Meeting Minutes – November 4, 2023

Meeting Location: Terry Landry’s Shop, 5279 LA 63, Clinton, LA

• Fellowship before meeting
• Collection of dues (Rick Albrecht) and selling of shirts and caps (Richard Robles)

Invocation and Pledge of Allegiance – Harold Choate

Welcome and Introduction of Guests– We had one guest, Troy Charpentier who introduced himself and told us he has been doing woodwork for a few years. He’s looking forward to meeting new people and learning some new things about woodwork.

Officer Reports:

• Vice-President – George Campagna- George confirmed the December meeting will be at Jim Landry’s shop and he would be doing the skill topic on Epoxy River Tables. Thank you to all those who have agreed to do a presentation in 2024. The schedule for 2024 is pretty much complete and is posted on the website. We’ll have some different topics and shops to visit so it will be an interesting year.
• Secretary – Harold Choate- Harold gave a non-report because he missed the October meeting. The October meeting was at the Iberville Swamp Fest. The club hosted a bluebird house build at the Swamp Fest. 165 birdhouses were built and given to the people who attended the festival. Jack Carmena and Hays Town have been unable to attend the meetings lately. Harold volunteered to bring cards for the members to sign at the December meeting. They will be sent to Jack and Hays. Lee Owens gave us an update on the issues both of them are dealing with. Harold also reported on the people and plans approved in September to put an introduction to woodworking together.
• Treasurer – Rick Albrecht- call Rick for details. Richard Robles gave us a report Rick provided him. There is approximately $5,200.00 in the treasury and O’Brien House has made the final payment for the chest of drawers the club built for them. It amounted to a little over $1,900.00.
• Webmaster – Open
• Community Service – Lee Owens- There are no projects for now to the end of the year. Lee has called One Touch Ministries and VOA about their needs that we can work on next year. VOA said they would send us a list of projects they need within the next 2 weeks.
• Education Outreach – Open

New and Ongoing Club Business

• Swampfest 2023 Richard gave his thanks for everyone who participated in this year’s event. 165 birdhouses were given away. This year’s event was good but didn’t have quite the number of people attending as there was last year. We have 32 kits in storage for next year’s event. We had a little trouble with driving the nails so we have sized the holes to fit the nails and have changed the drawings to reflect this change for next year’s birdhouses. 7/64’s is the hole size.
• Tool Donations- The donation was taken care of. Everyone who won a tool got theirs.
• Tool Swap at Flea Market- Thanks to Geoff for cooking offsite and bringing the Jambalaya. Everyone enjoyed it very much. It was a good time and particularly because some of our wives were able to come.
• Zoo- April 6 & 7 are the days for the Zoo event. Richard told the zoo official we would be there for one of those days. Discussion followed about the details of the event, what we would do, how long we would be there and other details. George described some animal figures he has cut out of 2 x 4’s that the kids could drill holes in for pencils/pens and other activities we can offer. Sunday, April 7 was decided as the date we would do this.
• Election of Officers- No new people have come forward to serve so Richard suggested we ask the current officers to serve another term. This was accepted by the club. Richard nominated himself for president, George Campagna as vice president, Rick Albrecht as treasurer and Harold Choate as secretary.
• Jackie Parker made a motion that we vote on the ballot as a whole. His motion was approved and the club unanimously approved the ballot.
• Back Up for Community Service- Richard said Lee Owens enjoys his position and what he does for the club but reality tells us we should have a backup to carry on if he becomes unable to continue. Richard asked us to think about this need and make some arrangements early next year.
• George Campagna advised us the Bosch tool representative is going to do a presentation for us next year and in addition to that made a 20% discount on the purchase of Bosch tools available for the remainder of 2023.
• A Shell engineer has offered all his equipment for sale on our website. Richard and Kesh modified the post to include the contact information for him because the original format was somewhat vague.
• Richard advised that Harold Choate donated a laptop to the club and made platforms for the little kids to build bird houses. Thank you, Harold.

Members Questions/Concerns

Safety Topic– Richard saw a YouTube video about listening to music while you do woodwork. He cautioned us about the danger of becoming distracted by the music and injuring ourselves as a result. Thank you, Richard.

Skill Topic: Using Hand Planes for Joinery – Terry Landry

Show-and-Tell

Adjourn

Please bring the following items to the meeting:

There Will Be an Executive Meeting After the Main Meeting