fairly well
> documented within the pages of its Hawaiian Shell News,
> particularly if one can
> read between the lines. Their protracted zenith followed World War
> II by about
> the period of time it took for many of the core members to retire
> from the U.S.
> military. From my personal experiences with some of its key
> 'players,' dating
> from the early '70s to the early '90s, it seems that there were
> several 'camps'
> within the HMS fold: the 'collectors,' who sought out all manner of
> new shells
> and the associated experiences, the 'neo-conservators,' who felt
> that the
> former group was harming the shells' home (until Hurricane Iwa
> showed EVERYBODY
> what harm really was), the 'socialites,' who naturally sought out
> group efforts
> as a means of expressing themselves, and the shell sellers &
> dealers, who
> $ought $ocial $tatu$ for their $helling experti$e. The 'camps' were
> not
> distinct entities; many could claim loyalty to two groups, and some
> seemed to
> have connections to all. But, as mentioned above, much of this is
> to be found
> within the pages of the printed editions of the HSN.
>
> The noteworthy point of the HMS is that it sits in the midst of a
> motherlode of
> sea shells, yet it, too, has waned considerably from its heydays of
> the '60 and
> '70s, when it seemed to rain rare shells. In spite of their shell
> surplus and
> the 'new blood,' by way of the high military turnover of potential
> sheller-members, its worldwide membership dropped year after year.
> The previous
> CONCH-L posts did, indeed, name some of the causes: cliques, club
> 'customs,'
> enthroned pontificators of unsupported opinions-which-could-not-be-
> questioned,
> and precious few volunteers to consistently do the 'grunt work' of
> keeping a
> large club running AND producing a monthly, world-class newsletter.
> It took big
> egos and true dedication to make a large organization, which the
> HMS was at its
> peak, keep going year after year.
>
> At the other end of the scale, it seemed, was the Indianapolis
> Shell Club, of
> which I was the final vice-president. Its last real surge in
> membership
> occurred six or seven years ago,... when I joined. Its membership
> had already
> declined considerably due to attrition, member die-off (literally),
> loss of
> interest, far-flung residences and Indiana's sage decision to make
> ALL shell
> collecting within the state illegal (except fossils, of course,
> which are not
> REALLY shells, just mineral representations of... blah, blah,
> blah,...).
> Anyway, to summarize a long and insipid tale, old age, illnesses and
> inaccessibility to shells took their toll until, this winter, the
> last shreds
> of camaraderie fell apart and the Indy Shell Club was no more.
>
> My two cents...
>
> Bob Dayle
>
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