General Meeting of the Villages Woodshop Club
September 13, 2016
Laurel Manor Recreation Center
President Jim Spallone called the meeting to order at 7pm accompanied by the recitation of the pledge of allegiance. We had a moment of silence for member, Thomas Labbe who passed away and for Jack Tagye who underwent back surgery today.
Welcomed members back following our month off in August. Seasonal residents are starting to return. We had two visitors in attendance who are interested in joining the club.
President’s Report
Jim Spallone, President
· As of yesterday we’ve had 97 new members join since the beginning of 2016, bringing our total membership to 904. In the summer months of June, July and August we don’t typically have a lot of members join. However, we’ve had 30 new members join in these months. The interest continues to grow as TV’s grows.
· This past month we’ve had 68 visitors and are asking members to help provide visitor shop tours due the increased volume of guests. In February 2016 we had 200 visitors sign-in the guest book. We estimate that only 80 to 85% of the visitors actually sign-in the book.
· Our Villages Recreation Center maintenance contact has changed which has caused a bit of a hiccup. Explained that the TV’s owns the woodshop building. We’re considered a recreation center and are unique, because there is no other recreation center like ours. We’ve met with our new maintenance contact Brad Bolton for a brief walk-thru and advised that the doors need to be fixed and the dehumidifier in the back assembly room is not functioning properly. Mr. Bolton will be meeting with our shop maintenance volunteer Dave Adamovich this coming week to go over some of these issues and hopefully they’ll be resolved shortly. Additionally, The Villages has agreed to double the trash pick during our peak season.
· Special project’s is having a build night on 9/30/16 to make cardholders and slant boards. Hans Zassenhaus is working to develop more interest by the members to work on special projects. Explained special projects needs help to build small projects and for repairs, if any are interested to contact Hans.
· Our Christmas party is set for December 10th at the Savannah Center and we’ll have room for 400 people this year. Last year we had over 300 attend. Jim will recommend to the Board of Directors the same ticket prices as last year, however he can’t guarantee. Sandy Moraco has volunteered to chair the Christmas party this year and to contact her for any questions.
Department Reports:
Vice President – Harm Borfitz – No report.
Shop Administration & Maintenance – Dave Adamovich: Over time he has observed how members use the equipment and estimates that over half are not aware of the process of how to use the equipment effectively. This has prompted him to set up a series of monthly classes instructing on the process of using different pieces of equipment correctly. The first class will be on the joiner and is set for September 21st at 4pm. Dave gave a brief overview of what he’ll is teaching. He encouraged all to attend.
Special Announcements – Debbie Larouere: Early in August was contacted by a friend, who is president of one of the photography clubs in TV’s, looking for some 3-D table items for a pop-up photo gallery his club was having. Deb felt her wood projects wouldn’t due justice in comparison to some of our club’s artisans pieces of work. So she contacted available members who provided some of their work to be shown in the pop-gallery. Deb shared the pictures she took of our member’s pieces of work at the pop-gallery and advised that many of the 400 guests who attended were floored and impressed by the quality and artistry of our member’s wood working. Deb stated our club artisan’s fit right in, amongst talented artist here in TV’s. Additionally stated she has learned a lot from other members and that members willing share their knowledge with all members.
Alice Bessler: So far she has 4 items for the Christmas party raffle and asked members to donations.
Linda Samson: Has volunteered for this year’s Christmas tree project. This is a fundraising event the club supports for the Special Olympics. Each year our club decorates a Christmas tree with donated wood working pieces from our members, to be auctioned off. Linda stated that if each member made two to three objects each, that we would have enough ornaments to decorate Christmas trees for the next two to three years and that she would stay on to head up this funder raiser for the next two to three years. Linda will place a box in the front desk area for donated items and will collect every Monday morning. For large items for under the tree, she asked to be contacted.
Certification and Monitor Training – Dick Bessler: Alice Bessler reported on behalf of Dick who was not in attendance. The mentoring program is in need of more volunteers. These are that members who wear the “Ask Me for Help” buttons.
Monitor training, there are many members on the sub list who need training and asked that every one make the effort to get their training done. Training is held the first and last Thursday of every month. Five members were certified this past month and six are waiting. The next date for certification is September 22nd.
Lumber – Stephan Yovan: Reminded of the times of day lumber is sold in the shop. Introduced Kevin Vanscoy who also works in the wood shed and sells lumber Mon, Wed and Friday mornings. Many have asked what we have in the wood shed. There is $9k in inventory of common and exotic woods, as well as plywood in 4x8 and 5x5 pieces.
Office Administration – Anne Bell: October 1st starts the whole cycle for payment of member dues and signing of waivers. Waivers will be at the front desk. October 17th marks the date member’s can start to pay dues, select their monitory duty dates, confirm and update their personal information. Reminded members to pay dues with cash or check. We still don’t accept credit cards. Stated the front desk volunteers are very busy this time of the year and asked members to consider helping by giving visitor tours.
Nominating Chairman – Bob Rosen: The nominating process for Board of Directors and those seeking to run for office are about to be concluded with the next month. There are six potential candidates for one of three open Board positions. Any one interested serving on the board or running for office, need to submit their resume to Bob Rosen or committee members, John Justice or Ron Gammon within the next two weeks.
The Board of Directors proposed change to Section 4.8, of the by-laws at the June 2016 meeting. The proposed change was published on the VWC website in June and reads: “A board member shall attend all Board and Special meetings when called. Two consecutive absences or three total absences from Board meetings in one year shall result in dismissal as a Board member”. Medical and special extenuating circumstances may exist which may be reason for the Board not to dismiss the member. The proposed change was presented to the general membership for voting and all, with no opposing votes, approved amendment to Section 4.8 unanimously.
IT, Video Production and PR Mike Borfitz: IT is in the process of installing a server, which will allow computer systems to work more quickly. This will be a seamless and smooth transition. The Villages magazine ran a series of mini articles about the wood club with photographs of members. The Daily Sun’s Thursday newspaper’s Recreation News section will be listing VWC ‘s general membership and turners meeting dates. Colonial Days this coming year is scheduled January 20th and we need to start working to prepare for this event. An event coordinator to head up this endeavor is needed. Please contact Mike or Jim, if interested. Mike gave a brief overview of what Colonial Days is about. Our contact with the Daily Sun has moved and we now have a new contact Frank Ross, who is anxious to start working with us.
Special Projects and Website: Han Zassenhaus: We’ve sold 400 premade items. Special Build night is September 30th at 4pm, pizza and refreshments following. The goal is to build at least 300 cardholders and 50 slantboards, this endeavor is being led by Tom Ribaudo, Bob Thompson and Bernie Harkins. We had about 18 people attend the August 9th meeting to learn about special projects. We learned from this meeting that people are hesitant to deconstruct projects to enable repair. A training class will be set-up to teach members how to make basic repairs. Hans provide an overview of the internal process for working on special projects.
Toys
– Conway Williams:
Jim Spallone reported on behalf of Conway who was not in attendance. For
the month of August we made an additional
602 toys bringing our total
production for the year to 4780. We had our best
shipping month in August with 1521 toys going
to clients, bringing our total of toys to shipped to clients for
the year to 3673. These toys have a donation
value of $30,461. We will be restarting our Toys on
the Square in September. Our confirmed dates are: Lake Sumter Landing the
second Thursday of
the Month 9/8, 10/13, 11/10, and 12/10. We have also added two dates for
Spanish Springs for Monday
Nov 21st and Wednesday
Dec 21st. Thursday Sept 8th was not the best of 'Nights On The Square' tonightht
for our toys. Ron, Conway, John Scott worked the table. We took
in $207 in toy donations and regular donations of $55.00, total of $262.
Chairman Board of Directors -Bill McGinnis: No report.
Carver’s – Bill McGinnis: No report.
Education Bob Matthew: No report.
Turners - John Herega: The monthly Turner’s meeting is to resume on Sept 20th at 7pm and the demonstrator will be Ron Gammon. Advised that the turners help the toy department by turning jump rope handles and the ball toss game. Turners are needed to help turn these items.
Safety – John Herega: The monthly Safety Committee meeting to resume Sept 19th. All are invited to attend.
Member Apparel – John Herega: Our supplier continues to have health problems, as result we need to start looking for a new supplier. Prices may be higher for apparel since our supplier had not raised their prices in 8 or 9 years.
Questions: Jim Spalllone called for any questions or concerns from those attending and no one proposed any questions or reported any concerns.
Show and Tell Items: Bob Bell showed turned pizza cutter. Tom Miller showed a bowl made via ring master. Leif Drexler showed a solid bowl he turned in his basic turning class instructed by Larnie Cross. Debbie Larouere showed name placards made by using the scroll saw. Skip Banks showed two segmented bowls made from scrap pieces of wood and by using special made jigs.
50/50: Ron Gammon reported $105 was taken in for the 50/50 raffle. Three tickets were drawn resulting in two $20.00 winners and one $15.00 winner.
Jim Spallone, President, adjourned the VWC General meeting at 7:55pm.
Minutes prepared by Patty Porter, Secretary VWC –September 17, 2016