Meeting Minutes – February 1, 2025

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Meeting Minutes – February 1, 2025

Meeting Location: PMC, 11420 Hwy. 190, Hammond

  • Fellowship before meeting
  • Collection of dues (Rick Albrecht) and selling of shirts and caps (Lee Owens)

Invocation and Pledge of Allegiance – Harold Choate

Welcome and Introduction of Guests – There were 18 members in attendance and 5 visitors. One visitor is a former member and looking to return to the club. Another visitor is a member of the St. Tammany Guild but because of her more or less equidistant location from both clubs and interest in what our club is doing voiced an interest in joining our club as well.

Officer Reports:

  • Vice-President – George Campagna – George introduced and welcomed Craig Bond from St. Tammany Guild who was doing a presentation on “Intarsia”. George announced next month’s presentation would be at the LSU Rural Life Museum in Baton Rouge and that Brian Fitzgerald (past member and President of BRWC, currently in Texas) would present on the Skill Topic Hand Held Tool Box.
  • Secretary – Lee Soileaux – Lee reported that at last month’s meeting there were 23 members attending and 4 visitors. Currently, we have 53 members as compared to 49 the previous month. Apparently, our 4 visitors decided to join the club. We are glad to have them on board. Harold Choate presented the Facebook report. He said that there are 22 new followers on our Facebook page. Harold encouraged members to send photos of there projects to him and he would see that they would be published on the club’s Facebook page.
  • Treasurer – Rick Albrecht – Rick reports that he collected annual dues from 18 members during the month of January and that our current bank balance is $6,006.86.
  • Webmaster – Open
  • Community Service – Bob Pace – Bob was unable to attend the meeting so the Community Service report was presented by Ken Brown. Ken reports that the teams are still working on the drawers for O’Brien House and the respective team members reported on their various stages of completion. Ken asked that the team members contact him when they were ready for delivery or for any other necessary communication. If unable to contact him he advised them to contact Lee Owens. Ken said that as of now there are no additional community service projects in the works.
  • Education Outreach – Open

New and Ongoing Club Business

  • Dues for 2025 – Richard reminded members that March would be the cutoff month for paying annual club dues. He also reminded members that Lee Owens is selling shirts and hats. Lee said the he has long sleeve and short sleeve shirts and some pink ones as well. See him if you’re interested in buying some.
  • Birdhouse Kit Lumber – Richard and Jim Landry have been looking for lumber sources and have contacted the manager at Doug Ashy Lumber in Breaux Bridge who has expressed an interest in supplying the club with # 1 lumber for bird house kits free of charge. Richard will call him in March to start that process.
  • Zoo Event on April 6th- George described the event and reports that we gave out about 600 figurines and necklaces last year. George sent out an email this past month soliciting volunteers for the event. He says that we still need some people to step up to help with cutting the figurines and for helping with the kids and drill press stations. George contacted Weyerhauser Sawmill in Hogan, La. and they are willing to provide the club with 100 8ft. 2×4’s. This should yield about 1600 figurines. George will supply those interested in cutting the figurines with the 2×4’s needed, just contact him or Richard and make arrangements.
  • Executive Committee Update – The main topic of the meeting was the need for club members to volunteer for events and Community Service projects. Richard pointed out the benefits of volunteering for projects as well as for spearheading some positions that are currently vacant. Richard also resurrected the committee formulated last year for developing ideas regarding opportunities for interested members, particularly new members, to receive woodworking instruction. This need was brought to the forefront on our Facebook page with several followers asking about the availability of such instructions.
  • Community Service Helper – Richard reports that we are still in need of another volunteer for the position of Community Service Helper. He again repeated the importance of this volunteer position and encourages anyone interested to please volunteer.
  • Projector Screen – Richard reports that the old projector screen has been sent to O’Brien House. There were no members who expressed an interest in the screen.

Members Questions/Concerns – No member questions/concerns.

Safety Topic – Richard introduced the topic of push sticks. The typical push stick that comes with a table saw is not very good and over confident reliance on them could lead to careless mistakes and injury. There are commercially available push sticks that are much safer to use and some are relatively inexpensive. Of course, least expensive are those that are shop made using scraps. Another advantage of these shop made push sticks is that they can be designed to meet your unique needs.

Skill Topic: Intarsia Woodworking – Craig Bond (STG) Mr. Bond gave a very good and thorough presentation on the skill topic of intarsia. He covered all aspects from the very beginning to the end of the process. Thank you Mr. Bond.

Show-and-Tell – There were 4 members who brought projects in for Show and Tell.

Adjourn – The meeting was adjourned and it was announced once again that the next meeting would be at the LSU Rural Life Museum in Baton Rouge on March 1st at 9:00 am.