Open Shop Tour — Monday, August 10, 3-5 p.m.
Our next open shop tour is less than two weeks away! Mark your calendar to attend the next open shop tour, hosted by Dave Campbell at his standalone woodworking shop. This will be a multi-faceted tour showing some of his work, large and small, as well as his shop. He’ll explain and demonstrate some of his methods of work as well. Click below for complete details. And, in consideration of the host and other members, please bring a mask and wear it.
Downloadable open shop fact sheet
President’s Pieces
I hope this hot summer is finding everyone staying busy and most of all well!
We have made some progress and I would like to take a few minutes to talk about some activities and things we are working on this summer.
- Lamentable news. Our fall picnic has been cancelled as the POA will not accept reservations for the public facilities and groups as large as ours are not allowed to gather there.
- Member profiles. We have been reaching out to members through phone visits and have gathered such great information. We have people with all levels of skills, shops, interests and projects. Carvings to Cat houses, Corks to Chairs, Cabinets to Countertops…you get the idea!
- Member directory. We are continuing to work on updating and improving our website. Our board would like to have a detailed, multipurpose online database. In the future, this database will help us with skills and mentoring. In the meantime, we are working on a paper membership directory to get contact, interest and other information out to all of our members.
We hope the paper directory will serve as a starting point for helping you to meet St. James Woodworkers friends and learn from fellow members, who might just be your neighbor! - Other ways to connect. In the meantime, don’t forget about our Facebook page. We currently have almost 30 members. This is an excellent way for members to communicate. If you are not on Facebook, but your spouse is, they can request to join our Group. A few members have already done so. Join here.
We hope we will have good COVID news in August, and that we will be able to restart some additional activities. In the meantime, if you have interest in being on the SJW volunteer team, please let me know. We still need team members.
Be well!
Gary Mlynek
P.S. My tip of the month: Do NOT use duct tape on pieces of wood to bundle them together. More on this later!
July 2020 Open Shop Recap
The first workshop open house, held at Craig Thompson’s shop, was a resounding success despite being held under the cloud of Covid. Read the complete wrapup on last month’s open shop online.
Craig Thompson’s shop was the site of the first standalone St. James Woodworkers open shop tour.
Mark Your Calendar for Future Open Shop Tours
Here are the planned open shops for 2020 (subject to change based on public health limitations, etc.). Mark your calendar:
August 10, 2020 — Dave Campbell, 3886 Fairhaven Dr., 3-5 p.m. (details here)
September 15, 2020 — Mark Lynch, 2565 Shellbark Ct., 3-5 p.m.
October 2020 — Still open for a volunteer
November 10, 2020 — Chuck Elledge, 4130 Brookfield Way, 3-5 p.m.
Open shop dates in 2021 will be announced later in the year.
St. James Woodworkers at Large
Members have been busy on various projects which have been helpful to our community . . .
David Campbell assisted a resident with rocking chair replacement rockers. Some 18 strips were laminated into custom-made cauls.- The memorial flag case project is complete!
(See link to in-depth article below). - Members of St. James Woodworkers received a flash announcement with lots of photos and first access to a large moving sale of tools and materials.
Tom Duym created these modern Adirondack chairs in cedar for the pond on Marshfield Drive. When you’re out for a walk, try them out.- Another longtime St. James resident was moving away from the area and we helped him liquidate his small shop of tools and materials. (This was a particularly innovative and effective partnership between Fred Walters and Dave Campbell; Fred spoke up and volunteered and then Dave transported the tools, presented them for sale, conducted the sale, moved unsold items . . . .)
Memorial Flag Case Project Wrapup
The first St. James Woodworkers community service project is complete and has been delivered. Community service committee lead Wayne Kruger wrote this wrapup/summary article. Great job team!
Front row: American Legion Post 543 Commander George Freeman, at left, and Chaplain Tom Bednarczyk; back row, from left; St. James Woodworkers members Warren Cox, Dick Meyer, John Lowder, Ron Collier, John Boughton and Wayne Kruger.
Treasurer’s Report
Beginning balance: $1,300 .00
less . . . flag case expenses (materials, tooling): ($542.16)
plus . . . Legion reimbursement: $542.16
Ending Bal: $1,300.00
Helping Build this Group . . .
We’re still in need of a few intrepid souls to volunteer to be the lead coordinator for a some key roles. The work won’t all be on you; we’ve got an entire team full of energy and ideas. But we need someone to be the point person, the central place of contact and coordination.
We are still looking for the following lead coordinators to work in concert with the board:
- Meeting Presenters/Outside Speakers (follow up on suggestions/ideas and schedule meeting presenters)
- Field Trips (help coordinate lumber runs and tours of nearby commercial shops)
- Special Interest Groups (help connect members in focused-topic groups based on member profile data)
Call for Projects!
Summer is clicking along — share your latest projects with other members. Send a photo and some words about what you’ve been doing for our summer edition project bulletin to fredcwalters@gmail.com. Thanks!
Check out the latest member projects posted here and early-2020 projects? See them on our website here.