At the Board of Directors meeting at Lake Raystown in June, the Board approved the birth of Special Interest Groups within the framework of our association. What is a Special Interest Group and what is its purpose? A Special Interest Group (or SIG) is a group of ORCA members interested in a particular manufacturer, style, function, or notable region of production for antique reels or reel accessories. Examples could be Penn as a manufacturer, "Indiana Reels" as a style, Reel Oilers as a function, and British Reels as a region of production. There are several purposes of forming Special Interest Groups. Probably the most benefit to ORCA members is that SIG’s will provide a structure for people to contact others in the club who have similar interests. Another benefit is that both the SIG members and ORCA as a club will acquire new knowledge about the subjects researched and reported on. We will have more articles for our newsletter and more permanent reference material for our library.

Each issue of The REEL NEWS lists the SIG groups that have been formed and are active. The group coordinator’s name will be listed next to the SIG group name so that other members can contact him or her to join the SIG. No dues are required, you must simply be a member in good standing of ORCA to belong to a SIG. You may join up with as many SIG groups as you would like. As long as the SIG group is active and has a leader, it will be listed in the REEL NEWS, and on this site.

Members can petition for being a SIG group leader/coordinator by sending the ORCA President a letter or email requesting permission to start a SIG group. SIG groups are not burdened with following any particular rules of operation. You may structure your group however you like and however you can afford to operate. You may find it best to keep it as simple as possible and communicate with SIG members in an inexpensive media like email.

Even though there are no imposed ORCA rules of operation of your groups, each group has a responsibility to ORCA to report the status of the SIG and to offer researched articles to our newsletter. Each SIG is expected to submit at least one article per year to the REEL NEWS. SIG’s are also expected to set an example for us all toward sharing research like catalogs, and other reel related literature with the ORCA library.

If you don’t see your special interest listed, and you want to be the leader of a group, please send an email to the ORCA President with your thoughts.

At this time we have the following SIG Leaders. If you would like to join, or wish more information, contact the leader:

19th Century Fly Reels - For information email Tyler Thompson

Big Game Reels - For information Philip Beguhl, 805-967-8393

Indiana Reels - For information email Larry Moellman

Open-face Spinning Reels - For information email Ben Wright

Pflueger Fly Reels - For information email Stu Lawson

Pflueger Reels - For information email Paul Mortenson

Shakespeare Reels - for information contact Harvey Garrison

South Bend Reels - For information email Jim Madden

Tournament Casting Reels - For information email Steve Lumpkin