President’s Turn 26-10
It is hard for me to accept, but we will soon be entering the month of October (as of this writing). Another year is rapidly coming to an end, and the election of the officers on the executive committee is only a month away. Yet, as of this writing, we will be without a president and a vice president at the end of the year. This means that the New Mexico Woodturners will also cease to exist, as our charter requires that we have a fully staffed executive committee. If we are to prevent this from occurring, we need you to step up. Both vacant positions need to attend the monthly club and board meetings (the board meetings are currently held remotely).
The vice-president is responsible for organizing the monthly demonstrations, including the annual professional demonstration. Technically, this currently includes coordinating the JCH turning events each month, but this could be reassigned to the education committee as the VP responsibilities are already high enough without it. I will submit this proposal to the board on Wednesday night. The VP should have some tenure with the club as knowledge of the membership and who has what specific skill set is of great value. As Alex will tell you, the job is much harder if you don’t know who does what. But with the success that she has had, it is clearly not an absolute necessity. You would just have to reach out to some of the more tenured club members for help.
The president primarily runs the monthly club and board meetings. Hopefully, the president also provides a sense of direction for the club to follow to growth and financial security. As we have just completed a restructuring of all of the club’s online and financial systems, those activities should not be necessary for the near future. Expansion of our efforts to attract new members and provide educational outreach opportunities might be good thing to emphasize, moving forward, but this will not be up to me. I will still be on the board of directors, and I am always willing to assist and provide guidance.
The September JCH turning event was a general tutoring session with our professional, Michael Mocho. Half a dozen members showed up to take advantage of Michael’s expert tutorage. The demonstrator for the October 3rd meeting will be our own Michael Mocho. Michael will go over basic hollowing techniques with particular emphasis on the cutting dynamics and dealing with the significant distance between the tool rest support and the cutting edge. Both hand-held and assisted or stabilized hollowing will be addressed. See the article with Michael’s description below.
Hope to see you at the October 3rd meeting,
Mark
