Please share information about your turning club

[Brian Brown]

A group of turners in my area are banding together to form a woodturning club. It is the closest we have had to this kind of group in this area. There have been 6 meetings so far, and I have been to the last three. Between the 6 meetings, about 35 individuals have shown up at least one. We normally have about 14 per meeting with a group of about 6 who have attended most meetings. Most are held at a local hardware store that has generously donated use of their space, similar to a Woodcraft classroom, only very small and crowded. Some meetings are held at member’s shops. Regardless of the meeting venue, we have some of the same problems consistently.

1. It is very hard to see the demonstration. Only so many members can crowd around the (1) lathe to see, without causing an unsafe situation. Do any groups have mirrors over the lathe, or cameras with projection so everyone can see, or am I really over thinking this?

2. We are very low on demonstrators that really know their topic, and can teach. Those that can teach don't want to monopolize the demonstrations, and would like to get new knowledge from some of the meetings themselves. So far we have only demonstrators from among our own ranks. It would be nice to occasionally to bring in demonstrators from outside the area, but currently we don't have a structured organization or even charge dues. No dues, no budget for speakers. How much does your group charge for dues, and how many members do you have? Where do you get your speakers?

3. There is no safe area to set up samples of members work, and members may be reluctant to bring some of their pieces for fear of damage. How do you handle display for your members work?

4. We meet once a month in the center of an area of about a 75-mile radius. Most of our attendees live within 50 miles or less. What is the best way to be fair to those that have a long distance to travel, so we can attract the largest most diverse group possible? Do you keep your meetings in one place or move around?

I was a little disappointed in last nights meeting (the others I've been to were better). My wife who has recently fallen into the vortex and just completed her first bowl went with me. We watched the demonstrator turn a bowl. In the 20 minute presentation the demonstrator, who hardly said a word, reduced a block of wood to shavings, cut mostly through the screws that held the bowl to the faceplate, and then tried to cut the inside of the bowl with the bowl gouge that was dulled by the screws. When the gouge just chattered, and he couldn't sharpen it, he switched to ...get this... a roughing gouge. One member left, and my wife, even with her limited experience, saw a potential disaster coming. We stepped as far as possible from the imminent blast zone, quickly followed by a couple of others. The wife says she doesn’t think she’ll go back. I don’t condemn the presenter because he was just trying to share his excitement with the rest of us, but he didn’t seem to have the experience necessary to be teaching. In reality I think he was just trying to get an opportunity to turn with some others that were able to offer him some assistance.

I know that any group like this will take a while to mature, but it would be nice to have some ideas from other groups to speed the process and make the time spent at meetings as productive and safe as possible. Sorry this post is so long, but could you please share your answers to the above questions and the organization, meeting structure, activities, and other turning group information that would help our group along.

Many thanks for the help.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I wish you were closer Brian.....I'd like to find a club close by...Nearest one to Lewiston is in Spokane.

Good luck with your endeavor!

[Peter Luch]

Go to the AAW and check their web site.

You will get all the information you need to know and tons of help with your club.

http://www.woodturner.org/

Aloha, Pete
West Hawaii Wood Turners Club

[Steve Trauthwein]

The AAW is a good source. You should join and be a chapter for benefits from turning sources and insurance.

I would suggest a small dues program, 10 to 12 dollars a year. It will help you build up a little war chest. You do need a camera and TV to do demos reasonably well. These things can be donated or bought used. We have a raffle every month at our meeting where donated items (wood from members, tools donated by stores) bring in 50 to 100 dollars.You need a decent size space to meet in. Look around in the store and see if there is a way to facilitate more space for your once a month meeting or try using a local school or church.

I wouldn't worry about trying to move to accomodate the most people. It is just going to work for some and not for others.

Welcome to the reality of club meetings. Some are fantastic and some are real stinkers. I haven't missed one at our local club in three years. Another reality check, if something can go wrong in a demo, it will! Try to be forgiving of botched demos and maybe the person will give another one and be a little better prepared. I will bet everyone learned a lot in that demo, even if it was things not to do.

We meet in a local high school and have to schedule the June and July meetings in a local church.

Personally I don't think groups like this ever mature (mostly old people anyway) because they are too much in flux. You will find that you have a turn over from year to year, it is actually necessary, or after a while everyone will know what everyone else does and there will be no reason to meet.

If you send me your address I will send you a copy of a club flyer we had made up. We have it in local hardware and lumber outlets and anywhere else we can attract new members. When I first took over the presidency I thought we would reach x amount of members and then stop advertising. I have since discovered the club that does not continually add new members stagnates and eventually dies.

If you have any further questions feel free to email me.

Regards, Steve Trauthwein, President of the Independence Woodturners Club

[Gordon Seto]

I will, but I am leaving for the meeting now. We are going to have a professional demonstration today.

[Terry Quiram]

Our club, The Central Illinois Woodturners alternates meetings between 2 cities approx 40 miles apart. Both meeting places are woodworking related. An overhead mirror would benefit. A camera and screen would be optimal but may be rather fussy for regular meetings. We have used camera and tv for large meetings with professional demonstrators. Our dues are $20. AAW membership is also required for each member. When we bring in outside demonstrators we split expenses between those attending. We have 60 paid members. We have a formal mentoring program to help less experienced turners get a safe start. We recently hosted a one day symposium for club members and guests. It was hugely successful. We are going to start mini workshops. Not sure what this will lead to or how to organize it but I will share info when we get it sorted out.

We always have show and tell at our meetings. Items are displayed on a table for all anyone to pick up and examine. We also have a bimonthly presidents challenge with a drawing for turning stock or Craft Supplies gift certificates for those that participated.

You really need to organize into an AAW chapter. The most obvious benefit is meeting structure and guidelines. You have a AAW rep for your area that will assist you. The AAW can also guide you to demonstrators. Your first set of officers must be very determined to make the club a success. Our officers serve a 2 year term. Open a bank account and collect dues. Use the dues to start a video/book library that is free to paid members. Ask members if they have anything they would like to donate for a library. Share as much activity as you can between non officers. By that I mean a committee to find demonstrators, a committee to find venues where the club can demo, a committee make library recommendations, a committee to find someone that do a one tool demonstration at a meeting to show safe use. The purpose of this is spread it around so the officers are not overwhelmed and the club members don't see it as the officers trying to run the whole show.

Our club has grown because we participate with turning demonstrations at local events. We have a banner proclaiming who we are and hand outs to say what we are about.

I can ramble all day. If you have any other questions please don't hesitate to ask.

Terry
centralillinoiswoodturners.com

[Gordon Seto]

I am a "nobody". I happen to live between two Clubs. About 25 miles North, I attend NCWT.org (http://ncwt.org/) on the 1st Saturday of every month at the basement of Rockler. On the 3rd Saturday, I drive about 25 miles South to BWWT.org (http://bwwt.org/) on every 3rd Saturday at Camp YMCA. Both have over hundred active members; there are some die hard who belong to both Clubs.
Membership fee for each local Club is $20. Belonging to the AAW is mandatory on one Club and encouraged on the other. For AAW insurance to kick in, demonstrators must be AAW member.
I think for your membership to grow, you have to charter as a AAW local chapter, so other turners in your area know your existence.
Each of our Club has 2 to 3 professional demonstration each year. They would be free to members; but we will charge $25 for visitors. We are fortunate to have free space for our meeting. I believe it is also common practice to charge members $20 to $30 for professional demonstration to cover rental for a demo place. Sometimes demonstrators may stay an extra day to give lessons using the Club lathes. The Club sometimes even subsidize on the classes.
On the rest of the meetings, we will try to fill with talents within our two Clubs.
If you look at our web sites, we have a lot of books and videos for members to borrow for free. ($10 refundable deposit for each video)
One Club has 6 club lathes (Jet mini and Nova) besides the Oneway 2436 demo lathe. The other club has 10 Jet mini lathes plus a Powermatic 3520 demo lathe. Each station has chucks and full set of turning tools. We hold hands on turning sessions for less experienced turners every other month.

During each meeting (except professional demo day to save time), members bring in their excess and donate to the Club for raffle. Each year, we have one of the meeting for club auctions. Excess tools, wood and demo pieces are auctioned to members. With Club due, raffle, auction, our Clubs are in good financial health.

With members switching to HDTV, some donated their tube TVs to our Clubs as monitors for demonstration.

Another benefit is our host Rockler usually offers 15% to 25% discount to members during meeting day. With Doug Thompson being a member of our Clubs, our members are tool rich, wallet poor. It is a challenge not to add some tools or turning related stuff each month.

Donut and coffee are money generator for one of the Club. I believe some members come to indulge in donuts without their wives nagging.

Keep the house keeping end of the business meeting short, and reserve enough time for the demonstration. The success of the club relies on the sacrifice of officers. A lot of us were considering quitting one of the clubs; we felt the meetings were waste of time. The new officers turned it around and we outgrew the place.

In AAW web site, you can screen for demonstrators within certain driving distance. Traveling expenses are a big part of the cost of demo. A lot of them are willing to help. You can ask for the demonstrator to finish the demo pieces and donate back to your Club for auction to offset some of the expenses.

Get the words out, you will never know some demonstrators may be driving by you area to do a demo for other clubs.

[Norm Zax]

Viewing - we have a small vid cam pointed at the demonstrator and the result shown in large on a flat TV screen to the side. Someone needs to handle the video the full time to zoom in and out, focus on the work or the demonstrator and so on.
Work - these are exhibited on a table at the back. The doors are closed and only members are inside. You can see (and fondle) the work before the meeting starts (15 min for coffee and chat), during or after. At some meetings, 30 min are dedicated to people stepping up and talking for 2 min about their work at hand.
Demo - if you have less than 30 people or so, you may need to bring outside demonstrators, some for free (who am I kidding), and some at expense of the membership fees. We began to name a project per meeting and people will bring their result to the next one. They all receive an anonymous number and a raffle results in someone earning 60$ at a supply shop. Those that are willing volunteer their work to be saved and we plan to sell a few meetings worth of projects at a fair to gather nmore funds for the group ... to get more expensive instructors.

[Cyril Griesbach]

Our club meets once a month at the Boys and Girls Brigade's wood shop every month except July and August. Dues are $20 and AAW membership is required...mostly because of the insurance and liability factor. We have limited our membership to 80 due to space limitations and we are now full with a waiting list.

We have had a consistant group of officers since I became a member several years ago. Like most groups, just a few are willing to do everything. It has been working well. We usually have a few members meet prior to our operating year to develop the program for the coming year. This remains somewhat flexible and subject to some change. A few of the consistant programs we have are tool making, segmented and some kind of hands on meeting. At hands on members with mini type lathes bring them in so we can have more turning stations than just the two club lathes. Hands on can be many things such as pens. This year we had a "skill set" day. This divided members into groups and they went from lathe to lathe utilizing a spindle roughing gouge, spindle gouge and a skew. It went over real well with members of all skill levels.

Most demos are by members but we are now starting to bring in an outside demonstrator once a year and when we do we are charging an extra fee to attend so as to be able to cover our costs. This, too, has been working well. Our domos are videoed and projected on TVs and put on DVD and added to the club free lending library.

We recently upgraded our lathe to a PM 3520 and we also have a jet mine and it's assorted equipment that is also available for loan through the library.

In additon to demos our meetings consist of an early meet and greet with coffee and doughnuts, a brief business/housekeeping session, lunch, a raffle of wood donated by members and a critique of items brought in for the gallery (show and tell). Lunch and raffle tickets are $3 each.

As you can see from other responses there are lots of variations on the same theme. Consistancy within clubs seems to be the AAW affiliation...and that's a good thing.

[Jim Underwood]

Good questions...
I second the idea of becoming an AAW chapter. They will help provide structure and organization. Check out their "best practices" article. They will also provide liability insurance for the club. (All the officers have to be AAW members for this to happen.)

I think you need to do several things in order to have a successful club.
One, which it seems you have covered, is publicizing the club and getting a fair number of people to attend. The key to utilizing this, though, is; (Two) charging a membership fee which in turn, helps pay for demonstrators, and then (Three) getting those same people involved as officers and volunteers for certain positions in the club. You should also consider having a raffle, because those dues go pretty fast once you start paying demonstrators.
I'd say you need elected officers and a membership fee at a minimum.

Hah! I came up with the three "M"s.

1) Membership
2) Management
3) Money

A couple of our charter members started our club in late 2003. They elected officers early on, began charging dues at $25 per year, and a couple of the experienced members put on demonstrations. We also had a raffle each meeting and a small show and tell. In the early days we met in the small wood shop of a local Art Center. Now we meet in a fair sized cabinet shop where there is more room. I'm not sure if we'd all fit in that old location.

After the third meeting I'd gone to, the president asked me to write a newsletter. I became de-facto secretary also. This helps to publicize your club if you send it to everyone you can think of. You can also publish little flyers and put them into every library, tool and hardwares stores etc. to get publicity. Sometimes your local papers will publish articles too. The AAW helps with publicity too by putting your club on their chapter list on the website.

One of our members also has gotten very good with the video camera, and as well as having a live display (stationary overhead cam and a operated cam on two separate monitors) we put each demonstration on DVD. So this helps with the visibility problem.

The dues and raffle go to help pay for experienced demonstrators from all over. As you point out, it's pretty difficult to pay good demonstrators unless you have some kind of income... Now we can afford to have very experienced people teach us which eliminates much of the scary stuff you describe. In our early days, the demonstrators were very kind to us since we were a young club, and our dues were limited. You can also come up with fund raisers such as a barbecue. We were also able to buy a lathe, so the demonstrators didn't have to turn everything on a Jet Mini.

Lately I've stopped writing the newsletter, and my assistant has taken up putting all the info on the website. So that's another way to get the word out.

At this point we've grown from about 20+ members to 50+ members.

It sounds as if you have the publicizing and membership covered, you just need to organize and raise money.

[Andy Hoyt]

Have a plan, set goals, and treat it like any other responsible enterprise. Crawl, walk, and then run.

Above all else, enjoy the time with others who share your interest.

Mirrors and video gear will come with time. Nothing wrong with meeting in someone's personal shop/space as long as the appropriate courtesies are observed (especially to the host's spouse). And don't make the assumption that every demo has to be of a pro caliber. (You should have seen my one and only!). Make the demos a learning experience for everyone, including the victim holding the gouge. I've often thought an interesting demo would be for someone to say something like, "I've never done a natural edge bowl. I'll stand here with wood, lathe, and tool. You guys talk and walk me through it."

Remember the most important element of all - have fun.

[Curt Fuller]

The club I belong to started out much like what you're talking about Brian. We luckily have an ideal place to meet equipped with 8 big old Oliver lathes, and a couple smaller Jets. We also have the benefit of having an incredible professional turner with 50 years of experience (it's his shop) to draw knowlege and information from. But our members don't want to become AAW affiliated and they don't want to commit a lot of money to the club. There are quite a few of them that don't even own their own lathes and I sometimes wonder if the just come to the meetings for a warm place to get away from their wifes. I'm 56 and I'm one of the youngest members too. We've had a few demos that were really good and some that weren't so good. But over the last few years it just keeps getting a little better all the time. We had one guy donate an old TV, another brings an old video camera so we can set it up and see whats going on a little better. One of the things we do is we auction off the piece that's turned at the demo and the money goes into the club kitty. We also have a club booth a couple times a year at our local farmers markets and a portion of what we make goes to the club. But mostly it's just a bunch of great old guys (and a few gals now) that enjoy getting together once a month and seeing what each other has been turning. We have a hard time getting members to volunteer to demo too, but once you get them to do it once then it's easier for then on. I kind of like the informal way myself.

I don't know what part of Idaho you're in, but come on down south sometime and visit.

[Brian Brown]

Thanks to all of you who responded. There are some great suggestions here. I looked at the AAW web site and there is good information there. I don't mean to sound like I'm dissatisfied with the group, because everyone is so excited, and that is what we are looking for. It seems to be a really good group. I think that the comment about learning something no matter what the demonstration is very true.

I think Curt's comments about their group fit our situation best. I get the feeling that most don't want to be as organized as to join the AAW. but I don't want to put words into anyone's mouth, or guess at what they are willing to do.

Does anyone have suggestions about meeting activities beyond just turning, like wood gathering, wood prep or anything else?

Once again, thanks for the help.

[Gordon Seto]

Brian,

At NCWT, early this year we had a toys trial out, it was received very well by members.
We had several lathes set up with uncommon tools. We had a short demo on usage at each station and allowed members to try out those that they are interested.

We had Elbo hollowing tool, Sorby texturing tool, handheld hollowers, wood burner, eccentric chuck, thin wall piercing and various turning tools. Most of these tools are expensive and the descriptions are kind of illusive; members can get a feel how they like them before they purchase.

We also had a field trip to a saw mill. The crews did a chain saw safety and maintenance demo for us, touring the mill and lumber shopping. The host even provided us with propane grill to do a picnic there.

You can go to AAW chapter list and browse Club web sites, read their newsletters and borrow ideas that you think may work for your group.

AAW Local Chapter Listing - The American Association of Woodturners (http://www.woodturner.org/community/chapters/members.pl?submit=Chapter+List)

Talk to the nearby clubs, and see whether they have some members that they can recommend to do some demos for your group.