Meeting Minutes – August 5, 2023

Meeting Location: PMC, 11420 Hwy. 190, Hammond

• Fellowship before meeting
• Collection of dues (Rick Albrecht) and selling of shirts and caps (Richard Robles)
• This meeting we will have as guests the St. Tammany Woodworkers Club

Invocation and Pledge of Allegiance – Harold Choate

Welcome and Introduction of Guests

• Introduce St. Tammany Woodworkers
• 2 new members- Kevin Rodrigue and Aubrey Brignac were in attendance and introduced themselves. 3 guest were also in attendance. One of the guests was David Monistere, Mark’s brother. He has recently moved to Baton Rouge from Mississippi.
• Great attendance, PMC ran out of chairs!

Officer Reports:

• Vice-President – George Campagna- Thanks to PMC for hosting both clubs, thanks to Todd Shupe for giving us his presentation on wood identification. Next month’s meeting will be at West Baton Rouge Museum, Seth Ousley will do a presentation on wood stabilization with epoxy. October’s meeting will be at Swampfest in Grosse Tete. November will be at Terry Landry’s shop in Clinton. Terry will give us a presentation on joinery. We’ll wrap up the year at Jim Landry’s shop.
• Secretary – Harold Choate- July attendance was 18 members and 4 guests. Please submit your projects for posting on the Baton Rouge Woodworkers Facebook page.
• Treasurer – Rick Albrecht- Please contact Rick for details. We haven’t submitted the final invoice to O’Brien House for the chests of drawers because there is 1 more unit to be delivered. If you have receipts for reimbursement, please get them to Rick so they can be processed for payment. Richard Robles reminded everyone that Rick emails a membership list to everyone. Please print one for your personal use in contacting other members.
• Webmaster – Open
• Community Service – Lee Owens- There is one unit left to deliver to O’Brien House. Bob Bewick advised it would be delivered the week following this meeting. Brian Stauss advised the swing for Love Moves First is complete and will be delivered. Ken Brown advised the tables for Anchor House are complete and will be delivered. With these complete we have no pending projects. Lee asked for comments about whether to pursue new ones or wait till after Swampfest and the holidays. The consensus was to wait until after the New Year to pursue new projects. If anyone comes to us their request will be considered but Lee and Jack will not actively pursue new projects.
• Education Outreach – Open

New and Ongoing Club Business

• Swampfest/October meeting- Art Miller reported the efforts to get lumber yards to donate lumber was unsuccessful because of the high cost. He contacted a member of his church, Bryant Thibodeaux about getting lumber at cost. Bryant got us a price for the 75 boards 1″ x 8″ x 8 foot of $580.00. When he saw the amount he and his wife, Sarah decided to donate the wood we need. Thank you, Bryant and Sarah. Art did spend $80.00 for nails. A couple of other details Art advised are we will be using 4D box nails instead of finishing nails in order to make the birdhouses stay together better. Art made up 10 sets of jigs to use in making the birdhouse parts. The jigs are to size for the parts and include the 5/64″ holes in the proper location for the nails to be driven into. The jigs should make everyone’s parts interchangeable. Harold Choate advised everyone that the plans for the birdhouses are on the website. There are 2 jigs. One for the top of the birdhouse and one for the sides. These are the 2 parts that are nailed to the front, back and bottom of the birdhouse. Art asked that anyone picking up wood also take a set of jigs. Art earned applause from the group for all his efforts. Richard Robles asked that everyone have the birdhouses they are making delivered to him, George Compagna or Art Miller by September 23rd so they can be inspected for accuracy and the kits for completeness. Richard also asked everyone who is making birdhouses to drill just the front panel for the screw that holds it on. Don’t drill the bottom so the screw can make its own hole. Art asked everyone to orient any cupped boards so the cup is on the outside. That will make the pieces fit better. Harold Choate confirmed he would have 4 each 4″ high platforms for the little kids to stand on while they are assembling a birdhouse. He’ll have them done by September 23. Please confirm to Richard Robles if you can work at the Swampfest weekend. We will begin at 8:00 AM, October 7. We should have a total of 180 birdhouse kits. If we run out of kits we’ll just have to say, sorry no more kits! Discussion for how to thank the Thibodeaux’s for their donation took place. The club will write a letter thanking them and make them their personal birdhouse.
• Executive Committee Notes- George Campagna reported on the plans for being at the Baton Rouge Zoo in 2024. We are going to make some wooden animals that children can drill holes in and use them as pencil holders. We may also have other activities for them that are yet to be decided. The other item was a social gettogether for the club. It is tenatively planned for October 28. Mark Monistere has been asked to do a jambalaya. It will be a social gathering plus tool swap.
• St.Tammany business- Tom thanked Warren for his woodburning demonstration last month. He also advised the venue for the club Christmas party has been booked for December 7. The board also talked about inventory for the Boat Building Festival. They have plenty of boat hulls but they need some more cabins. Tom described how the kids get to build their own boats. Discussion took place about building parts. The board is going to send a questionnaire out about meeting at a different time perhaps changing from a night time to a day time.

Members Questions/Concerns

Safety Topic Be aware of the toxicity of some varieties of wood as you work with them.

Skill Topic: Wood Identification – Todd Shupe

Show-and-Tell – BRWC & St. Tammany Woodworkers

Adjourn

Please bring the following items to the meeting: