Thread: AWTEx 2020

The issue here is that there is a need for a few more people for the committee. Not with the volume or quality of entries, in fact the student and novice section is and has been well supported largely due to the efforts of Stephen Hughes.
I have been involved in woodturning for more years that I care to remember, during that period there has been a lot of younger people. Up until about 15, youngsters are keen but about that age there is a much greater distraction that lasts for about 40 years. Most of us has been down that road.
Again the issue in this case is not the lack of new exhibitors, but a few more volunteers to help run AWTEX,

Jim

More people on the committee Eh?

Originally Posted by artful bodger

More people on the committee Eh?

Yes.

Jim

Well let's hope that saves the show.

Hi Neil. I have only recently begun my wood turning journey, but have been working with timber as a carpenter for 20+ years. Interestingly it was you tube that was responsible for exposing me to all things lathe based and particularly the desire to make knobs for bench planes that I was restoring. I don't think we should underestimate the resurgence of interest in hand tools and the like. Also I am in the under 50 bracket (only just) and whilst I am thinking on top, no grey hair yet.

Hi guys , anyone have an update on the awtex ?
Has any progress been made ?
Is there anything that can be done to help the commitee ?
Lets not just ignore there pleas for help, lets do something positive now !

AWTEX update.

I am sure you all have an inkling about the amount of work required to put on such an event, but I am certain that with the exception of a few, the reality of the work and dedication required is not fully understood.

As an example, the search for, and communication with prospective sponsors, happens continually during the year; in many instances, prior sponsors are spreading their support to multiple events, and unless they can see a tangible return for their investment, they are understandably reluctant to continue to sponsor events. Local companies are really only continuing to assist events such as AWTEX, through personal relationships. In the case of larger companies, we have found that the person responsible for sponsoring these events rarely hold the position for more than a couple of months. This means that the entire contact and communication trail has to be regenerated by the organising committee, ion order to ensure that sponsorship is actually collected prior to the show. This portion of the committee duties take up the majority of more than 1 person for the full year.

Similarly, the search for volunteer judges takes a long time, trying to secure and obtain commitment from prospective judges is not easy, as the pool of knowledgable and effective judges are continually shrinking. We have had comments like: "I might not be alive that far in the future, so I decline" !! These sort of comments are also being received when searching for volunteers. Once a prospective judge has been found, we then start chasing information about the judge to add to the catalogue, making sure travel arrangements and possible accommodation is arranged and booked.

The maintenance of the website and other social media, like facebook etc, is yet another task which takes a fair bit of time, but without a dedicated computer save person who understands its importance an have the skills to actively keep this task up to date, it will inevitably not be maintained to the desired standard required.

The promotion of the annual event starts as soon as the previous event is completed, with communication to clubs, communication to previous exhibitors, communication with prior sponsors, communication with prior purchasers of exhibits and emails and updates via CWC. Designing, printing and distribution of flyers to both clubs, councils, libraries, men's sheds etc is also usually started very early in the piece.

The issue of entry forms to clubs and previous exhibitors happen early in the new year. We then await the return of entry forms from exhibitors, and usually by the deadline date, we have a handfull of entries. This year we had 7 entrants submit their forms by the due date, and it then required emails and direct phone calls to prospective exhibitors by the committee, to chase up their forms, or be advised that the woodturner was not able to enter this year for personal or health reasons. Over the past several years, the number of entrants have continually dropped from over 100 to just 60.
Once all the entries have been received, we can then start collating the catalogue, which means manually entering all the information into our database, proof reading, and arranging the printing.

The application for community grants, continuing communication with council, arranging the venue, obtaining council support staff, attending council community grant sessions etc, all involves a dedicated person, and as the last 4 people on the committee are still working full time, this is not possible.

The grant for 2020 had already been issued, but has now had to be returned, as well as the venue booking cancelled, due to the event being (at best) postponed, and any grant for future shows as well as venue bookings, will have to be started anew, with no guarantee of success.

As the total prize pool exceeds some $25K, without any community grant, and company sponsorship support, this will not be possible.
The cost of running the exhibition, with venue hire, cash prizes, catering, printing, postage, storage of equipment etc exceeded $24K last year, and with a reducing amount of income from both reduced exhibit entries, reduced patronage from the public, reduced sponsorship from companies, reduction in community grants, we did not break even.

The intent of the remaining committee, is to maintain all registrations, etc, in the hope that someone in the future will step up to take over the event. This is NOT limited to clubs or organisations in Melbourne, nor does the event have to be held in Melbourne, but this invitation extends to any club, group of clubs or other organisation anywhere in Australia. Our current constitution dictates that in the event of the event folding, we have to either hand all assets over to a like-minded organisation, who will be required to resurrect the exhibition, or liquidate the assets of AWTEX. It has taken several years to gain all the relevant registrations, like ABN, TFN, Raffle Licence etc, so we are hoping that the event will not die.
Should a like minded organisation in Melbourne step forward, the remaining committee is willing to support and assist during the first year of the resurrection of the show.

Due to the nature of the tasks involved in running the exhibition, assistance from remote committee members would be possible, but would be limited to promotion and search and securing sponsorships from companies. These tasks are in themselves extensive, and require the commitment from more than a single person or club.

When the decision to postpone the event was made in August / September, invitations were issued to all the clubs in Melbourne for a club representative to meet with the committee. We were hoping that if each club would be willing to step up and be responsible for a single task we would be able to continue the exhibition; however when the meeting happened, we were greeted by representatives from 2 of the multitude of clubs in Melbourne, with the comments:' It is sad the event will fold, but we are unable to assist".

If there are anyone interested and able to assist and take up the mantel, please contact me.

regards

Soren
President
AWTEX.

[QUOTE=Redbeard;2164283]The majority of woodworking and turning clubs have almost all of their events during the day, Monday to Friday. This excludes anybody who works. Not all amateur turners are retired. I can't support a club which I can't attend. If you want younger members you have to accommodate them. Don't complain about your membership dying out if your club is seemingly for old folk.

Perhaps some clubs with dwindling membership need to look at how they appear/welcome new prospective members. As Redbeard said having instruction/classes/events out of business hours sometimes would be a start.
I visited the local woodworking club here when I moved to town early this year and left feeling I would not be welcome until pension age. Perhaps this was not their intention but certainly the message I got.

Perhaps some clubs with dwindling membership need to look at how they appear/welcome new prospective members. As Redbeard said having instruction/classes/events out of business hours sometimes would be a start.
I visited the local woodworking club here when I moved to town early this year and left feeling I would not be welcome until pension age. Perhaps this was not their intention but certainly the message I got.[/QUOTE]

Hi barramonday , yeah , I had a similar experience with a local club too !
It certainly didn, t change my opinion of woodturning , just made me more
determined to do my own thing ......
I also think It has nothing to do with the point that is trying to be made here .
It, s not about dwindling clubs , young or old members , it, s about finding
a club to help out running an exhibition which has been running for nearly
20 years ! Just my 2 bob, s worth...........

Again, the issue is not about club membership or age, it is about people getting involved on the AWTex management committee.

Jim

Originally Posted by powderpost

Again, the issue is not about club membership or age, it is about people getting involved on the AWTex management committee.

Jim

Jim

I apologise for hijacking the thread a bit, access to clubs and men's sheds for younger, working, people, is one of my pet soapboxes.

I can understand the committee for a long running event like AWTex getting tired. Just the planning and running of an annual community Christmas carols event leaves my Lions club shattered, let alone something as involved as AWTex.

Has there ever been consideration of moving it around, perhaps seeing if there was interest in the other states having a go? Perhaps rotating it around between two or three cities? I know the westerners would get cranky if the east coast cities hogged all the glory but that certainly seems a logical starting point.

Cheers
Redbeard

Sent from my SM-N975F using Tapatalk

Originally Posted by powderpost

Again, the issue is not about club membership or age, it is about people getting involved on the AWTex management committee.

Originally Posted by powderpost

Are we sure about that? At least in the immediate sense I can see it's just tapping into the current membership to step up to do more, but I do think there's a link.

I'm not a turner or a member of a club so feel free to ignore this as irrelevant feedback. (This is my experience based on a couple of sporting clubs and a few years on the management committee of one.) Without "fresh blood" there's at least a constant effort requirement on the current members/volunteers to help continue to run the club and events. Without fresh blood, and as other members leave the club (naturally move on or get to an age where the activity is no longer relevant to them), there's actually less of the experienced members to contribute, meaning even more effort required on the existing members to run the club and the same number of events. Without fresh blood, the existing members can become disenchanted and leave sooner than normal, or not volunteer for "extra" duties like special events. Even if the average age of membership is increasing, there's a higher likelihood of an impending issue... At some point, something has to give.

The clubs I was in had a long running struggle attracting new members. The real pressure was mainly that the "pace of life" meant that many people wanted to attend events, but not be there for the long haul - they'd be happy if they could come and compete and not hang around too much; just consume half a day, not be there from first light to dusk to help out or share the load. It was seen as a compromise to family time that they weren't prepared to extend beyond that. And the younger generation and the way technology has moved means they are more into "instant gratification" so things that require more mastery / higher investment of time doesn't necessarily get them interested, or certainly not as longer term members who can become committee members and contributors to this type of event.

Originally Posted by Redbeard

Jim

I apologise for hijacking the thread a bit, access to clubs and men's sheds for younger, working, people, is one of my pet soapboxes.

I can understand the committee for a long running event like AWTex getting tired. Just the planning and running of an annual community Christmas carols event leaves my Lions club shattered, let alone something as involved as AWTex.

Has there ever been consideration of moving it around, perhaps seeing if there was interest in the other states having a go? Perhaps rotating it around between two or three cities? I know the westerners would get cranky if the east coast cities hogged all the glory but that certainly seems a logical starting point.

Cheers
Redbeard

Hi Redbeard,
There was a committee of eight that ran the AWTex. Out of that one is battling cancer, and one has recently had a session in hospital including 10 days in ICU. At least four have full time jobs, and two have been involved for a long time and are tired. If you re-read Soren's post (number 23) you may have a better insight to the problem.

To move the exhibition to another state would be a logistical night mare. But, not impossible to do, but would add to the cost considerably to the costs.
There is a large number of things like tables, table cloths and aprons for the tables and other props to make the exhibition look so professional.

You have raised some ideas....

Jim

Originally Posted by poundy

Are we sure about that? At least in the immediate sense I can see it's just tapping into the current membership to step up to do more, but I do think there's a link.

I'm not a turner or a member of a club so feel free to ignore this as irrelevant feedback. (This is my experience based on a couple of sporting clubs and a few years on the management committee of one.) Without "fresh blood" there's at least a constant effort requirement on the current members/volunteers to help continue to run the club and events. Without fresh blood, and as other members leave the club (naturally move on or get to an age where the activity is no longer relevant to them), there's actually less of the experienced members to contribute, meaning even more effort required on the existing members to run the club and the same number of events. Without fresh blood, the existing members can become disenchanted and leave sooner than normal, or not volunteer for "extra" duties like special events. Even if the average age of membership is increasing, there's a higher likelihood of an impending issue... At some point, something has to give.

The clubs I was in had a long running struggle attracting new members. The real pressure was mainly that the "pace of life" meant that many people wanted to attend events, but not be there for the long haul - they'd be happy if they could come and compete and not hang around too much; just consume half a day, not be there from first light to dusk to help out or share the load. It was seen as a compromise to family time that they weren't prepared to extend beyond that. And the younger generation and the way technology has moved means they are more into "instant gratification" so things that require more mastery / higher investment of time doesn't necessarily get them interested, or certainly not as longer term members who can become committee members and contributors to this type of event.

Poundy, The issues you raise are very real and generally apply to the vast majority of committees. The following is a quote from directly from the the AWTex web site.

"The Exhibition commenced in 1980 as the initiative of the Yarra Turners who named it the “National Woodturning Exhibition”. Its’ modest beginnings were as an exhibition of members of this group’s work. Under the stewardship of people like Vic Wood, Keith Towe, and Doug Birchall, it grew from purely a single club event to accept entries from other entities.

In 1997 the running of the exhibition was formally transferred to Forest Hill Wood Turners Inc. but there was a division of attitudes within the club and in 1998 the club decided to forgo its’ operation.
Ted Anderson approached Koonung Woodturners Guild and an independent sub-committee was formed with Ted as chair to continue the Exhibition. At this time, for copyright reasons, the Title was changed to “The Australian Woodturning Exhibition”.
Koonung were an enthusiastic group, with people like Rick Gilks, Harold Irving and David Tonkin at the helm and through vigorous promotion and very strong support from members both in submitting entries and providing manpower the Exhibition grew to accept entries from all States.
By 2008 the declining number of members was draining the resources of Koonung and research went to find a replacement entity to run the Exhibition, so a few Koonung members — Ray Dennis, Ken Wraight and Sue Leitch — recruited individuals from kindred clubs to form Whitehorse Woodturners Inc. a club whose sole task was to run the exhibition. The exhibition continues to be run under the Whitehorse Woodturners Inc since 2008."

That will give you an insight to the structure that administers the Exhibition. That, in conjunction with Soren's post No. 22 should reveal the the problem fairly clearly.

Thanks again....

Jim