rb608 wrote:
Happy New Year wishes to one and all from the GFS2007 Swapmeister; and
herewith, the Official Announcement for the 2007 edition of the annual ROFF
Great Fly Swap.

And a joyous new year (and many more to come) to you and yours.

Well, it's been a couple of years, and what with rediscovering the joy
of tying in preparation for last September's UPYERS, I'm in.

What to tie.......?

Depends.

If the bulk of the participants are folks I've already burdened with my
produce at one time or another, something new would be required.
Otherwise, would a repeat of a past perfomance be permissible? If the
latter, I've got a couple of well tested and proved (and not just by
me) patterns that might be of interest. Besides, I've already got
about three dozen of one of them done.

Anyway, none of my business how anyone chooses to run a fly swap, but
it occurs to me (once again) that requiring each tier to make one for
EVERY participant makes eminent good sense. In other words, if there
are, say, 40 tiers, everybody should tie 40 flies......not just the 39
that would make one for each of the others. If each person ties 40, he
or she gets one of his or her own back. Duh!......why? Because if
each participant ties 40, the swapmeister gets to make up 40 identical
packages to send back. Otherwise, he (no she in this instance) has to
make up 40 uniquely different packages. The odds of getting one of
those wrong in the sorting process are higher than one might think.
Then, exactly the right assortment has to be sent to each individual.
By this time, the probability of a ****up of some sort gets pretty high
(the voice of experience......no aspersions cast in the direction of
the current swapmeister).

Wolfgang
who would, personally, also ask that everybody make a couple/three
extras.......some people don't count to 40 real good. any excess could
be donated to the worthy charity (say, somewhere on the northwest side
of milwaukee, for instance) of choice.