Thinking of starting local woodworking club - Any suggestions

[Robby Tacheny]

Locally, my area has a Wood Turning club, but not a club for general woodworking. I am thinking of trying to organize a club but was wondering if anyone had advice.

Obviously clubs have to have regular meetings, fees to cover costs, and monthly content. However, a club needs to also have members most importantly.

I was just wondering if anyone is part of a club and/or has feedback on the idea.

Thanks,

Robby

[Robert Payne]

I started a woodworking club ten years ago this month with two woodworking colleagues (Western NC Woodworkers Association). We meet once each month on the second Saturday morning for about 3 hours and provide members with a 90-minute program demonstration on a different topic each month given by an experienced member or guest speaker. We provide an intermission with coffee, sodas and cookies followed by a member show-n-tell session projects they've done or a new tool or book of interest. We charge $25/year for membership and have about 70 members. We meet at a local woodworking store (a mutual win-win) and have a video camera, a digital projector, portable 80" screen and several folding tables. Members bring chairs for seating at meetings. About twice a year, we conduct a visit to a local woodworking professional's shop or tour several member shops. We have a lending library of books, magazines and digital media and our members get 10% discounts at several vendors. We also have a website. PM me if you want more specifics.

[Robby Tacheny]

Wow Robert, that sounds like a very successful club you started. Congrats on 10 years! I'll be in touch soon.

[Matt Day]

We just had one started in our area, as a Meetup group. I would like to be more involved but it's tough with a young family.

Time will tell how it goes and how it evolves. All clubs center around the leadership, which needs to be strong to survive.

Forgot to mention - well done Robert! Sounds like a great club.

[Frederick Skelly]

Another approach that appeals to some is to meet informally. We have a group like that here and it's been successful. Instead of having a program, they get some coffee and donuts and just sit and talk woodworking. Maybe demo a tool or talk techniques, but in an unstructured way. They meet once a month for an hour or two, and they rotate the location between folks' shops. Participation is by invite only, so their meetings might have a dozen or so folks. Depends on what you like. I've gone a couple times and enjoyed myself. YMMV.

[Jim Finn]

I am the current president of our club that was started in 1975. I have been in this club since 2006. We have only 25 members now. We have lost a few to the turners club. The turners club is growing while ours shrinks. The wood turners set up Lathes and teach new members how to do wood turning. Our club only discusses woodworking. Lately our meetings have about 8-12 in attendance and meetings last about an hour. The problem is: we need a new program each monthly meeting and after this many years we all have run out of ideas. Lately we have been showing u-tube videos on wood working. I am one of the youngest in our club and I am 73. We have a show and tell every month but very few participate. Most of the members no longer work much with wood. Our club makes toys for toddlers that we donate to children's hospitals and the Salvation Army. Only about five members make any toys but we manage to make and donate well over 5000 toys every year for ten years now. Our yearly dues are $25. This money is used to cover the cost of renting our meeting space and buying wheels for the toys. It looks like this club may be on the way to disbanding..... sad.

[Rod Sheridan]

Robby, good luck on starting your club, what a great idea.

We're discussing the same thing where I live, one of our objectives will be to attract and mentor younger members.......Regards, Rod.

[Robby Tacheny]

Jim. It sounds like you needs some "new blood" so that others can learn from the wisdom in your club. I am sure mentoring would prove enjoyable. Maybe try and recruit some younger members? I hope it works out!

Frederick - And informal meetup is not a bad idea, but I think paying a fee and joining makes someone feel "obligated" to attending. I want to start a club so I feel "obligated to do woodworking" and prioritize it in my life. In addition I would like to meet some like minded people and hopefully make some friendships also.

I'd love to know some successful and unsuccessful content from woodworking meetings. Also, what do you find to be a suitable meeting place? How do you recruit members and what has been most your most successful way to recruit?

There will be many disciplines to discuss which may not interest everyone. There can be discussions on hand tools, power tools, show and tell, speakers, and field trips. I'd love to discuss how to do the same technique with power tools and with hand tools and advantages/disadvantages. I think contests and challenges would be fun too.

I have a lot of ideas and I have been part of successful clubs and I think I could provide good leadership and a good framework to get the club off the ground. After that I'd love to have a rotating committee so that people don't burn out.

Thanks again for the ideas so far.

Robby

[Brian Tymchak]

I belong to the Woodworkers of Central Ohio (http://www.wocoweb.org/). (Note: the website is still a work in progress.) While I have not been able to attend the club functions, I do remain a member. One thing that I think makes this club very successful is the various volunteer affiliations with charitable organizations where club members do woodworking projects to support those organizations. WOCO has partnered with a local furniture bank (http://www.wocoweb.org/dresser-building/) to construct household furniture for those in need. WOCO has also partnered with Nationwide Children's Hospital, the Arthritis Foundation, and several local children support organizations.

So, that would be my advice. To find affiliations such as this that the club members can work together to support.

[Jim Finn]

"New Blood" comes and goes. Our problem is how to make our meetings interesting to them. General wood working requires an entire shop not just one tool like lathes the turners club has. Carvers club can also actually do the craft at the meetings. Kinda' hard for us. We have had field trips and guest speakers but hard to come up with ten or eleven a year.

I guess my point is: if you are planning on forming a wood workers club you need to find enough things to feature at the meetings.

[Robby Tacheny]

Brian - WOW - I think that's a great website and the holiday toy drive is amazing! I would definitely like to use that idea and try and help needy children.

Jim I wish I was in Texas. Your club sounds just like one I'd like to join. I'd love to find people who have been woodworking for a long time and learn.

Excellent ideas everyone. Thank you.

[Mike Henderson]

I was in a woodworking club and it didn't work out well. When turners have their meetings, they have someone demonstrate some turning technique and it seems to draw the members. All they really need is a decent lathe and the club usually buys one for the meetings and stores it at the meeting hall.

But woodworkers have a problem with the program for a meeting. It's difficult to find interesting subjects for a program, especially for the long term. And demonstrations don't lend themselves well to a meeting because you usually need a fair amount of equipment to demonstrate some woodworking.

The club I was in did toys each year for kids but that's more of a volunteer function instead of learning something at the meetings.

Mike

[Chuck Saunders]

I just finished my term as president of our local club. The club started back in the 80's just meeting in different members shops, fairly quickly grew to ~100 members and stayed that way, meeting in church basements and the like until 2007. We obtained a shop space and could offer more than the monthly meeting. We now have 650+ members and 10,000 sqft shop space. Our dues start at $50. I think that the secret is good programs of varied interest. Most demonstrations are difficult to do in an hour but techniques are very doable. Also important to have means of communicating with your members. If you (and I mean anyone reading this) find yourself in KC stop by. www.kcwoodworkersguild.org
Chuck

[Rick Alexander]

I'm the vice president of a club near Atlanta GA called Gwinnett Woodworkers Association (http://www.gwinnettwoodworkers.com/). The club was founded by 2 guys - one of which is Ron Brown - who if you've been to the Wood Shows over the years you should recognize the name. He sells his wares - mainly turning stuff - at the shows. Truly a gifted woodworker in every aspect of the word and a fantastic speaker and all around nice guy. Definitely a strong reason why the club got off the ground in the first place.

My job as VP the last couple of years is to set up classes for the club for every Saturday morning. Yep you read that right - EVERY Saturday. That's some 42 classes a year after you remove the Holidays, one business meeting, a Christmas Party (highlight of the year - usually 120+ attend the prime rib dinner mostly subsidized by the club), a Summer BarBQ party, and a Spring Picnic. We have right at 200 paid members right now and the classes usually have between 30 and 50 people each week. We also have special interest group (SIG) on specified weeknights during the month (1/month) for scroll sawing, turning, and Sketchup. One member in the club (Rob) has a really nice shop and hosts what he likes to call Day Care for Old Folks where members meet to work on both club projects and personal projects - very popular. Something going on pretty much all the time - which is why I think the club is still growing and vibrant. Membership is voluntary - $50 / year - $45 for vets but you don't have to pay to attend Saturday Classes. The Classroom is sponsored by Peachtree Woodworkers Supply owner David Hughes - also an avid woodworker. He has a big warehouse for his online business where he designed a classroom for us to meet each week. His wife Heather helps us set up the classroom every week before we get there and sort of helps us organize things at the site. David and Heather couldn't possibly be better hosts - providing the space - a discount for the members - financial support - a friendly face - patience - we are incredibly lucky to have them in and supporting the club. We're also lucky in that we've been around for many years (around 20 I think) and we have been able to purchase demonstration tools that we need - like a table saw (Sawstop), several lathes, scroll saws, grinder, miter saw, band saw - anything we need we have now and all are top notch quality tools. We've also purchased good video and sound equipment so the demonstrations can be seen really well and the presenter can be heard. All nice things to have for sure.

Most of our monetary support comes from our recorded classroom videos we post on Youtube. We get enough traffic of folks watching those - especially from members that have moved away, can't be there that week, or members just wanting a second look, and now folks that just follow our channel that we can make a little money on each view. That helps us to occasionally bring in some really special teachers or artist presenters now so we don't completely rely on our members or local guys to teach every week. The club must have at least a core group of guys that keeps things going - one man just cannot do all the work. Luckily so far that's worked for us but it's hard to find that core group and keep them motivated year after year. Those guys in our club are getting pretty old so I'm hoping we get some new blood soon in that regard. The bigger the club is the better the source for talent. We have great engineers, videographers, website design, photographers, - oh and super talented woodworkers to pull from for help when we need them and mostly they work volunteer for the club.

One good way to get class ideas is to have a look at some of the ones we've posted on Youtube. We don't record all of the classes but there's quite a few there. I'm teaching a class in the morning about my dad and I building a solar kiln. I did a Sketchup / planning class last year (and yes it's on YT) and now that we're just about done I'm doing one on how the build went and the plan for the first load of lumber going in there soon. This Kiln has been a dream of mine for years and it's finally coming to fruition so I couldn't be more excited. Should make for a good class - so come visit with us if you're near Duluth GA. Get in touch with me if you wish - I might can help you get some class ideas at least and maybe help with the planning side. I love this club - it's my social life now days for sure - just wish I was retired to give it more time.

[Robby Tacheny]

Mike thanks for the advice.

It sounds like LOCATION is VERY important for a woodworking club. I'll keep that in mind so that I can try and find a place with available tools or storage. As I upgrade my shop I certainly wouldn't mind "donating" some equipment if I found a place that could store it.

I think I'll "borrow" content/ideas from many of the popular woodworking videos out there, and of course I'll reference the author. I also have several meetings worth of content in mind already.

It seems like a decent contractor table saw, miter saw, benchtop drill press, corded drill, router, jigsaw, knockdown workbench and a few hand tools would be enough to demonstrate/make 75% or more of what would be covered. We could always bring in/make specialty jigs. I think operating on a minimal set of tools could be inspirational to newer woodworkers and could challenge experienced woodworkers to use a different method than they might typically use.

Please let me know more experiences good or bad. It is all very helpful.

Thanks,

Robby

[Randall J Cox]

I'm a member of the San Joaquin Fine Woodworkers Association in central Calif. Great group of guys, lots of talent. One of the things that has impressed me is that we meet at different shops and places, keeps things interesting. We have about 90 members if my memory serves me well, with about 35 showing up at any one meeting. We meet sometimes in a local HS woodshop, don't use the tools, just meet there, sometimes at sponsors facilities like a lumberyard, but mostly in home workshops. We meet one Sat a month 9-12. I'm a fairly new member, about a year, and some of the members woodshops will blow you away. I get lots of ideas from seeing others shops. We recently had a woodworker (not a membrer I don't think) pass away and the wife donated all of his woodworking tools to the club, and they were all either live auctioned off or silent auctioned to only the members. Raised about $7k to add to the treasury. Randy

[David Tolsky]

This is a great thread. I was always hoping I could join a woodworker's club either in Santa Clarita, CA where I live or in the valley.

[Matt Day]

Am I the only one jealous of some of these clubs?! Sounds awesome.

[Rich Riddle]

I belong to one in theory and pay dues. The problem is that the topics prove extremely fundamental (and boring) and it's put on by people who like meetings. I prefer woodworking to talking about woodworking. It's the talkers vs. doers issue in ours. Most of us who do woodworking don't attend. Most who attend don't do woodworking but talk about it. Perhaps having meetings in a shop where you could also do some decent demonstrations would attract the woodworker types.

[Jim Finn]

[QUOTE=Rich Riddle;2567232]I belong to one in theory and pay dues. The problem is that the topics prove extremely fundamental (and boring) and it's put on by people who like meetings. I prefer woodworking to talking about woodworking. It's the talkers vs. doers issue in ours. Most of us who do woodworking don't attend. Most who attend don't do woodworking but talk about it. Perhaps having meetings in a shop where you could also do some decent demonstrations would attract the woodworker types.[/QUOTE

Exactly what he said.
Our club is like that for the same reasons. None of us, in our club, have a shop large enough to accommodate more than one or two other people so we do not have a shop to have our meetings in.

[Robby Tacheny]

Rich and Jim,

There is definitely a dilemma for content. A club is always going to have advanced woodworkers and people just starting out. It is also going to have long time members and newcomers. For someone new to the club a topic is more likely to be new to them and to someone who has been in the club the topic is more likely to be old. For long time members there is more camaraderie and less content and to new people there is more content and less camaraderie.

Would having a quarterly challenge, a yearly 2x4 challenge, toys for tots around holidays, and general meetings be enough to keep long standing members attending? This would be 4-6 projects a year that they could make and demonstrate, a holiday dinner, probably a summer a picnic. I would also guess there may be two at least 2-3 field trips a year. Would that be enough to at least come to 4 meetings and 2 or 4 events?

If meetings were split with 50% topic presentation and 50% member show and tell or demonstration would that make you more likely to attend?

Also I notice Saturday is a popular meeting day for many clubs. Is this preferred? Weekends are precious, so would people be more likely to attend on a Tuesday or Wednesday evening?

-Robby

[Chuck Nickerson]

This is a great thread. I was always hoping I could join a woodworker's club either in Santa Clarita, CA where I live or in the valley.

San Fernando Valley Woodworkers! We meet the third Thursday of each month. www.sfvw (http://www.sfvw).org
Come join us.