Meeting Minutes – January 6, 2024

Meeting Location: PMC, 11420 Hwy. 190, Hammond

• Fellowship before meeting
• Collection of dues (Rick Albrecht) and selling of shirts and caps (Bill Carter)

Invocation and Pledge of Allegiance – Harold Choate

Welcome and Introduction of Guests– Kennith Blake, Jeff Denig, Justin Lee, David Monistere

Officer Reports:

• Vice-President – George Campagna- We have a busy year scheduled. April 7 we will be at the Baton Rouge Zoo. We will be working with the kids to make pencil holders. We have 5 animal templates to use making figures from 2 x 4’s. The kids will drill holes in them to hold pens and pencils. There is a signup sheet. We have to be there at 8:00 am. We’ll have an idea of how many to make next meeting. We may also make smaller figures to drill a hole in to make a necklace. We will be allowed to drive our cars into the zoo but will have to have proof of insurance to do so. The entrance fee will be waived since we are participating in the event. Please look at the website for the schedule for the rest of the year. We’ll be at Rural Life Museum next month. Geoff Michelli will be doing a presentation on dovetail joints.
• Secretary – Harold Choate- 17 people attended the December meeting at Jim Landry’s shop. We contacted 11 people who had not attended a meeting for a while or had not renewed their membership and asked why. 4 people responded, 3 of them are here today, Tom Chenevert, John Bartus and Clarence Freeman. We’ll contact the rest of them by phone as a followup. Art Miller and I were talking this morning about how working on our Community Service Projects is a good way to get well acquainted with other club members. We’re working together in each others shops and get to know how much knowledge and experience each of us has in woodworking. So when Lee Owens asks for volunteers don’t hesitate to participate.
• Treasurer – Rick Albrecht- Contact Rick for details. Please remember annual dues are due now, $20 for the year.
• Webmaster – Open
• Community Service – Lee Owens- We have a proposal pending with Salvation Army to build 10 picnic tables and 6 rocking chairs. They have not approved it yet. We have also talked to VOA. They said they have a number of projects in mind but haven’t done anything on them because of the holidays. Hopefully we’ll have some work to do by next month’s meeting.
• Education Outreach – Open

New and Ongoing Club Business

• Dues- March is the deadline for payment of dues.
• Website Search Option- This feature is now operating.
• Additional Website links- The link for the St. Tammany Club has been added. The source for identifying wood that Lee gave us last month has been added. Richard looked at it and gave it high marks for the content.
• Birdhouse Type- Richard wanted to confirm that we still want to use the same style for the birdhouse. Comments were made that the design is popular with the kids and other than the nail hole size there have been few problems. Members of the St. Tammany Club said they did about 1200 boats in their boat show activity. Richard advised we did about 180 birdhouses at the last SwampFest. One of the benefits of the present design is that the kids are part of the building experience vs. the boat show where they just point out the parts and someone else actually assembles the boat for them. Art Miller pointed out that we are going to use a larger hammer this coming year. Harold Choate pointed out that the kids like the design and that we would go through another learning curve if we changed styles. Everyone agreed we should stick with the design we’ve been using.
• Zoo- George has pictures of the animal figures we plan to use. Members can make a template from the pictures and use it to make cutouts from 2 x 4’s. Richard Robles stated we need to have them done by March. Discussion about how to set up at the zoo. It was agreed drill presses were the way to go for drilling the holes. Richard or George are going to contact the zoo to see if electric power is available. We will drill 2 or 3 holes in each figure. Art Miller described the way to make a template. George had pictures of the animal figures for members to pick up. Jim Landry offered to make the small figures on his CNC router table. George brought up making a shaving with the kids name on it as another activity.
• Backup for Community Service- Richard is still seeking a person to be the backup for Lee Owens so we can get him some help and avoid a gap in Community Service should anything take Lee out of action.
• Sackups- The manufacturer of a scabbard for saws sent Richard a sample to give away as a door prize. They are available for sale if anyone is interested.
• Presentation Topics- This opportunity is still open. If you have ideas, please contact Richard or George. Richard mentioned a few that had been suggested.

Members Questions/Concerns

Safety Topic-Lifting and moving heavy or awkward objects can lead to back injuries. Take care lifting and moving heavy stuff.

Skill Topic: Jessem Doweling Jig Demo – Brian Stauss

Show-and-Tell

Adjourn

Please bring the following items to the meeting:

There Will Be an Executive Meeting After the Main Meeting