Meeting Minutes – September 6, 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 guests or visitors present at this meeting.

Officer Reports:

• Vice-President – George Campagna announced that the Swamp Fest had been cancelled for this October by the event organizers and that we would be ready with bird houses already constructed for next October. Lee Owens will do a presentation in November at the West Baton Rouge Museum and Jim Landry will be doing his presentation in December at his shop regarding his CNC machine. George also told members that he was beginning to schedule presenters for next year and encouraged members to let him know if they had any ideas for this. Brian Stauss, a member of the St. Tammany Woodworkers Club as well as ours said that the St. Tammany’s Club was asking whether there would be one of our members interested in a November presentation at St. Tammany’s Club. He also said that the St. Tammany’s Club was interested in having more than one joint meeting per year and shared presentations at other meetings. George asked that any members interested in participating in these joint meetings and/or shared presentations to contact either himself or Richard Robles and they would contact the St. Tammany Club with the relevant information.
• Secretary – Lee Soileaux reports that there were 23 members attending the August meeting at PMC in Hammond and that 3 members presented their show and tell projects.
• Treasurer – Rick Albrecht was absent from the meeting today because of death in the family. Richard reported that the balance in the club’s account was just under $4,000. He also reported that Ken Brown still had to submit an invoice to O’Brien House for about $1,000.
• Webmaster – Open
• Community Service – Ken Brown reported that we were originally going to build ten tables for O’Brien House but as of now we have only completed four. He said that O’Brien House wants the other six tables but that we were going to put that off for another month and would revisit it at that time. He asked that anyone who worked on the tables and spent money on materials to submit invoices for reimbursement if they had not done so.
• Ken indicated that he has been approached about a project that the Volunteers of America (VOA) would like to have the Club take on. He said it is a rather unique project and it involved building two large cabinets each of them about 5 feet wide by 8 feet high. He described the cabinets in general terms and will present more details in subsequent communications to club members. Preliminary discussions among some members suggested that more robust forms of joinery be used for these large cabinets, nothing fancy, just standard dados, grooves, and rabbets instead of butt joints and/or pocket screws. George Cenac has rendered the two cabinets in Sketch Up and will have these available for those interested in participating in building these cabinets. To this end, Ken asked that volunteers sign up for this project to gauge interest in the project. There was some subsequent discussion among members regarding who would place a finish on the cabinets. Ken said that the VOA wanted the cabinets painted. Richard said that it would be best for the VOA to paint the cabinets because of the likelihood of damaging the finish while transporting and positioning the cabinets.
• Ken announced a possible future project for St. Vincent De Paul involving building a base for a statue. He said that this would be taken on after the VOA project if there was sufficient interest in the VOA project.
• Education Outreach – Open

New and Ongoing Club Business

• Richard announced that the Club made a donation to deceased club member Hays Towns’ family in memory of his participation in and contributions to the Club. Hays died recently and will be sorely missed.
• Richard invited Lee Owens to tell the Club that the stock of Club T-shirts and caps has depleted and need to be resupplied. Lee canvassed the members to determine how many wanted shirts and hats. Lee will order some hats.
• Richard announced that we were going to meet at the BREC location on Perkins to participate in a Tool Swap/Social Event in October rather than the cancelled Swamp Fest event. Richard will send out additional information regarding this event in an email to members. The event will include jambalaya for the club members.
• Richard solicited volunteers for the nominating committee to nominate candidates for Club officers. Club members selected for the Nominating Committee included Harold Choate, Cody Henderson, and George Campagna. George was appointed to chair the committee.

Members Questions/Concerns There were no questions/concerns voiced by the Club members.

Safety Topic Richard told of a recent event in which Club member Kesh on returning home from vacation noted that a storage cabinet/shelf had fallen down and fortunately the contents had not been damaged. The contents included some flammables which had they not fallen in the way which they had could have resulted in a possible fire. The safety tip was for shop owners to periodically check their storage cabinets to make sure that they are securely fastened and have not loosened to such an extent that injury or fire could occur.

Skill Topic: Children’s Dresser Project – George Cenac gave a well-done presentation on the process of designing and building a beautiful cherry dresser for one of his grand daughters.

Show-and-Tell There were two members who participated in Show and Tell

Adjourn