A Survey of Woodturning Clubs

[Keith Buxton]

 What is the name of your organization? Show-Me Woodturners
 Where are you located? Festus, MO
 Is your club affiliated with AAW? Or, another organization? AAW
 How often do you meet? 2nd thursday of the mont from 6:30pm-9
 Where do you meet? Festus Band Building
 Do you have a mentoring program for novice turners? no
 How many paid members do you have? How many people show up meetings? 68 paid members right now we have around 40-50 show up to a meetings
 Do you have a website? Printed newsletter? Electronic newsletter? http://www.showmewoodturners.com Electronic news letters
 What are your annual dues? Ind $30 family $40
 Do you have other means of raising funds? no
 What is your annual budget? $600.00

[Russell Neyman]

I thought bumping this would be a good idea. New chapter presidents find this sort of thing useful when working on budget, membership fees, and meeting dates.

[Edward Weingarden]

What is the name of your organization?
Western Mass Woodturners
 Where are you located?
W Springfield, MA
 Is your club affiliated with AAW? Or, another organization?
AAW
 How often do you meet?
Once/month
 Where do you meet?
Rent space in a CNC engraving shop
 Do you have a mentoring program for novice turners?
Yes
 How many paid members do you have? How many people show up meetings?
Approx 75 paid. Approx 35 at meetings
 Do you have a website? Printed newsletter? Electronic newsletter?
Website, although it's not very active. No print or electronic newsletters
 What are your annual dues?
$25
 Do you have other means of raising funds?
Members bring wood they have harvested which is then raffled off. If the club does a craft show, 10% of the proceeds go to the club. Nominal rental fee when using a video from the video library.
 What is your annual budget?
Don't know

[John K Jordan]

​Our turning club would like to know more about other groups and how they operate. We figure this sort of information will help everyone find out what works best and give us clues where to seek out advice and ideas. Please take a minute to answer the questions below.

I thought bumping this would be a good idea. New chapter presidents find this sort of thing useful when working on budget, membership fees, and meeting dates.

Russell, so after 4 and 1/2 years, did the info you got here help your club? What did you decide to do differently? If you filled out your own survey again now would it change much?

I'll try to add something to the thread but I don't know all the numbers.

JKJ

[John K Jordan]

​Our turning club would like to know more about other groups and how they operate. We figure this sort of information will help everyone find out what works best and give us clues where to seek out advice and ideas. Please take a minute to answer the questions below.

This is one of the two clubs I belong to. I know more details about this one.

 What is the name of your organization? Smoky Mountain Woodturners
 Where are you located? Knoxville, TN
 Is your club affiliated with AAW? AAW chapter
 How often do you meet? Once per month.
 Where do you meet? Knoxville WoodCraft, classroom
 Do you have a mentoring program for novice turners? Offer mentors
 How many paid members do you have? About 70 paid members. I never counted the attendance but it's crowded.
 Do you have a website? newsletter? http://www.smwts.org/ Newsletter on website
 What are your annual dues? $30
 Do you have other means of raising funds? Yes, raffles, auctions
 What is your annual budget? I think around $7k

As for operation, the board of directors meets quarterly.

The club raises money for club programs and for others:
Support to a local children's ranch - money, tools, workers, and teachers for a woodturning training program.
Members donate Christmas ornaments, sold to support local children's hospital. Raise up to $4000/yr
Financial support to the AAW

Other programs:
Members donate turnings for the Beads of Courage program for children with cancer.
Members donate turnings for Pens for the Troops
Members display artwork at an exhibit at the Knoxville airport.

The club has income from:
Monthly wood raffle for donated wood, $200-300/yr
December silent auction, about $600 this year
Annual March wood auction, donated wood and dry roughed out bowls, about $1600 in 2018
Occasional special wood auction.
Raffle tickets, several week-long classes at Arrowmont, around $500/yr
Raffle tickets, several week-long classes at John C Campbell, around $500/yr
Sometimes we get an AAW grant for one of our outreach programs

Our mentoring program is informal. Those with time and ability let the club know. Many have come to my shop, usually for 1-day instruction, phone consultation at any time.

Our annual wood auction in March brings in a lot of money and also helps members who might have trouble finding good wood. Wood is donated by members and auctioned to members. We only allow blanks ready to turn - no uncut log sections, no firewood, no junk wood. This does rely on the members who donate their time to cut, seal, and perhaps dry wood for the auction. Several members process raw wood supplied by other members who don't have a big bandsaw. (I have a sawmill which helps) I'm also the auctioneer so come on down!

In '18 we also had a special, impromptu wood auction - I cut some big green wood bowl blanks from wood someone brought to me. These needed to be auctioned immediately so they could be turned green instead of holding them until March. This was quick and fun, I may do it again this year.

Our December silent auction accompanies our Christmas "party". This typically has donated wood blanks, tools, books, and turnings from demonstrators.

The monthly wood raffle is wood donated by members but most is log sections. Tickets are $1 each.

The raffles for the Arrowmont and JCC courses are very active. The tickets are $2 each. The winner each month does not win a course but has their name put into the hat for the course drawings at our December meeting. These raffles have allowed several people to attend a good course they otherwise may not have been able to afford.

The club also has a cash "door prize" drawing each month.

We have quality monthly demonstrations from experienced club members and quarterly turning challenges.
We have regional demonstrators from other clubs.
Twice a year we hire outside demonstrators for a two-day demo and workshop.

JKJ

[Fred Belknap]

Probably the biggest reason for lack of replies is the questions you ask are only known by the officers of the club . Members don't know several of the answers. I'm a member of the MountaineerWoodturners inWV. As just a member I'm not sure I could answer all the questions or if I should.

[Russell Neyman]

(I edited and re-posted my comment to include the quotation of a question I was responding to,)

[Tony Rozendaal]

 What is the name of your organization? Milwaukee Area Woodturners (MAWt)
 Where are you located? Milwaukee area in southeastern Wisconsin
 Is your club affiliated with AAW? Or, another organization? AAW
 How often do you meet? Monthly
 Where do you meet? Woodcraft of Milwaukee (which is in New Berlin, WI)
 Do you have a mentoring program for novice turners? supposedly but it's not very active
 How many paid members do you have? How many people show up meetings? 65/40
 Do you have a website? Printed newsletter? Electronic newsletter? Website; https://mawturners.com, IN place of a newsletter we email members when news posts are made. After each meeting I schedule a number of posts for the same day which then all go out in one email.
 What are your annual dues? $35
 Do you have other means of raising funds? Wood raffle at each meeting. Occasionally have paid events.
 What is your annual budget? Not sure.

[Russell Neyman]

Russell, so after 4 and 1/2 years, did the info you got here help your club? What did you decide to do differently? If you filled out your own survey again now would it change much?

I'll try to add something to the thread but I don't know all the numbers.

JKJ

The input helped us make basic desisions especially with regard to raising (or not) our membership dues. At 30 years, we're one of the oldest AAW chapters and obviously OPCAAW has been doing things correctly. But it's nice to get confirmation.

When I introduced this survey -- I also formed an alliance with seven other PNW chapters to exchange ideas -- I realized that our club needed to get younger and more diverse. One key way to do that was to bring our communications systems up to speed. We did that by introducing a Facebook page, upgrade the electronic newsletter (we converted to MS Publisher), and to actively recruit women and younger men. Based on this survey, we did raise our dues by five dollars a year. which allowed us to add one more premium speaker.

One area of improvement I can see in many of the chapters I visit is methods of raising funds through wood auctions. So many clubs have random drawings and members simply buy a ticket at the door. A live auction -- with an auctioneer -- allows more discussion for the value and potential of each piece and some good-natured competition for one piece or another. We also reward the donors of wood at our end-of-the-year holiday party, and that substantially improves the amount and quality of donated wood.

I'd be glad to discuss this further if any of your chapter officers wants to call to knock around ideas

[Alex Zeller]

I can't help much but I can offer my experience. Hopefully it will help you. The local club meets once a month and has a second meeting that's more just playing around in president's shop. This seams like it's pretty common with all of the clubs. Both are on a Wednesday and start about 6pm. Unfortunately it doesn't really work with my schedule. In the days of old people worked 40 hour weeks and were done at 4:30 in the afternoon. Now 10 and 12 hour shifts/ night shifts, etc are much more common. Having more flexibility I think would help get new members. It's a little awkward to ask a club member to meet you outside of a meeting when you've never really met.

I can say it's disappointing as I have plenty of questions that I don't like to ask here (I hate to feel like I'm just taking away without giving back). Plus there's no substitution to actually watching then handling the tools to try and accomplish specific tasks. I've only made it to one shop session so I don't feel comfortable asking them to do anything special for me. In a perfect world I would like to make some new friends (hopefully one or two close to me) but without being able to put the time in at the meetings it's really hard.

[Russell Neyman]

Probably the biggest reason for lack of replies is the questions you ask are only known by the officers of the club . Members don't know several of the answers. I'm a member of the MountaineerWoodturners inWV. As just a member I'm not sure I could answer all the questions or if I should.

OK, I guess. But certainly you know how often and where you meet, what your membership dues are, and if you have a wood auction to raise funds, right?

[Neil McWilliams]

Name of your organization? Artistic Woodturners of NW Florida
Location? Pensacola, FL
Club affiliations: AAW
When do you meet? 2nd Saturday monthly 9-12; occ. paid workshops with visiting turner 12:30-3:00. December meeting is our Christmas party.
Meeting place: Ragon Hall (square dance and swing dance hall venue) Store room for lathe and media provided.
Mentoring program for newbies? about 15 members are self-listed as mentors for novice turners. Mentoring in private workshops.
Paid membership: 45 Usual meeting attendance : 25-30
Website: www.artisticwoodturners.org Monthly newsletter posted on website.
Annual dues: Jan-Dec. $48 single, $60 family - prorated for 10 months or less (beneficial for snowbirds). Ages 16-21 free membership. Members of other AAW clubs attend free.
Fund raising: auction each meeting featuring wood stock and objects of value to woodturners
Community service: public school demonstrations; sponsor day of turning for foster kids during their annual one week day camp
Annual budget: $2200-$2600. Club charges $10/attendee for visiting demonstrators and underwrites the remainder. Afternoon workshops usually $25/attendee.
Notes: Try to schedule 4 visiting turners annually. Challenges: freshening the membership with new, younger members. Website has been most useful tool. Getting members to serve as officers. Raising our membership fee from $30 to $48 cut the membership in half initially but eliminated the least interested/involved; great rebound with visitors enjoying the new level of enthusiasm and choosing to join.

[Chuck Saunders]

 What is the name of your organization? Kansas City Woodturners Club
 Where are you located? Kansas City, MO
 Is your club affiliated with AAW? Or, another organization? AAW
 How often do you meet? 2nd Monday of the month with Open turning on Thursdays and Saturdays
 Where do you meet? Our Club Shop 3189 Mercier St, KCMO
 Do you have a mentoring program for novice turners? Informal
 How many paid members do you have? How many people show up meetings? 100/70
 Do you have a website? Printed newsletter? Electronic newsletter? kcwoodturners.org, electronic newsletter
 What are your annual dues? $55
 Do you have other means of raising funds? annual auction, classes