Newsletter for January 2021

Hello Fellow Woodturners;

Tony Rozendaal here – Ron Zdroik has come to the end of his term as President, so I am writing this month’s newsletter.

A Big Thank You to Ron Zdroik – please join me in thanking Ron for his leadership for the last two years. Ron took over the presidency in January 2019, little realizing what would lay before him in 2020. Ron’s vision for the Milwaukee Area Woodturners, and his willingness to rise to new challenges has benefitted the club greatly in the last two years. I want to mention just a few highlights of his presidency:

• Leading the club to become a 501(c)(3) organization. He and Barb Nelson worked together and spent many hours to make this become a reality. This means that the club is now legally a non-profit organization which means that we have certain rights and protection under the law. It also means that any donation to the club is tax-deductible*.
• Leading the club as we have navigated through the COVID-19 crisis. Ron and the board and the AV team have spent many hours discussing and then executing plans to keep the club active and viable through these unusual times. We failed to meet as a club only one month, in April of 2020. We know through AAW that many clubs have become dormant during this time. Ron worked hard to make sure that the demos from both club members and professional demonstrators offered quality content throughout this period.
• Merging the Wisconsin Woodturners into the Milwaukee Area Woodturners. This occurred in late 2019, and was unforeseen when Ron became president at the beginning of 2019.

In addition to his leadership role, Ron has demo’d a number of times during his tenure as president. I’m sure I have forgotten many other highlights of Ron’s presidency. If you know of something that you think should be mentioned, let me know and I will make sure that it gets mentioned in a later newsletter.

*Your annual membership dues are not deductible, unless you pay taxes on profit from your woodturnings – see your personal tax advisor for clarification.

The January Demonstration – if you weren’t able to join us for the Zoom meeting on Monday, January 4, you missed a great demo. Harvey Meyer has a real knack for explaining what he is doing, and although the subject matter may have seemed a little simple, he explained his techniques in such a manner that gave turners of any experience level something to think about. I have a couple bowls that need to be final turned in payment for wood that I received a year ago, and I will be trying his technique for holding the gouge for those finishing cuts. Another thing that I liked about Harvey’s demonstration is his ability to “play to the camera.” He has obviously spent money and time in setting up camera views that let his audience see what he is doing, and then learning how to use those shots. Finally, I appreciated his humility and sense-of-humor.

MAWT Board

• Join me in welcoming Suzy Hoffman to the MAWT board of directors. I believe that Suzy will bring a fresh voice and perspective to the board as we move forward into 2021 and beyond.
• Also, please join me in thanking Steve Fosticz and Curt Van Weelden as their terms expire. Both of these individuals have contributed to the board in the last three years.
• The board needs a president – see the related post for more information and philosophy regarding this important position in the club.

Virtual Gallery – Tom Hipsak has completed another Virtual Gallery and those bits and bytes are floating somewhere between his place and mine. When they all arrive here, it will be posted and another email will be generated.