Hamvention Makes New Scooter-Only Policy
By K5PO, on the scene
DAYTON, Ohio – The dust from the Dayton Hamvention has settled, but the work doesn’t stop for Dayton Area Amateur Radio Club (DAARC), the local club heavily involved in the organization of the Dayton Hamvention.
Each year after Hamvention, the DAARC group meets to discuss what worked and what didn’t in the “Hamvention Correction of Errors” meeting. This year’s Hamvention was largely considered a great success with a record-breaking turnout and enthusiastic vendor and forum involvement.
One concern from this year’s event was the volume of electric scooters, or electric mobility devices. While scooters have been a staple of Hamvention for years, attendees noted that the number of scooters has continued to grow and has caused some logistical concerns for the world’s largest hamfest.
In one noted event, Hamvention attendee Robert Milman had a four inch chunk of flesh on his leg ripped off when an errant scooter ran him over. Milman said that after the “last call” was given at the cheesecake-on-a-stick stand in the concessions area, scooter user Keyton Marbalm threw the scooter blindly into reverse at full throttle and ran straight up Milman’s leg. Milman said that the wound is “healing up nicely” and that the cheesecake-on-a-stick treat is simply “can’t miss.”
DAARC Hamvention Correction of Errors Deputy Officer Wayne “Piggy” Marx said that in response to this and other incidents that the Hamvention will move to a “Scooter Only Policy” starting next year. Marx started that they had discussed banning the electric scooters but agreed that, “scooters are an important part of the Hamvention experience and are important asset for those hams that can’t move as easily as they once could. We’d have to exclude them and felt we couldn’t ban the scooters, so we decided to go a different way.”
Marx noted that the “Scooter Only Policy” will require that all Hamvention attendees rent and use a scooter at all times on the Hara convention premises and flea market grounds.
“We felt that the only way to allow scooters and also ensure safety was to level the playing field. All Hamvention tickets next year will include scooter rental, and walking around without one will be strictly prohibited.”
### hamhijinks.com
Best Post Dayton Coverage yet this year bar none. I know its got me asking myself hard questions, like, “An All-Scooter Policy is a great solution to a growing problem, but what about those individuals who would, like Melville’s “Bartleby The Scrivener,” “prefer not to” be seen driving a Shrinermobile-like electric scooter, IN ADDITION to being seen in the soul-crushing early 70s Trailways regional hub-like ruins of the Hara Arena?”
To accomodate such individuals, I propose that all exhibits be installed on GIANT electric scooters that would pass parade-like by a reviewing stand, something like mobile ICBM launchers do in Red Square on May Day, I propose a two lane traffic pattern, the outside reserved for exhibitors’ scooters, the inside for visitors’ scooters, and the Reviewing Stand placed facing the outside lane, in the same manner as a race track.
This umbrella solution offers the potential of new revenue streams, such as Deluxe Luxury Dayton Sky Boxes, which could be leased to a rainbow of appropriate franchises from Hooters to Chuck E Cheese, or underwritten by major ham equipment manufacturers. Budget bleacher seating is also an option with premium extra splinters for masochistic QRP SOTA types.
As a disabled Ham , not only has Hamvention violated the Americans with Disabilities act. It’s one of the primary reasons a lot of disabled hams do not attend . I stopped attending in 2010. There have been complaints on file with the Ohio State Fire Marshals office.