General Meeting of the Villages Woodshop Club

January 10, 2017

Laurel Manor Recreation Center

Meeting called to order at 7pm accompanied by the recitation of the pledge of allegiance led by President Jim Spallone and a moment of silence for members who passed away in 2016.

Jim welcomed one new member and the three guests in attendance.    

Active members in attendance were asked to cast their vote, if they had not done so already, for election of President, Vice President, Treasurer and Secretary and three Board of Director positions. Results to be announced at the end of the meeting.

        President’s Report

    Jim Spallone, President 

·         With the return of seasonal residents there is more usage and abuse of machines. Reminded all to police the use of machines and if you see someone not properly using the machine to let them or a monitor know.  We the members are the eyes and ears of the shop.

·         Membership continues to grow. We now have 973 members. We added 10 new members since our December meeting.  There are 160 members who have not paid dues, which means they’re not in good standing and cannot use the shop. They have until the end of January to pay their dues or they’ll be dropped from the membership. Every year we lose an estimated 100 members. The active membership as Feb.1st should be around 850 to 875 members. Which is more than we had February 2016.

·         We continue to attract interest in TV’s with 96 guests visiting our club, note not all visitors sign our guest book.

·         Certification of new members has been very busy with the next available training date being on March 23rd.

·         The Villages Sales Team will visit on January 16th to educate new sale agents about our club and shop.

·         Member Dan Bernier completed the changing of the all the shop locks and making new keys on 12/18/17. Much thanks to Anne Bell for putting in place a system of assigning and collecting keys from members, Dan Bernier, as well as Paul Porter for coming in on Sunday to assist Dan.

·          2016 was fiscally a good year with a positive net income. Many have asked what drives our income.  A lot of income comes from initiation fees and dues, general donations, special project repairs, raffles and premade special projects.  Example in January Special Projects brought in $16,733.

·         Announced and requested members to volunteer for the Cardholder Special Build this coming Sunday from 2pm to 5pm, to sell at Colonial Days set for Friday January 20th and for the shop.  Looking to make upward of 400 cardholders. The club sells 100 to 150 cardholders per month. 

·         We’ve entered into an agreement with the Lady Lakes Parks and Recreation Department to have the golf cart path paved from the shop leading to the driving range. This should take place this spring.

·         We had an excellent turn out for Cleaning Day this past Saturday, with 80 members volunteering. Going forward we’ll conduct semi-annual shop cleaning days in May and October. 

        Department Reports:   

Shop Administration & Maintenance – Dave Adamovich: The large planner will out of commission for 5 to 7 weeks since the part needs to be rebuilt verses replaced.  We are looking to purchase a small back up planner with spiral head, which runs quieter than the small planner we have.  We’ve had misuse and damage of a radial arm saw and table saw occur. We’re not able to get parts from the manufacturer, General and Delta, because they’ve been resold.  Asked this equipment be handled with care, because it’s getting harder to find parts for this equipment.  We’ve been buying a lot from Grissly for their quality and ability to readily get parts.  The small palm sanders are being misused. Members are bearing down and sanding edges of wood, which is damaging the unit. Sanders need to oscillate enable sanding and bearing down does not allow for this.

Tool Crib – Bob Beherns:  Those who have bins, please stay within the confines of the bin.  We don’t want materials left on the floor, for safety purposes.   

Member Merchandise – Bob Bell: Gave an overview of member merchandise and the items available for purchase.  We ordered a new mini lathe the end of December and as a result of building up rewards points over the year was able to get $600 reduction on our purchase of the mini lathe.

Certification and Monitor Training – Dick Bessler:  We’ve had to schedule certification for three weeks in January and February and may open up another week in March to accommodate all the new members.  We’ll have three weeks of Monitor training in January and February to accommodate the snowbirds. Jim gave kudos’s to Dick and his group for doing an excellent job with certification, especially this time of the year when we’re very busy.

Lumber – Stephan Yovan:  Jim reported this past Saturday, Ernie DeSantis completed lumbar inventory. We have $8 to $9K in inventory.    

Office Administration – Anne Bell:  Asked if members received email from the club announcing John Herega’s – Finishing Class G151 now has a date of Jan. 31st and Special Build on Sunday from 2pm to 5pm.   Also, she is looking for a few people to work the front desk and to see her if interested.

IT, Video Production and PR -Mike Borfitz: No report

Special Projects and Website - Han Zassenhaus:  Jim announced we took in estimated 1,200 to 1,300 special projects in 2016. 

Toys – Conway Williams:  Yearend performance - In 2016 they made 7031 toys and shipped 6948 toys with a donation value of $56,506.00.  We deal with 24 different agencies in supplying toys. We continue to give the most to SOZO Kids Help Agency (children living in the Ocala National Forest). In 2016 we gave them 1664 toys. Jim announced our club was founded on toy making and it continues to be the focus of our club. He also reminded all that Toys will be sold on the Square this Thursday.

Chairman Board of Directors -Bill McGinnis:  Thanked Tom Ribaudo and Debbie Laqouere for leading our shop clean-up, they did a fantastic job. With over 80 helpers it made the job easier and faster.  Thanked our outgoing Board Members and we’ll be welcoming in our new Board members, once the votes are tabulated. Thanks to all members for their service, the number of hours put in during the year, is almost unbelievable. Especially thank s to Jim, Harm, Patty and Doug (our treasurer) and office manager Anne Bell and her assistants. Amazing what volunteers can do, to run our club, which ours operates like a small business. Thanks to all Department Managers and thanks to you all for what you do for our shop.

Carver’s – Bill McGinnis:  No report

Education- Bob Matthew: Not in attendance

Turners - John Herega:  Will be conducting a finishing class on Jan 31st.  Turners meeting is next Tuesday at 7pm. John     will be conducting the monthly demonstration.  Tom Miller is looking into on-line demonstrations for the club. Tom Miller is also looking for help with videoing of our demonstrations, which are posted on line.  Please see Tom if any interest to help.

Safety – John Herega:  Committee has been slow.  There is a problem with folks keeping the place clean, be sure to keep the floors cleaned.  Finding more and more equipment running, since they run very quietly.   Please turn off the machines and put away the equipment and tools to where it belongs.

Member Apparel – John Herega:  Our new supplier of shirts and hats is Custom Apparel at Southern Trace Plaza. We have gone to tan shirts and t-shirts and the left over green shirts can be purchased for half price from the shop.  

Show and Tell Items:

Bill Pappas presented slides of kitchen cabinet doors he made using the shaper table. Ray Roberts presented a turned/sculpted nautilus shaped Birdseye maple piece which he carved butterflies and added stippling and piercing, as well as dyed. 

2017 Election Results:

Officers

Secretary Patty Porter announced the results;

President running unopposed Mike Borfitz elected for one-year term from Jan. 11, 2017 to Jan.09, 2018

Vice President running unopposed Jim Spallone elected for one-year term from Jan.11, 2017 to Jan.09, 2018  

Treasurer incumbent Doug Parks running unopposed reelected for one-year term from Jan. 11, 2017 to Jan.09, 2018 

Secretary incumbent Patty Porter running unopposed reelected for one-year term from Jan.11, 2017 to Jan.09, 2018

Board of Directors

Board of Directors elected for a three-year term 2017, 2018 and 2019 are; Bob Bell, Harm Borfitz and Sandy Fuller

Jim congratulated all new Board members and reminded Board members of their meeting immediately preceding this meeting.

Mike Borfitz thanked Jim for all this hard work as President of the club and for a round of applause and standing ovation of the   terrific job he did.   Jim thanked all. 

Questions:  Jim Spalllone called for any questions or concerns from those attending for the good of the club, there were no questions or concerns.  

50/50 - Ron Gammon:  Reported $140 was taken in for the 50/50 raffle.  Four tickets were drawn $20 Conway Williams, $20 John Herega, $15 MaryAnn Main and $15 Sandy Fuller. The remaining $70.00 was a donation for the club.  Conway Williams asked that his $20 winnings be donated back to the Toy Department. 

Jim Spallone, President, adjourned the VWC General meeting at 8:16pm.

Minutes prepared by Patty Porter, Secretary VWC –January 12, 2017