Woodcraft is leaving the Freedom Pens Project

[Ken Salisbury]

The more I read this thread the xxxxxxxer I get. I have been heavily involved in the project since its very inception when we started with less people than it takes to have a pick-up basketball game and a total of $54 dollars in donations. I have spent 1000's and 1000's of hours on the project and I know what the intent was.

Mr Garret must be smoking some wacky backy when he says Woodcraft sees no benefit from the project. It is apparent he has never been in one of the stores during a turn-a-thon as I have (Nashville & Knoxville) and seen the number of customers the activity draws and the impact it has on sales for that day. In addition local radio and television coverage at their stores is super, dubber FREE advertisement. His comments are nothing more than marketing B.S.

When one of the troops receive a pen from the Freedom Pen Project it is usually accompanied with a short note to show it comes from and ordinary citizen to show their support not from a commericial enterprise. I don't know what accompanies the pens that Woodcraft sends, but you can bet your sweet xxx it has a Woodcraft logo on it, which is promoting Woodcaft instead of promoting troop support.

I have a lot more to say on the subject and will be doing so in a direct letter to the President of Woodcraft. I want to be polite in that endeavor so I will have to wait for a day or two to calm down.

I suggest all our members either email or snail mail their views on the matter to Woodcraft.

One pee ode Old Rebel.

[Leo Pashea]

I don't understand what the ruckus is about? Let Woodcraft do their thing for the troops, and this organization can do their thing. In the end, all combined efforts benefit the troops in theater. If it provides a measure of promotion for Woodcraft, so be it. It is not as if Sawmill Creek hasn't received a measure of promotional success with this pen project.

[Ken Salisbury]

I don't understand what the ruckus is about? Let Woodcraft do their thing for the troops, and this organization can do their thing. In the end, all combined efforts benefit the troops in theater. If it provides a measure of promotion for Woodcraft, so be it. It is not as if Sawmill Creek hasn't received a measure of promotional success with this pen project.

There is a big difference in the personal, grass roots touch of SMC FPP and Woodcraft's commercial version.

[John W. Willis]

AMEN Ken! Big difference!

[Leo Pashea]

There is a big difference in the personal, grass roots touch of SMC FPP and Woodcraft's commercial version.

I don't believe I stated there was a difference, only that both efforts supported the troops abroad.

[Dale Stagg]

I don't believe I stated there was a difference, only that both efforts supported the troops abroad.

Ok, shame on me for agreeing, but many other things out there are copycat versions and it is nothing to get upset about. As long as the troops get the benifit, I don't see a huge problem. Yes, Woodcraft may profit from it, but if they supported the Freedom Project, they benifited from that too with advertisement of suporting the troops. I don't see this as a compitition but a way for more support given to a good cause. Maybe I don't understand the problem and if so, forgive me but no matter, support the troops one way or another.

[John W. Willis]

To be fair I sent my local store the link so that they could see how we feel about this change. It didn't seem to me that the local management understood our concerns in their initial reply

This is the reply;

Hi,
The reason that Woodcraft has decided to deliver turned ink pens to our troops is that for some reason Sawmill Creek was taking 4 to 6 months to deliver the pens to the troops. The corporate staff at Woodcraft felt that was unacceptable and wanted our troops to have the pens in hand by Christmas. So in order to expedite the process and get our pens to the troops in a more timely manner, Woodcraft decided to send the pens provided by Woodcraft stores directly to the troops instead of going through Sawmill Creek for distribution.

Hope this helps to clear up the matter.
Beverly Lovegrove

Keep in mind this is the local stores response but it appears they now have contacted corporate for more information.

[Keith Outten]

Last year about this time all of the people we had been sending pens to in the Middle East rotated home so we had to reestablish connections with new people which took about 4 weeks not 4 months. This has happened to us before but not right before the holidays so this was the first time we experienced a problem delivering pens produced during our Veterans Day Turn-A-Thon.

This year we have eliminated this problem as we are delivering pens to the Medical Groups who will deliver pens to hospitals and the Morale and Training Centers. This is in conjunction with the normal delivery directly to individual units requesting pens directly.

The real problem was based on Woodcraft not accounting for the pens they shipped last year. Woodcraft requested permission to ship pens directly, which I agreed was fine as long as they provided the metrics so we could both keep our Master List of Pen Turners up to date and have the necessary information we need to file our annual report with the Internal Revenue Service. Understand this is a huge job, someone has to count every pen, write down every pen turners name and the totals then transfer that information to our Master List here at The Creek. The Woodcraft Store Managers failed to provide an accounting at their stores and Woodcraft Corporate failed to do it themselves so it wasn't done.

The fact that so many pens seemed to be unaccounted for caused concern with some of the people who coordinate large groups of Freedom Pen turners. Because I was unable to provide an accurate total last year due to pens that were not accounted for I decided we would return to what was working...all pens would be shipped to us here in Virginia and we would provide the necessary accounting and ship to the Middle East.

Nothing that happened last year should have had an affect on our relationship with Woodcraft. As Woodcraft obviously did have a problem they could have made their change of heart known early in the year instead of just a few weeks before our scheduled TAT and given us time to make the necessary plans for our Veterans Day Turn-A-Thon. It appears that they waited to notify us of the changes, then did a minimal advertisement in their sales flyer so that few would know of the changes and their stores would fill with Freedom Pen Turners on Veterans Day. The final impact of their actions are yet to be known but it is possible it may end the Freedom Pens Project.

.

[Keith Outten]

I don't understand what the ruckus is about? Let Woodcraft do their thing for the troops, and this organization can do their thing. In the end, all combined efforts benefit the troops in theater. If it provides a measure of promotion for Woodcraft, so be it. It is not as if Sawmill Creek hasn't received a measure of promotional success with this pen project.

Leo,

There is a considerable difference in what a commercial business is willing to do for a project like ours and what Jackie and I have done to keep the project going year round. Of particular concern is our involvement with many schools that we support throughout the school year with free pen kits. Shop Teachers rarely have the means to provide free pen kits for their students, consider that the number of pens students will turn is based on the number of pen kits we can provide. A Freedom Pen made by an American child is as good as it gets. When a Soldier, Sailor or Marine receives such a gift from a student it is more precious than any other gift they could receive.

Children don't generally go to Woodcraft for Turn-A-Thons or visit their stores to purchase or exchange pen kits. Children don't purchase expensive tools and turning supplies, they aren't customers.

No matter what the final outcome I hope that Woodcraft will continue what they have now started and not just quit. I have spent hours and hours on the phone with various Woodcraft representatives trying to explain our side of the issues. My efforts failed to convince them to reverse their decision so I closed the door on the entire Woodcraft organization...on a personal level at least I'm done with them.

.

[Bruce Shiverdecker]

I am glad to see that there are a few voices of reason here. Thanks Ken.

Since Woodcraft GAVE pen kits with the help of Barea and blanks,Lathe &Tooling use, employee help in offering free teaching at their turnathons, which generated in excess of 25,000 pens out of the 79,000 reported sent to the troops, I believe that A BIG THANK YOU IS MORE IN ORDER.

You all know I work there, but RIGHT IS RIGHT...................Give CREDIT where it is due. Stop beating up one of of the suppliers that supported you WELL! All vendors are in business to make a profit, but Woodcraft as well as many other other ww retailors offer their places of business for meetings, demonstrations, and workshops at no cost to woodworking groups.

As always Just MY opinion. I was told by Woodcraft to let it be, but had to speak.

Bruce

[Matt Meiser]

My opinion is that it is wrong to create a competing program because that's not going to do any good towards the goal which is to get a pen to every service member. Now two (three?) different groups are attempting to do the same thing with no coordination. I just confuses everyone instead of creating a coordinated effort to do the most good. Imagine the reaction if Wal-Mart gave the Salvation Army the boot tomorrow and put their own pots out because they didn't like the way the Salvation Army ran things.

Bruce, whether or not you intended to do so, I get the impression Woodcraft isn't happy they didn't get enough credit? Isn't it about the folks getting the pens? Isn't bringing enough people into the stores to turn 25,000 pens enough?

Now if Woodcraft just didn't want to participate, that is fine and there's absolutely nothing wrong with it. If that's what they'd done, or if they chose to do a Toys for Tots build-a-thon instead, I'd say thank you for a good couple years.

Edit: BTW, I think its a real shame what Woodcraft corporate is doing, but I still expect I'll shop my local store (Toledo, OH) as its a locally owned franchise. The other local store (Canton, MI) I stopped shopping at a long time ago because they...well lets just say they apparently could care less whether or not someone comes back. Being a franchise operation the flavor of the local store is more controlled by the owner and staff than anyone else.

[Jon Lanier]

You all know I work there, but RIGHT IS RIGHT...................Give CREDIT where it is due. Stop beating up one of of the suppliers that supported you WELL! All vendors are in business to make a profit, but Woodcraft as well as many other other ww retailors offer their places of business for meetings, demonstrations, and workshops at no cost to woodworking groups.
Bruce

Bruce, Do you really think that Woodcrafters would open up their place of business for meetings if it didn't make money off of those people coming into the meeting?

The bottom line of all this still comes down to Woodcrafters wanting to take this over for profit and visibility reasons. None other.

The man who knows how will always have a job, but he will work for the man who knows why.

-Jon

[Bruce Shiverdecker]

I guess I should have left well enough alone.

I believe that this thread should be locked.

AS I SAID BEFORE - Woodcraft told me NOT to comment. IT"S MY feelings, not theirs.

It would be nice if people would READ and believe what is written!

That is MY last word and look at this thread!

Bruce

[Matt Meiser]

I did read what you said--and told you the impression I got from it (and I guess the other information that's come out of Woodcraft)????

[Leo Pashea]

A few points Keith. It is unrealistic to think that there are no children turning pens at any Woodcraft turning session. There have been, and will continue to be children involved in this endeavor.

Also, there will be some level of control of pens getting in the hands of troops. One pen kit turned at a Woodcraft store will mean one pen into the hands of a deserving soldier.

Consider these few things:

* How many pen kits, that were purchased by donated funds, were sent out and never returned as a completed pen? Was it one for one? I'll bet not.

* How many kits, that were purchased at a discounted price from a participating vendor, were never returned completed for the pen project?
How would you as a vendor feel if you were discounting your product for a charitable cause and your discounted product was ending up elsewhere?

Think about it. Berea is partnered with Woodcraft on their efforts providing pens for the troops. Were they not once supplying you folks for your efforts? That alone tells me something. As stated before, each group should do their own thing, and may the soldiers abroad benefit from all combined efforts.