Fellow turners,
March is already upon us, and I am starting to ease into this position. We still need to improve getting our deliverables in on time, but we are making progress.
In the coming weeks, you will be receiving an invitation to participate in a member’s survey. I encourage you to take a few minutes to complete it. It is accessed online (from a phone will work). The purpose of the survey is to let the board get to know the membership, so that we can better provide educational opportunities and services that our members need. As an illustrative example, I was very surprised to learn that there are many members who have been turning for far less time than I have. I also was not expecting to find that a relatively large number of members did not have full-sized lathes, and many do not have floor-standing band saws. We need to understand what equipment is commonly owned, and what we can do to make it easier for our members to take advantage of, for example, our green wood offerings. Providing log sections does not help those members who do not have chain saws or large band saws with which to produce a round blank. If you have a 10 inch through lathe, even a 12-inch square is of no use until it is reduced to a 10- or 9.5-inch circle.
One project that is a carryover from last year is the library display project. Sally has kindly provided her correspondence with the Albuquerque libraries as a starting point. We have expressed interest from four branches (currently The Public Library South Valley Branch, The Public Library Special Collections Library, International District Library, and Tony Hillerman Library). I will be looking for someone to join the Education committee to spearhead this project.
Please plan on joining us at the March meeting at which our own Scott Kershaw will be demonstrating turning a tree trunk (section) into both a rough turned bowl (later to be twice turned), and a fully finished bowl from the green wood.
See you there,
Mark
President NMWT