New ILDA Membership Category proposed

[m0f]

Quite a few years back, when the chinese projectors first started to become widely available and before I knew any better I bought a Big Dipper F01 portable blinding machine from an unnamed ilda member who assured me it had an ir filter (It didn't, after opening it up and researching the dpss module used, I quickly added one.) Now I've always been a laser enthusiast (still have my 5mw hene 3 motor spirograph in running order from the late 80's), but at the time anything pertaining to ilda was completely out of my budget.

I'm definitely a fan of the idea, though as previously mentioned, a financial cap on lasers related earnings imo would be an improvement over disallowing any professional use. Everyone would benefit from a cheaply available safety course as well as legal information pertaining to their location as well as I'm sure the vast other information available to members.

While I'm not located in a heavily regulated country, an example, I attended a rave a couple of years back, one of the biggest local outdoor events. It was setup in such a way that local talent could get together, put their deposit in and setup a stage, leading to 16 stages that year, and not a single one of them didn't have a chinese green laser scanning around dangerously. I can't count how many times I was flashed that night, beams were coming from all directions it just couldn't be avoided. Now I'll admit I had my rgy out that year, but I think a combination of common sense and my previous experience with my 5mw hene, reading books on the subject, etc I had mounted it high and masked it off so that it would not be able to scan downwards or upwards beyond the predefined point so all beams terminated on a nearby local uninhabited mountain.

I guess my main point is the information is hard to find, and until I found PL a couple years back (though I tend to lurk and not post much), I've learned a alot more about safety. A side effect being I've now got the bug and my wallet is feeling a lot lighter lately and probably will continue to be for awhile

So, in my opinion anything available at a reasonable price that will educate people of how things are done properly, the dangers of infrared, etc will benefit EVERYONE. I'd go as far as to say make a basic safety course free, as it may save eyesight. This would benefit the professionals too in my opinion, as it appears the cheap chinese lasers are here to stay, minimizing harm may be the best way to ensure the laws don't limit higher powered projectors altogether.

And regarding the professional use restriction, I am in the process of determining the feasibility of adding a proper scanner / ilda port to my host or building from scratch, but when I do I would like to have the opportunity bring it out to some of my buddies shows, etc. To be honest, I don't even expect to get paid for it, sure something to recoup the costs of the hobby would be great, but I don't even think my friends break even on their parties half the time. Sure I'd love to get into the professional side of things, where there is money to be made, I just don't see the feasibility of it without a major capital investment to start with, and a risky one I'd guess.

So a membership category like this would be great for people like me, however would need clarification on professional use before jumping on board. Also in regard to the name, I'd definitely prefer associate, hobbyist or junior member to amateur as it denotes a lack of knowledge or skill which may not necessarily be the case in fact I'd say the interest to join ilda at all (or even to research it) shows an inclination to rise above being just an 'amateur' It's just semantics in the end though.

Cheers

[White-Light]

I like the idea of "Hobbyist / Semi-pro" as a category to allow for those who do small shows just to cover costs as suggested by DSI_John. Hobbyist doesn't seem to say enough as it still sounds very amateur. Hobbysist / Semi-pro sounds like an altogether more proficient category of member.

As for the training, I think it would be great provided it provides MPE training (at least simple method with some understanding of taking measurements in the more complex way). It has to be remembered that 90% of the world audience scan and its usually from poorly done audience scanning that injury results. So whereas eg. a data base of safety documents is a great resource to have I think in training terms, the training needs to address safe audience scanning and how it should be done. Something along the lines of what you might get from a course by a company such as Laser Visuals albeit on a self training basis.

Also, if an automated online test could be taken and certification issued that would be even better still. It would also open up the idea of reminder courses and perhaps automated reminder tests.

[allthatwhichis]

Where do I sign up?

[Weiland]

I think its a great idea for those who ( like I) want to learn and discus proper use of lasers, learn safety, and trade ideas for shows. TWO THUMBS UP !

[blowfly]

A $6-10k income cap sounds perfect. If I made $8k off this projector then I would be more than pleased as it would be basically paying for itself.

Laser safety classes would be outstanding! I've looked around and you can pay thousands for these classes. As much as I value safety and education, I don't have budget for this.

Mike

[Doc]

It seams like a great idea, however "Associate Member" would be a far better title than "Amature Member".

Ian

[clandestiny]

while actual details of this have been discussed , the parameters of this category are not in stone,

if you are concerned about your status- as far as semi pro, and earning money doing shows-

you can quite easily join as a individual member and receive all the possible benefits

I know that some here are individual members of ILDA as hobbyist, but there are individual members here and globally that are pros as well. You are covered both ways by going that route

[LaserWizard]

Thanks for all the response! This is great.

I was going to say, if you do any work that gets paid, you should just bump up to an "Individual" ILDA membership, but I just looked over that category, and it creates some conflicts; it will have to be reworked also in order to mesh with everything else. More to come on this.

In the past, we had "associate" members, for those who were just vendors or manufacturers and did no shows. It got confusing because there is so much crossover, and we did away with it. I would not want to go with "Associates" for this new category, however, because in most trade organizations, that category is reserved for vendors, it would create confusion.

Greg Makhov. ILDA safety chair, indicated that there was an ILDA safety course that existed at one time; he thought it could be reworked into an online course.

Laserman 532, if you're a hobbyist, you're a hobbyist. But I'm not sure, you kind of fall between the cracks. I guess we would have to make a special class for you ... associate professional hobbyist or something like that...

- Tim

[cfavreau]

I would like to see something like this. There are probably quite a few of us that make some money off of some sort of Laser Show Industry related service. A cap on the amount earned would probably be the best. Amateur label would be OK I think.... although it does invoke thoughts of knowledge level which doesn't really apply to quite a few people would be getting one of these memberships... It is just an ILDA membership level and not a label is it?

[Doc]

I would like to see something like this. There are probably quite a few of us that make some money off of some sort of Laser Show Industry related service. A cap on the amount earned would probably be the best. Amateur label would be OK I think.... although it does invoke thoughts of knowledge level which doesn't really apply to quite a few people would be getting one of these memberships... It is just an ILDA membership level and not a label is it?

In my case I perform about six shows per year and though I do it properly (risk assesments, calculations, PL insurance, compliant equipment etc); I don't make a proffit, so am I professional? Maybe?

Would I endorse my paperwork with "ILDA Amature Member" ? In a word, No.

The word "amature" would scare venue managers and promoters.