Meeting place?

[Duff Bement]

Ok guys, I was elected as president of my local turning club, the Zumbro Valley Woodturners. Our club is about 10 years old and has about 50 +/- members. There are normally about 17 to about 26 that show up for any given meeting. We now have our meetings at someone’s shop or a room at a local church.
Here is my question.
I would really like to find a permanent meeting place. Where does your club meet? How often and what time of day? Does your club have their own equipment to do demoes? Is there anything to watch out for? (Mistakes your club has made?) I want to do this job right. I told the guy's that, what I lack in knowledge I promise to make up for in enthusiasm.
As always, any help would be greatly appreciated.:confused::confused::confused:

[Ted Calver]

The two clubs I'm familiar with meet at Woodcraft--one in Richmond and the other in Virginia Beach VA.

[Tim Thiebaut]

I know that at least one possibly more clubs are hosted by Rockler here in the denver area, members are even given discounts and special deals during the meetings, I would try contcting either woodcraft as Ted mentioned, or Rocklers, hosting clubs brings in more people for them to sell to so they are pretty open to it from what I have seen, Tim

[Duff Bement]

I forgot to mention. We are in SE Minnesota and the nearest woodworking in the Twin Cities which is 90 miles away. I have not found any businesses that would let have meeting there yet. They say that any turning would make to big of a mess, even if we offered to clean up and not do any sanding.

[Ted Calver]

Duff,
Before our club moved to Woodcraft they met at a senior center in Norfolk that had a large meeting room and an area to store the club's Oneway. As far as I know there were no problems with the senior center. I do think we paid for the use of the facility, but don't know how much. I am no longer a member of the club because the travel distance in heavy traffic was too far for me, so it's important to have a centrally located facility.

[Kenneth Hertzog]

We are into our second year of our club
we meet at the local art center in Butler County, PA
pretty much a central location for most
We do have our own mini lathe that we do demo's with
demonstrators must be a AAW member for ins. purposes
is there a community college or in your area or
how about a high school shop room.
or as memtioned above a Senior Center and who knows
you may pick up some members.
ken

[Bruce Pratt]

Are there any nearby lumber yards with heated space? Might not be elegant, but sure would be near to turning stock.

[Lee Koepke]

The club I belong to meets at Redmon Machinery ... they have enough warehouse space and a small meeting room. Redmon sells a wide variety of woodworking equipment and when there are demonstrations scheduled, there is a lathe that they set up. Club members do the set up, camera work, and clean up.

[Randy Gazda]

We meet at the local Windsor Plywood store. They also give club members a discount on purchases. Normal meeting is 10-20 people. Meetings are once a month in the evening, demos sometimes every Saturday but usually every other Saturday.

[Jack Mincey]

The club I go to every month meets at a Public high School Shop where I teach. If your club is an AAW club the meetings are covered by their liability insurance if all demonstrators are also members of the AAW. We had to fill out a two page form and supply a copy of the liability insurance to use the school shop. The local club helped to buy a PM lathe for my school shop which helped them and my High School students a great deal. You need to check and see if any of the local High schools have lathes in their shop already. If you can get the shop teacher to get interested in the club meeting it will help you and them a great deal. I've learned so much over the last four years by hoisting the clubs in my school shop.
Good Luck,
Jack

[Keith Westfall]

Ours up here in the frozen North, meets at a local Christian School which has a full wood shop. Since I am new at it, not sure of the arrangements or who had the contact, but I do know that they have bought equipment for the shop and have full access to all the tools.

About twice a month and we make sure that we leave it clean. Works nice.

Keith

[Duff Bement]

Thanks for the input. I am thinking a school shop would be a good place to start and it is something I never thought of. I will let you know how it turns ought.

[Jon McElwain]

One club I go to meets at a high school shop with several old Oliver lathes. The other club I go to meets at Woodcrafters.

[John Beaver]

I've been to three
Local Park Rec Center
Power tool manufacturer demo space
Local College wood shop

[Thomas Canfield]

I am a member of http://www.easttexaswoodturners.org/. We currently meet at the Tyler Jr College (TJC) West Campus site. The club was meeting at a business shop when I joined about 10 years ago, and later had to move when the business was sold. For a couple of years it then met in the shop area of a gas company. The TJC site has a large lecture room, tables, and chairs along with sound and a large screen projector. The club now owns a Jet 1642 along with a jet mini, TV equipment and sound equipment, and does a professional type presentation monthly. The membership has grown to over 100 and Jimmy Clewes is making a repeat demo here in June, but usually some of the qualified (and novice like me once) do the demo. Good luck looking for a place. That seems to be the major step to get a good club going.

[Bob Bergstrom]

Illiana woodturners was formed as a Sig group of the South Suburban Wood Carvers located in South Holland Illinois (south suburbs of Chicago). The carvers have a fully equipped workshop and adjoining classroom. Turners and carvers are free to use all the equipment when the shop is open. We know have 5 lathes and 3 bandsaws. The Illiana Woodturners feel very fortunate to be a part of this established group. Meetings are once a month and we start at 5 with open lathe time and the meeting starts at 7pm. Usually don't quit till 10pm.

[John W Dixon]

Duff, I know what you mean as I was just elected President of my club. We are 4-5 years in existence. Up to this point we have met in members shops. Roughly 20 members with usually 8-15 at a meeting. We too do not have a Rocklers or Woodcraft nearby.

This month we secured a location at a facility in town called Baileys Hardwoods. They build cabinets, staircase parts and hardwood floors. One of our club members does contract work for them and was able to introduce us to the owner who was willing to let us have meetings in their shop. We are also going to be able to store one of our club lathes there. I think it is going to work out great.

I guess my advice is to mine your members. Have them think of connections with a cabinet shop or possibly a union hall or something along those lines. A good meeting spot sure makes it easier on all the members. Good Luck

John