Meeting Minutes – May 4, 2024

Meeting Location: Robert Cheramie’s Shop, 16415 Coliseum Road, Baton Rouge

• Fellowship before meeting
• Collection of dues (Rick Albrecht) and selling of shirts and caps (Bill Carter)

Invocation and Pledge of Allegiance – Harold Choate

Welcome and Introduction of Guests– Bob Pace

Officer Reports:

• Vice-President – George Campagna- No changes in the meeting schedule at this time. Mark Monistere is going to do a presentation on Woodworking Jigs next month at the Rural Life Museum. The July meeting is at PMC. The St. Tammany club is responsible for the skill topic. George will contact them to see what they plan to do.
• Secretary – Harold Choate- We had 17 people attend the April meeting. One was a visitor, Diego Granada. Diego is the chief engineer on a tugboat. Harold reported on the favorable response to the Community Service posting on Facebook. A picture of the glider rocker for VOA was posted.
• Treasurer – Rick Albrecht- contact Rick for details. Our membership roster is up to date. We have 43 members as of now.
• Webmaster – Open
• Community Service – Lee Owens- We’re building 4 glider rockers for VOA group home. The team of Harold Choate, George Campagna, Lee Soileau and Art Miller have completed theirs except for the staining. Dale Ragel and Cody Henderson’s teams are getting started. Lee advised we are trying to have all 4 delivered by the end of May. Lee contacted Salvation Army and Catholic Charities. Salvation Army doesn’t answer emails or phone calls and didn’t have time to talk to Lee so he’s cancelled efforts to work with them until they initiate an interest. Catholic Charities said they would check to see if they have any needs. Lee’s partner, Jack Carmena has not been feeling well lately. Jack has been an important part of the Community Service work so his being out of pocket has limited the opportunities. Richard Robles repeated the need for a volunteer to help Lee. Lee shared that he enjoys the work and the clients but feels another person is needed to continue this effort. A question was asked about how Hays Town is doing. Lee advised that he’s not well and has had to limit his activity. Our best wishes go to both of these long time, valued members.
• Education Outreach – Open

New and Ongoing Club Business

• Tee shirts and Caps- Richard asked for a volunteer to take responsibility for these items.
• Zoo Project- George Campagna thanked everyone who made animal cutouts. We had almost 600 pieces and used them all. Jim Landry made 300 necklace cutouts and used all of them. We worked non-stop from 9:30 am till 5:00 pm. We only had 8 people participate. This is not enough because no one had a chance to take a break from the work. We had 4 drill presses which was adequate, but more would have been welcome so no one would have had to wait. We need to have 2 people per drill press to do it safely. One person to line stuff up and one person to keep the children from hurting themselves. We also needed more people so all the drill stations could be kept supplied with animals. None of this should take away from how popular and well-received the event was. Parents and zoo officials alike were very complimentary. Hopefully we’ll do this again with greater participation from the club. The location was comfortable and good. We want to avoid using treated lumber but otherwise any 2 x 4 scraps 6″ long is sufficient for making animals. Harold Choate suggested we limit our participation to 1 day. Lots of good discussion took place.
• Weyerhaeuser Co. Mill Field Trip- Thanks to George Lewis for directing us to the location. George Campagna spoke to Jason Smith at the facility. It looks like June 21 is the date we’ll do this because of the response to the 4 dates that were offered. The facility is in Holden, LA. They manufacture construction lumber from pine trees. Mr. Smith requires a head count so he can have enough PPE for everyone. The start time is 10:00 am. 14 members have responded so far. Please advise George if you are interested and have not already let him know.
• Outdoor Project Material- Richard Robles brought up an issue about using treated lumber for club projects. This material should be used with caution. He wanted to see how the club as a whole feel about using this material. It was decided to decide on a case-by-case basis. Bob Pace volunteered check this out and report back to the club.

Members Questions/Concerns

Safety Topic– The discussion on using treated lumber is our safety topic for this meeting.

Skill Topic: Using Dominos for Cabinet Face Frames & Doors – Robert Cheramie

Show-and-Tell

Adjourn

Please bring the following items to the meeting: