The ‘Health of Woodturning’ and Thank You to the AAW board.

[nicktodd]

I am dumb founded by the talk of death or down fall of woodturning due to display of one piece displayed in the IG or any actions of the board. Or even by the aging of the AAW membership.

The AAW provides us with a great un-censored, but moderated forum for anybody to express their opinion. As we can see, everybody gets to express their opinion regardless of the accurateness of the information in those opinions. In all of the post on this forum very little is being said of what the AAW is doing for the so-called ills of woodturning. Here are two that I am extremely proud of the AAW board for providing:

1. Providing on-hand sessons for kids during the Symposium.
2. Giving away 25 mini lathes & sets of tools to the kids who attended the on-hand session.

I would like to see how many post we can generate on growing this program and creating similar programs locally.

Thanks You AAW board!

 

[Garmar]

I agree with you Nick, but I think the WMH Tool Group gave away the tools.

 

[Ed Davidson]

Donors of the Youth Room 25 turning setups are listed here, at the bottom of the page.

 

[Richard Preston]

Bad ideas give rise to good thoughts

Even something objectionable has the benefit of leading others to develop a solution. There's value in deviation.

Remember Richard Pryor and George Carlin?
They were considered very objectionable at one time.

Of course, now they're passed on, but before then, they were considered very funny by many.

 

[hockenbery]

I agree with you Nick, but I think the WMH Tool Group gave away the tools.

Garmar,
The entire program was organized a few years ago by then board member John hill and Bonnie Klein, a life member and former board member.
the program is made possiible through:

1. Sponsorship by WMH tool group, Technatool, Crown, Woodcraft, and Vinces wooden wonders.

2. volunteers: This year over 60 volunteers spent approximately 230 hours helping teach, setting up the equipment, and prepping the wood. These are truly special people as most were paying to attend the symposium and gave up attending sessions to work with the kids.

regards,
Al

 

[Mark Mandell]

Institutional and public efforts to promote turning make great PR, and, of course, lie at the core of the AAW's purpose. But everyone and anyone wishing to "spread the word" has lots of opportunities to do so. I have several friends who are well into the Boy Scouts organization, one having both his sons becoming Eagle Scouts. I have worked with a number of the boys in their troops as part of their merit badge activities by giving turning lessons. The feedback I have gotten has been very gratifying in that each of the kids had a ball, their family has a newly cherished "hierloom" on the mantle or bookcase (every one of the kids completes his project in our session, right down to a nice shellac finish), and several of the parents have jokingly "grumbled" that the experience cost them real money, because mini lathes and turning tools wound up in Christmas lists, and dads had to surrender "shop space" to the new turners.

Every community has kid-centered organizations like the Scouts, 4-H, and others, whose guiding adults are always looking for new activities for their charges. You don't even need a local turning club to do this. What you do need is a bit of time and the right preparation. Be careful, though, you could become "that old guy who invited me down to his basement shop and first showed me how to magically change chunks of fire wood into cherished items of both decoration and use." Hence, if you're going to do this, make sure you do it right. You need to sit down and formulate a script for the lessons so that you don't miss something basic because you personally use several shortcuts. We each have the capacity to inspire. We also have the capacity to misinform, and lead a student to both failure and injury.

The AAW could help in such efforts by formulating a basic lesson plan, including safety instruction, for members to use to teach basic turning skills. We have 20-something thousand members. If 10% of us reached out to 10 kids, what impact do you think that would have? I'm gonna bet WMH Tool Group would have to start pouring a lot more cast iron a lot faster to keep up with the demand. 🙂

 

[Angelo]

Programme

Mark,

Ed Davidson has posted this link in another similar thread

Thanks John...two clicks away, and here ya go: AAW Youth Turning Program

Check it out

Angelo

 

[Mark Mandell]

Mark,

Ed Davidson has posted this link in another similar thread

Thanks John...two clicks away, and here ya go: AAW Youth Turning Program

Check it out

Angelo

Got that, Angelo. I sent Al a PM on it. Ask him.

🙂