Newsletter for July 2020

President’s Letter – July 2020 Meeting

Hi to all MAWT members,

We had a great demonstration by Mike Peace for the July meeting. He showed members that the skew is a versatile and helpful tool for woodturning and doesn’t deserve the bad rap it is sometimes given. If you are familiar with the skew, you probably learned a few new tricks. If you are scared by the skew, he hopefully dispersed your fears and got you thinking about using it for your next project. By the way, we had a very impressive 47 members join in and watch Mike’s demo* – thanks to all!

As I mention in my opening remarks before Mike’s demo, here’s the latest club information:

Treasurer’s report:
Our starting balance as of May 5 th was $9,171.55, we had $361.03 of expenses and the account is now $8,810.52 as of July 6 th. I also want to mention that Carl Brust will be resigning as treasurer at the end of 2020 after many years of handling the ledger books for the club. We greatly appreciate his years of volunteering as treasurer. We are therefore looking for a member to step up and volunteer as the new treasurer starting in January of 2021. Please contact me at ronzdroik@mawturners.com

Demonstrations:
The club is looking for members to help fill out the demonstration schedule for the remainder of the year. Please consider doing a demo and if you have any questions about procedures for doing a Zoom demo and wish to volunteer, contact Tony Rozendaal at opa@opaspens.com

Our ongoing projects:
Turn for Troops – Carl Brust can mail kits of 15 pens to any member who wants them – just contact Carl at cjbrust1@gmail.com. When done, you can drop them off in the MAWT mailbox at the bottom of the steps to the Woodcraft meeting area. Remember to clearly mark the package with your name to help Carl keep track of the pen count.

Empty Bowls and Beads of Courage – Continue turning these bowls and vessels. Just hang onto them and bring them in once we start meeting at Woodcraft.

Virtual Show and Tell Gallery:
Tom Hipsak is coordinating the Virtual Show and Tell Gallery. Submit your latest projects (photos and description) to Tom at thipsak@wi.rr.com. Make sure the photos are high resolution and sent as an attachment to the email. We have received lots of great examples from members, so continue sending them in.

Even with the high heat, I hope everyone is enjoying the summer!

Stay safe, healthy and keep making wood shavings!

Ron Zdroik
President – Milwaukee Area Woodturners

* – We did have a Zoom invite glitch that is now corrected – all members with an email on file with the club should receive future invites. Murphy’s Law definitely applies to anything electronic, so inevitably you will always have a problem. Even at the Monday demo, Mike Peace’s equipment shut down a couple of minutes before he was to start.