Meeting Minutes – July 12, 2025

Meeting Location: West Baton Rouge Museum, 845 Jefferson Ave., Port Allen

• 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 were no visitors at this meeting but there was a guest. Mr. Ragel’s wife attended the meeting and was much welcome.

Officer Reports:

• Vice-President – George Campagna: George reviewed the schedule of presenters and venues for the remainder of the year.
• Secretary – Lee Soileaux: Lee presented an abbreviated report because he was not present during the last month’s meeting but did report that as of Rick’s last accounting there are 42 members in the club.
• Treasurer – Rick Albrecht: Rick was not present so Richard reported in his stead. The current balance in the club’s account is about $3600.
• Webmaster – Open
• Community Service – Ken Brown: Ken reported that teams should check with the lumber supplier before going to pick up the lumber to make certain of the availability of certain services; such as, planing and/or straightline ripping. He also mentioned that there had apparently been some difficulty with chamfering/tapering the legs for the tables. The teams applied there usual ingenuity and overcame the difficulty. The teams gave their separate reports of their progress on the tables thus far. It sounds like they are doing well. Ken indicated that the client wanted a total of 10 tables and also would like a couple of cabinets in the future.

New and Ongoing Club Business

Lee Owens indicated that he has T-shirts available in all sizes and 3 colors (white, tan, and pink). He said he would be selling them to interested members at the end of the meeting.

• Christmas Festival @ WBR Museum- The contact person for the WBR Museum asked whether the club would again participate in the Christmas Festival. Richard said that we would need to decide how we would participate this year. Last year we assembled birdhouses at the event. We could do this again or opt for something else.
• Richard requested that teams working on community projects send project pictures to him so that they could be included on the club’s website.
• Richard informed club members that he added an OSHA Safety link concerning many of the shop tools we use. It is located under the “Other” link section of the website.
• Harold Choate shared with the club some letters of thanks that had been sent to former member Wayne Matherne (deceased). The letters had been written by second grade school youngsters at Freshwater Elementary in response to the club’s building 3 benches to replace the ones that were destroyed by the flood of 2016. Harold read several of them and circulated the remainder to the club members. Many of the letters even had drawings of the benches. It was clear from the content of the letters that these were heartfelt thanks coming from the children.

Members Questions/Concerns: There was some concern expressed regarding the birdhouse kits for the Swampfest event this October. We have all of the birdhouse kits we need for the event and there is no need for anyone the build anymore kits. Participants to help the children assemble the kits is all that will be needed.

Safety Topic: Lee Owens gave a presentation on a very timely topic Heat Exhaustion and Heat Stroke. His was a power point presentation as well as orally presented. He reviewed the causes, symptoms, first aid, and subsequent treatment for both exhaustion and stroke. He interjected a personal note to indicate that he had experienced an episode of heat exhaustion recently and said that it was a very unpleasant experience and should be taken very seriously.

Skill Topic: Building New Workshop/Lessons Learned – Geoff Michelli: Geoff told of his years long effort to build a new shop. When completed it will be nearly 1500 square feet in size and will be built to withstand hurricane force winds. His presentation clearly showed how even with lots of thought and planning unforeseen problems and obstacles can and do crop up. He invited club members to come and see his shop when it is finished and said that he would host some of the club’s monthly meetings. Good luck to you Geoff.

Show-and-Tell: Two club members: Harold Choate and Jim Landry brought several show and tell items. One of Harold’s show and tell items was a set of countersink bits which looked quite good and very reasonably priced. Jim showed 3 or 4 items that he made using his CNC and laser. He endured some good natured ribbing because of his use of “hi tech” but just maybe there was a hint of envy. Nice looking projects Jim.

Adjourn

There was an Executive meeting following the main meeting.