Turning Clubs

Re: Turning Clubs

RonZ

>Use a club.... over the head. =o)

Seriously, poll the club about what they want to see, that would be a good place to start.

Re: Turning Clubs

John Lucas

>Julie

We constantly ask the clubs,(I'm in 3) about what they want to see and who they would like to demonstrate. We try to schedule several basic skills demo's each year so we don't scare off the new people.

To get new members we advertise in the local papers. Ads are free in the Things' to do or local interst sections. Contact the paper and local radio stations to find out what they offer and how to get the info to them.

We raise money primarily by raffles. Members bring in wood, tools , turnings etc that they want to raffle. We sell tickets for $1 each and then draw the names and they get to choose which item they want. Even with a small club we have raised an amazing amount of money in the 5 or so years we've been in existence. This helps us bring in a big name speaker occasionally.

Get in touch with the AAW or in your case look and see what turners are demonstrating at Arrowmont, John C. Campbell, Southern States Symposium, or this year the AAW symposium. You may be able to get one of those turners if they are traveling to and from one of those events. We've done that several times.

Re: Turning Clubs

TDaniel

>I think most small clubs have trouble raising enough money to bring in good instructors to do demos. Without the demos the club may not have much to offer prospective members. I can think of 2 things that we might be able to do here that would help. First, if someone can do 2 or 3 demos on a trip that would reduce the travelling expenses which is a major portion of their cost. Maybe we could start a board for clubs wanting someone to do a demo and an approximate date for the demo and maybe another column for anyone doing a demo at a certain location and date so other clubs could "hook on". The other thing you can do is get with a tree service company and / or a sawmill and get wood for the raffle. We have several members in our club that always bring several nice pieces of wood and we have a number of members who come from the big city that do not have good sources of turning wood so the two make for good raffle ticket sales. We try to do at least 2 "hands on all day events" per year and we charge extra for these. Other suggestions are: Keep the business portion of the meeting really short, most of the business can be done in the newsletter. The club should be FUN. The club should be for a wide variety of people, young.....old....male....female. Encourage family participation. Add to the learning process by doing a quick "Tip of the Month" and a "Wood of the Month". These tips are done by various members and are well received in our club.

I am certain others can add a lot to this list.

TD

Re: Turning Clubs

Jim Pugh

>For about 5 years now our club has used the december meeting as an auction to raise money. We collect useable items from members plus several stores also donate including the Rocklers where we meet. One or more of our members act as auctioneer. Folks who want to bid need a bid card and pay upon departing. The donated items need not be turning related but must be functional. We seldom have anything left that couldn't be sold. This annual auction tends to bring in enough money to support one or two pro turners demo during the year.

Re: Turning Clubs

Bill Grumbine, Kutztown PA

>Hi Julie

We recruit heavily from our local woodworking guild, and until recently, we had people who, while not necessarily members of our turning club, are woodworkers who were working at the local Woodworker's Warehouse who would point people in our direction. Then there is word of mouth, the internet, etc.

As far as fund raising goes, we have a raffle each month where people donate wood, tools, etc. We also buy Anchorseal, T shirts, and other items and then resell them to club members.

I would also like to comment on demonstrators. There are probably plenty of people in your club who might be willing to demonstrate something, and they will often do it for free. I have demonstrated for clubs in PA, NJ, NY, and IN, sometimes for free and sometimes I was paid. I do not wish to get into an argument with anyone here, but I think that the homegrown demonstrator is going to be just as good as a big name pulled in for lots of money.

It is my very strong contention that most famous turners are not famous because they have skills and abilities far beyond the rest of us in turning. It is because they have skills and abilities far beyond the rest of us in self promotion. Being famous does not always equate to being good at what one is doing, and it most certainly does not equate to being good at demonstrating it. Being greatly skilled at turning, self promotion, and demonstrating are three completely different things, and not everyone who is out there is good at all of them.

The reason I am writing this is not to denigrate famous turners, or belittle another's effort at getting notice. I am writing this because over the years I have seen the misperception that because someone is well known and charges a lot of money for his or her time, it is automatically assumed that that person is going to be a real wizard at communicating a skill or technique. There are good teachers and demonstrators out there, but not as many as one might think.

So work with your own members, build their confidence, and encourage them to get up in front of the people that they know to show them how they do something on the lathe. It doesn't even have to be limited to one person for the entire show - several members could do a short spot in a single evening. This is a confidence builder for those members, plus the others watching as well. When you do it this way, you don't need a lot of money to haul in a "name".

Good luck with it.

Bill

Re: Turning Clubs

Mark Kauder, Phenix City, AL

>I do not have the experience in clubs of John or Terry or Bill, but I will chime in as the president of a new club, and tell you what we have done to grow a club.

I started our club back in May of this year. I started it because I had just returned from a visit with Wally Dickerman and he had re-enforced the idea that just socializing with other woodturners is one of the best learning experiences that you can have. I only knew of two other woodturners in the area, but it turned out that they each knew a couple of others. I put out flyers at Lowes, Home Depot, and the local saw sharpening place. When we had our first meeting in a local cabinet shop, be had 6 people show up. Now we have 21 paid members and another dozen occasional visitors. We did it by word of mouth and most of all, becoming an AAW chapter. We have had about 5 members join after finding us through the AAW.

But to your point - we have grown the club, and kept people coming back by having a wide variety of demonstrators. Granted we are close to Atlanta, and there are good variety of demonstrators living and visiting there. But we keep our eyes and ears open not only for who is available but also what our members want/need. Nick Cook did a day long demo, mostly on small projects, Hal Simmons did a morning on tool presentation (how tools work), Bobby Clemons did sharpening and one of his Christmas Ornaments, and Andi Wolfe was in for an evening and showed here coloring and texturing techniques.

We have done it all without dipping into club funds, for the most part. Everymeeting we have a wood/tool/project raffle. Members bring in wood that they have extra, tools they don't want any more, an extra Christmas Ornament that they made, and one guy works for an aircraft manufacturer and he brings in stuff like sandpaper that was being thrown away. The raffle generally brings in $50-75. When the demo is completed we was the had, members are asked to donate to pay for the demonstrator. Between the two, we are always able to pay for the demonstrator.

I think any club has to have at least one or two people that work hard for the club. Go above and beyond. A club with members that just want to come to a prepared meeting will die. Someone has to be the sparkplug, and make things happen.

In short - good demonstrators, wide variety of subjects, and look for oportunities.

Just my .02 worth.

Mark

Re: Turning Clubs

Ric Erkes

>Julie, I have been a member of a club for 5 years and the program coordinator going on 3 years. Our club is over 10 years old, with a few original members still around. We have over 100 members and charge $35 a year for membership, so we are lucky to have an instant budget. One of the draw backs of an older large club is finding a topic that someone hasn't seen before. You just can't please everyone, at all skill levels, all the time.

What I did, was list all the topics I could think of, ie. spheres, hollowing, platters, segmented, textures, vacuum systems, basic, spindles and on and on. Then I picked the ones that hadn't been done in awhile. I then asked around if anyone knew anyone who could do a certain topic. I called the Presidents of near by clubs and asked them who in their club they would recommend as a demonstrator. I used the AAW directory, even this web site for suggested demonstrators, (and got some, thank you) and then filled in the schedule. It is a constant search for ideas. The uniqueness of each demo seems to be appreciated by both our newer members and those of higher skill levels.

We occassionally have members bring in additional mini lathes to provide hands on instruction for our newer members.

I mentioned our dues as a primary source of income, but we also hold a two day mini-symposium every two years. We ask the AAW for Grant money for the symposium. We work with other area clubs and then split the money.

We also hold a Christmas auction, and raffles.

We meet in a woodworking store and they give us a 10 percent discount on the day of our meeting. That provides and incentive to join and then to come to the meetings.

Don't overlook the possibility of becoming a non-profit organization. That provides an incentive for people to donate.

As somebody said, turn it and they will come, or something like that.

Ric

Re: Turning Clubs(long)

Bob Hackett

>I recommend becoming a chapter of the AAW as the first thing on your list.There are folks assigned to each geographical area to help you get going and stay strong.No need to re-invent the wheel when there`s such a good source of info to tap into.

Our dues supports a newsletter that we have printed by an outside source(to include B+W pics)and pays for 2 nationally known demonstrators per year.We also change non-members a small fee to attend these demos.

To augment the dues we have a wood auction every month(donated wood and prepared blanks) and what we call a bring back raffle every month too.We sell tickets for the raffle and whoever wins the raffle brings in the item to be raffled off for the next meeting.

We also mail off letters to folks we have supported by way of steering our members toward buying from them.Craft supplies in Utah has been very generous every year by sending us 10 gift certificates in $15 amounts that we can augment other things(like the bring back raffle)with.

We have done other fund raisers where we buy equipment and then raffle it off. these have worked out well.We`re about to start another raffle for a midi lathe in the next few months.Dust collectors,power visors,lathes,chucks, and grinders have been raffled in the past,as well as pieces by Bob Rosand,Jacques Vesery,Christian Burchard and other well known turners.

I`m going to echo the thought that,while everyone looks forward to the big names,it`s the local talent that keeps members coming thru the door.Everyone has something they know that others can use to inprove thier enjoyment of the craft.The trick is to get them fired up about it and then get them to demo it.Some of the most productive evening meetings have been a sort of round robin type discussion/demo thing based on a topic such as chucking solutions or grinders and sharpening.Another favorite group demo was "Cutting blanks for the best yield and/or figure".Folks brought in chainsaws(with and without problems)and got to try different saws.Other members brought in large chunks of wood and we all had at it.It also generated alot of income by way of the wood auction.

I also head up a tool making demo one saturday every year.The club buys supplies(drill rod,HSS bits,hardware,etc)and these are resold to add to the treasury.Other members and I bring in torches,angle grinders,and other metalworking/blacksmithing tools and we make custom tools for the day.

Before you know it you won`t know where you`re going to put all the members and will be looking for a larger facility to hold your meetings.

Find those 10% of the members that are gonna do 90% of the work and keep them fired up and fed things to do.The rest will take care of itself with the help of the AAW and other local WWing clubs and guilds.Let us know if we can be of further help.

Mainely,Bob

Re: Turning Clubs

Joe Fleming

>Julie,

Lots of good ideas already. Here is what we do in San Diego (in no particular order).

- Dues = $30 ($25 if you take the web version - saves us printing and mailing costs)

- Mini symposium in the summer. $20 for members and $35 or $30 for non-members. Local demonstrators or neighboring club demonstrators.

- Newsletter monthly. Usually 10 pages, but the web version may have more pages and photos.

- Instant gallery at every meeting with one person providing a critique.

- Raffle at every meeting with about 6-8 prizes turning-related prizes. One prize is usually $200-$300. The raffle is self-supporting, but not a money maker. $1 per ticket with price breaks on volume.

- Club picnic each year where the raffle is 20-30 turned pieces. Tickets are $2 per ticket with price breaks on volume. We usually raise $700 to $1000 on this event.

- We also have a feature instant gallery comptetition for the picnic. Something like boxes, tops, candle sticks, platters, etc. Prizes for the best piece in each catagory.

- 2 to 3 big names each year. Usually charge about $20 for club members and $25 to $30 for nonmembers.

- Majority of other meetings tend to be more beginner focused.

- An annual 2-week exhibition each year where members can show/sell their work for a very low cost of $15 for up to three pieces. We work with a local artist's co-op and rent space from them. The club takes 5%, the co-op takes 20% and the seller gets 75%. Break even financially for the club.

Joe Fleming - San Diego