I tried two bow bees early on. On the first one I had a couple of bow builders besides me and the rest newbies. The newbies would watch us work but even when offered a stave and some tools they backed off, saying "I might mess something up". I tried again with the same results.
A great bow maker and friend hosted one, he had a bunch rubberneckers but no workers, he was very disappointed as he but a lot not putting the event together.