Meeting Minutes – July 11, 2026

Meeting Location: Bill Carter’s Shop, 13163 Twin Oaks Drive, Geismer, 70734

• Fellowship before meeting
• Collection of dues (Rick Albrecht) and selling of shirts and caps (Lee Owens)

Invocation and Pledge of Allegiance – Harold Choate

Welcome and Introduction of Guests– There was one visitor in attendance at this meeting. The visitor introduced himself as Joshua Edel.

Officer Reports:

• Vice-President – Brandon Ginn reported on the upcoming schedule and his progress in putting together next year’s schedule. He encouraged interested members to contact him if they wanted to be included on the schedule.
• Secretary – Lee Soileaux reported that there were 23 members attending last month’s meeting and that there were no show and tells.
• Treasurer – Rick Albrecht reported that last month’s ending balance was $3178 and that this month’s balance was $3191.17.
• Webmaster – Open
• Community Service – Ken Brown was not in attendance. President Richard Robles presented the Community Service report. Richard repeated the need for volunteers for the VOA cabinet project. He recirculated the volunteer roster for members to enlist in the last of the VOA cabinet project. He solicited reasons from the members as to why there is so much difficulty with member participation. Jim Landry suggested that there might be too many projects and Richard pointed out that we have not had any new projects so far this year. So far, Richard pointed out that we have had only 4 volunteers for the VOA project. There was some discussion and suggestions as to how to proceed with the project. Jim Landry reported on the statue pedestal for St. Vincent DePaul. His group has completed one and will be working on a second one soon. Richard said that Ken can no longer serve as the Community Services Coordinator but that Harold Choate is willing to step into that role. Richard presented this to the members for a vote. The membership voted unanimously for Harold to take on the Community Services role of Coordinator. There was some discussion of the problems associated with different groups completing different aspects of a multi-step project. Richard pointed out that this was more of a time and resource coordination problem that needed to be handled within each group and among groups if more than one group is involved in a single project. The problem of having enough volunteers for a project is more critical and precedes the other logistical issues which need to be handled internally.
• Education Outreach – Open

New and Ongoing Club Business

• Executive Meeting Update-Jim Landry showed a plant stand that Hayes Town (deceased former President of the club) had designed and built for his children and said that the plant stand would be donated to the St. Elizabeth Foundation (non-profit adoption agency founded by Hayes and his wife in 1988) for the purpose of being auctioned off and the proceeds given to the Foundation. Jim proposed that this might be something that the club might want to do each year; donate something built by the club for the auction. After discussion, it was decided that this would be part of the January agenda and the members could decide whether they wanted to participate that year and what the club or individual members would build for donation to the Foundation. This would give enough time for building the donated item(s) for the August event. At a previous Executive Meeting Rick indicated that some members wanted to renew membership via email but the consensus among the committee members was that it would be best for members to pay membership dues at a meeting rather than emailing dues. Again, this is to encourage participation among members.
• Swampfest Birdhouses- At a previous Committee meeting, Jim Landry asked whether we had enough Birdhouse Kits for this year’s Swampfest event. Richard reported that we have 164 kits and over the previous 3 years we were averaging 175 birdhouse kits that were being distributed. After discussion, it was decided that additional kits should be made up to about 200 total kits. Richard said that he would make additional kits. Lee Soileaux volunteered to help with kit building. Richard encouraged others to volunteer in the building of the VOA project rather than to build kits for the Swampfest event since there is a greater need for participants in the VOA project. Also, at the last Committee meeting the making of templates for the figurines in the Museum event was discussed. It was decided that several templates would be made and would be kept by the club for use by volunteers who would return the templates after using them to make the figurines.
• Hats- Richard said that we are currently out of hats and asked members how much interest there was in acquiring hats. A count was made and Lee Owens will order the needed number of hats.
• Presenter’s Shirt- It was suggested at a previous Committee meeting by Lee owens that a presenter’s T-Shirt could be given to outside presenters. The membership voted in favor of giving a club T-shirt to outside presenters. Other ideas for items for skill topic presenters were also discussed.
• Jack Carmena’s shop- Richard reminded members that after the meeting Jack’s shop would be open to the members but that no one would be allowed into the shop early. His shop will be open from 11:15 to 1:00.
• Richard indicated to members that after the PMC meeting next month there would be a lottery for several woodworking items that were the property of a deceased woodworker in the area according to Brian Stauss. Each member that participates will receive a number and numbers will be randomly selected. When a members number is pulled that member will be able to pick an item from those available. It will not be a first come-first serve arrangement.
• Members Questions/Concerns– None

Safety Topic– Lee Owens revisited the importance of guarding against becoming overheated. He related a recent event in which he became overheated and was affected by the overheating event for the next several weeks. He admonished people to be careful, particularly at this time of the year. Bill Carter told of an event requiring a trip to the emergency room to remove a small piece of metal embedded near a major artery. He said that he nipped a piece of metal from a cutting board he was building and it somehow flew with enough force and just the right path to become embedded. Always wear personal protective equipment to help prevent such injuries.

Skill Topic: Building & Selling items on FB Market Place – Kevin Rodrigue was not able to present so Bill gave us a tour of his shop.

Show-and-Tell– Four members presented their Show-and-Tells.

Adjourn