Woodies activities

[Jigsaw]

Whilst I am only fairly junior on the BB, I can't understand why there is hardly any mention of woodworking clubs in any of these forums. I would have thought you guys would be proud to be club members and be trying to gain extra members by spruiking about your clubs. You have a captured audience. Obviously a lot of you have been around a while and a lot are in clubs but there are also newcomers to woodworking who would welcome the opportunity to visit your club if they knew where you are located and what you specialise in.
I have only been a member of Eltham Woodworking club about 2 years but I believe it is the best thing I ever did with regard to woodworking. This BB is also bloody good, I think they both complement each other in our field.

I would like to see more people informing us about what their clubs specialise in, meeting times, joining fees etc. Yes I know, We do mention special club events in one forum.

Eltham caters for a range of activities but we were not so strong on woodturning. In conjunction with the Manninham Woodturning club our club partly sponsored us to participate in several introduction to woodturning courses and it was great. Our club was on the receiving end for this event but our members have visited another club and provided help in scroll sawing.

C'mon guys & gals tell us newbies about your clubs, sell your product. Like all clubs, we need the younger ones to get involved to keep our woodworking skills alive for the next generation.

I'll start the ball rolling.
Eltham Woodworking club was formed in 1987. We meet on the 1st Wednesday of each month at 8pm in the CFA hall next door to our own club rooms (which are supported by the local council) and located on the Cnr De Fredericks & Ironbark Rd Yarrambat. We have about 70 members and our members activities include cabinetmaking, scroll sawing, pyrography, woodturning, marquetry and carving.

We try and have a guest speaker at each months meetings.

Our fees are currently $35 joining fee and $50 annual fee ($35 concessional).
We open our club rooms several times during the week and some weekends for members to use club tools and equipment and for social interaction with their fellow woodies.

We participate in local festivals but the highlight is our annual exhibition during the Eltham festival in November where we display around 200 exhibits. We are are also involved in other community activities such as making / replacing a carved sign for the local cemetry and providing woodcraft activities for the Adult day centre and Acquired Brain injury programs. We are also currently involved in making educational aids and toys for kids in Africa.

[Rob Allan]

Jigsaw,

I have been to the Eltham Exhibition and it clearly demonstrates your club's wide range of woodwork activities and high standards of work.

I am a member of the Victorian Woodworkers Association. Many of our members are professionals and most of the amateur members are into fine woodwork. We hold meetings every month and have public exhibitions of our work. The Create from a Crate competition held at last years TWW show in Melbourne was one of the VWA’s competitions.

We always encourage new members. Membership can be either professional or amateur. Professional membership also includes insurance for Product Liability.

Check out our Website http://www.vwa.org.au/

- Rob Allan