Thread: How's your club going?

I belong to 3 clubs. The Tennessee Association which is 80 miles away. It used to be the only club and I needed a fix so I joined about 18 to 20 years ago and have been a member ever since. It is up to about 130 members and usually has about 70 or so attend. It is growing and changing.
It has many of the same problems most clubs have. 10 percent of the people do all the work. However they have always had a good 10% who work hard and that group has changed with younger people getting involved which I think has kept it vibrant and growing.
The Cumberland Woodturners started about 10 or 11 years ago. It's about 35 miles away and went through a stale period. We keep trying to get other people to take office if only for one term and that seems to have worked. We finally moved to a new place because the old one was too crowded. That must have been what we needed because the club is growing like crazy. I think what makes this club work so well is that we are all friends. We try to have a picnic once or twice a year and Christmas dinner. This helps everyone get to know each other and you have respect for each of them so the discussions that often lead to arguments in other clubs are carried on in a more civil manor.
Lots of folks bring show and tell items. I demo at a lot of clubs throughout the south and we have more show and tell items than almost any other club. I wish I could figure out why because it really helps make a friendly atmosphere.
We do a wide variety of demos from painting and carving, offcenter and segmented, and bowls and vessels. It's always a fun meeting with people teasing one another and just generally a good time. I think that's why it has stayed strong.
The Mid Tenn Woodturners is my local club. It got started about 5 years ago and still having problems. The same small group seems to try to run things and most of the people there never turn. They come to be intertained. Only 3 or 4 of us ever bring anything to show. I'm not sure why most of them are there. I think part of the problem is the officers don't run the evening very well. It kind of drags on and is not very intertaining. I try to make it fun when I do a demo and I think people enjoy that. it is growing but very slowly.

the problem is the officers don't run the evening very well. It kind of drags on and is not very intertaining.

Yeah, motivating volunteers is a different skill set to normal business ventures. I find allot just want to be boss and do it their way and the people vote with their feet.
I think you need a bit of a servant attitude to run this type of ventures, "I 'm in it for the good of all" .

I had one simple request for the powers that be to get the meeting schedule changed from the second Tuesday night to a Saturday morning....the suggestion wasn't taken with the greatest of gleeTue nite meets might be OK for the younger blokes, who by the way are immortal. But us oldtimeres are all boffed out by 1 or 2 pm...am handing in my resignation.

Simply can't understand why everything has to be done in the dead of night.

Have a granny nap in the afternoon first Ed ;-}

Koonung's arrangement that Mick mentioned is a good one. One night per week for turning, another for critiques, and a monthly Sat morning for business, show and tell, demo's etc. So there's a number of ways members can become involved.

But for younger people working casual shifts in hospitality and retail, free nights and Sat's still can't be counted on.

As a member of the Eltham club I just cannot believe how well our club works. Although it has been going for about 22 years, I have only been in it a short while. We are a woodworking club catering for woodturning, cabinet making, scroll sawing and carving and a few other minor interests. We have about 8 lady members who do the same tasks as the males and are a great asset.
We run our yearly exhibition and we do not have to ask for volunteers to turn up over the week end to help out. Last year we had about 50% of the members helping out over the week end and about 30% of the members being around on the Sunday cleaning up. We have a total of about 90 members. Keeping in mind that some of our members could be ill or travelling the world and not available.
We have also never had to worry about having enough people joining the committee and or taking on executive roles.

Our members are mostly retired or close too it. This is not a good position as you need younger people coming through. I noticed the Ballarat boys have younger members (great work guys). It is true that some people don't want to come out at night and some people cannot come out in the day time (working people etc). We cater for this by allowing a group to be setup on any day or night with the proviso that a minumum of 2 people are required for safety reasons. We have cabinet making groups at night and in the day time.

We also help out in the local community and our members volunteer for these tasks as well.

For those groups that do only one facit of woodworking like turning, people have said that you can only make so many bowls which is true, but some people don't really care what they make. They just like being in the workshop making something and exchanging ideas with like minded people. As long as they are happy doing it, that is all that matters. Some members relish the idea of passing on their knowledge for the younger ones (under 70).

Please don't think that we know it all. We have spoken to other clubs and visited the different wood shows etc and have tried new things as a result of this and we are still learning.

Anyway I think I have waffled enough by now. But being a member of Eltham is like being in heaven.

Quote: "The committees of Woodturning clubs are made up of old men set in their ways. This is probably because they've been members the longest and feel that no young upstarts have the right to tell them how to run their club. They conduct or arrange demo's that suit them, they set and judge competitions and they control meeting times to suit themselves and the majority of members who are also old fogies. Why should anything change, they're quite happy with the way things are."

Hear, hear! I second the motion!

My experience exactly with the local woodturning club. Incredibly ageist - blatantly so. Pointedly ignored new members, and very obviously pandered to the ruling clique.

The irony is that I usually hear them bemoaning the fact that they don't get new members, whenever I wander past their displays in local shopping centres.

Cheers,
Andrew

Originally Posted by rsser

Have a granny nap in the afternoon first Ed ;-}

.

...already take two, hmmmm, a third might just do the trick

Oh dear...I'm yawning just reading this thread (I'm having flashbacks to our local club meets)
friday nights,...6.30 start... general business,... then show and tell,... then a couple of demos.
By the time a few of the old blokes argued about points of order...adendums to the clubs charter....and whether the club treasurer sat to the right or left of the president...
it would be 8.30pm and any potential new members had tried to chew their legs off in hope of escape.
By 9pm,...and old Jim was still having problems accepting the minutes of the last meeting (he could barely remember if there was a last meeting)

and old Frank's monotonal dronings about the clubs last purchase of japanese clock movements (fought them in the war ya know)...was starting to sound like a 3 hour didgereedoo solo accompanied by the dulcet tones of half a dozen blokes snoring.

and meanwhile back at the ranch, my mates are having a beer watching friday night footy
.....I..must......stay....awake....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Yes.

Easy to leave the prob with the leadership though; there's a role for responsible followership before the opt out stage. (General comment; not about anyone's post in particular).

I am not sure this thread is going in the direction that Brendan had hoped for - it appears that "bashing" is more prominent than "constructive" criticism.

I personally haven't joined a club - i enjoy doing my own thing at home or at friends places but i can see there is a place for others to meet and share things if that is their preference. At some time in the future i might get the urge to join but at present i am happy doing my thing on my own.

There are others who prefer to be in a club situation and get great enjoyment out of it.

I think you need to look at the club you are joining or becoming a member of - if it is a wood "TURNERS" club then most likely you are not going to find a lot of darksiders doing their stuff, but if is is a wood "WORKERS" club then a mixture of both is likely.

I have been to the "MENS SHED" at Ballan with an old mate (who has since passed away) and he got great enjoyment from the company, never did any wood stuff, but considered his contribution was cooking the BBQ every week.

Maybe you need to work out what YOU expect from the club before you join - and not think "it would be great if i just changed this"... If it has a formal part - minutes etc then don't turn up till later or find a different one that suits you.

In a lot of cases you get out what you put in - it is not about what can they do for me but more what can WE do together - keep your expectations low and your enjoyment might be higher.

To those who do all the work keep it up - these things don't run on their own.



Cheers

David

Rant on.
I'd give a body part to have a club that I could be a part of, that I could contribute to and learn from, and that I could afford the fuel to attend.
As Jigsaw and Allan said, their clubs are "working" clubs. If the old guys get too much in the way, and hold things back, tell them. If they get huffy, they'll get over it... or get out of the way. But it has to be a 'working' club... one that people work to keep going and keep promoting woodturning, and promoting the art part of it, also...
To learn more, to fellowship with other turners, to improve and promote the art and craft of woodturning should be the reasons for a club.
It boggles my mind that people who have one close enough to attend, would let the bull-headed old fartz ruin a good thing... get in their face and tell 'em off! Woodturning is an art and a craft that is really getting better, and it's getting better because of people like Ern, Vern, Hughie, Calm, Allen, Joe, John, and Wally, and myriads of others, keep promoting it and showing and telling others how "to do it". Don't let a few bull-headed old duffers ruin a club.
Rant off.

Have only had two club experiences, neither just woodturning.

The local Men's Shed operates two mornings a week and I manage to get there for a bit one morning a week. I tell them that I'm only there for the coffee and the stimulating conversation, which is close to the truth, but I also help out with the woodturning and dust extraction system (my jobs on the noticeboard list). Usual story of a few people carrying the operation. A couple of the members run an evening group for young mums and that seems to work quite well. Membership numbers are steady with about 15% turnover a year. I think of the Shed as being on about something other than woodworking, the wood is a bit coincidental, so wouldn't hold it up as any sort of model for a woodturning club.

My other experience is with the Blackall Range Woodies up the back of the Qld Sunshine Coast. Some years I escape the cold wet winters up here in the Adelaide Hills and head north to Nth NSW and SE Qld for some warmer weather. The club there has always been very welcoming and I reckon they run a first rate operation. They are open most mornings (inc Sat am), are very well equipped and put on an excellent exhibition at Montville once a year. My only complaint is all the extra ballast, in the form of SE Qld wood, that I inevitably end up carrying back to SA...

Here is their website with details of how they go about things.

PS - I agree with Jeff, this forum is an excellent 'virtual' club.

.....

Well I am a member of a Wood Workers club which keeps it interesting. Saturday morning workshops were I could end up doing anything but turning and Wednesday night committee meeting for 1 hour and the following Wednesday night's club meeting and show and tell for about 2 hours.

These meetings are run to a strict agenda and although members are encourage to have their say at meetings, they respect the committee members to look after the club's interests.

Some 25% of members are active on the Saturday morning workshop, with the Saturday end of month being for club members to do their own projects with the club machinery, if they have been to that months club workshops.

All in all I personally find the mix of experienced members and newer members to be good and as most of the experienced members were tradies, they can take suggestions from younger members.

As Calm said

you need to work out what YOU expect from the club

Up until recently my club was open for use Wed and Thu mornings with admin meeting once a month on Mon nights.

Not being retired I could never attend Wed or Thu so I was left with the admin meetings. While it might sound boring its my choice. I have a chance to converse with guys who have a similar interest once a month and I am quite happy with that.

I don't expect to learn a lot (unless its a new way to do accounting ). Instead I use the Working with Wood show, Horsham You-Turn, and soon Philip Island as my "school". At these events I can talk to people who are passionate about woodturning, people I look up to, people who I hope one day to be 10% as good as they are.

While I look forward to seeing the members of my local club, I especially look forward to my 3 days at school and seeing my friendly teachers again .