Chairmans Report 2007
Chairman (George Foweraker ) Report
2007 has been a year of many changes to our club. As members will know I was Vice Chairman until the beginning of the year, when due to illness our Chairman John Warren retired from office but not from the club. Thankfully his health has improved and he is now taking an active part in club activities again.
This has been a difficult time for me as we have moved house and had to completely renovate our new bungalow. It has been difficult at times to commit enough time to club business, but with the help of our committee we have coped well and everything has run very smoothly.
We have now invested in a digital movie camera with 42 " screen. This is a super piece of equipment that has made a big difference to club nights. The camera and equipment are operated by John Brewer. John joined our committee at the beginning of the year and has been very active and hard working on behalf of the club. John Owen also joined our committee at the beginning of the year. John looks after the club’s tools, lathe and associated equipment. He has also been a great help in organising club events. Next year John will be our official events organiser. Another valuable addition to our committee is our new Secretary, Rose Pool. This position became vacant when John Warren retired as he was club chairman and secretary. Ray Thomas has done a sterling job as club librarian, carrying in four large boxes of books, DVD’s and videos. John Meakle has kept a tight rein on the clubs finances as club treasurer, for which we are eternally grateful. Unfortunately we have lost one very valuable member of our committee, Mike Cox. Mike was a very energetic and helpful member and is greatly missed. Mike has made lifestyle changes and we wish him all the very best. Prior to his leaving Mike arranged some very good professional demonstrators.
Early in the year we had a visit from Dave Register, he demonstrated the making of his now famous trunnion box, and he also gave some tuition on use of the skew chisel. We then had a very good evening’s entertainment from Nick Agar, his sense of humour and demonstrating abilities made for a great evening. Later in the year my favourite demonstrator Julie Heryet demonstrated the making of a natural edged goblet with a very thin stem. This was Julie’s third visit to our club and each time she has been a massive success. Unfortunately I have been unable to book her for next year as she is cutting down on her commitments; I tried very hard to talk her into demonstrating for us next year but to no avail, although I got half a promise for the year after. We will look forward to that.
Twice this year we have had hands-on club events at my workshop in Bridgwater. These were well supported by members and will be repeated next year. On both occasions we spent the whole day enjoying each others company, chatting and some serious wood turning. Three lathes were made available to have a go on, or just to watch. Tea and biscuits were served up by my wife Sue, and John Brewers wife Val.
On the subject of tea and biscuits, we have just celebrated our clubs birthday; a fantastic array of food was laid on by our new member Lesley. Thank you for that Lesley.
We as a club carried out demonstrations at two events this year. The first was at Frankie Howard’s home at Axbridge. This was organized by the Weston-Super-Mare hospice as a fund raising event. John Brewer and John Owen represented our club with the club lathe. I did not attend as I sneaked off to Westonbirt Arboretum for the day (it was my birthday after all).
Our next outside event was held at Sanders gardenworld, we were invited to give support to their tree weekend. Three lathes and all associated equipment were delivered to site, where we were allocated enough room to demonstrate, and exhibit items for sale. Myself, John Owen, Dennis Cox and John Brewer spent the whole weekend woodturning. Several members of our club turned out to give us support, and a good weekend was had by all. See the Gallery on our new web site.
We are now looking forward to a very full programme of events for next year. Six demonstrators including a professional photographer, and Chris. Pouncy from Robert Sorby have been booked.
Our Xmas Dinner will be held at the Bent House restaurant on Friday 15th February 2008.
If everyone attends as promised, we will have an attendance of at least forty members and partners. This should be a very lively night out and something to look forward to.
Our new website is now up and running. This has been created for us at very little cost by Paul Lindsay, to whom we are very grateful. It is my intention to keep this site up to date and look forward to input from other club members. We have a gallery to display member’s work, which will grow as time goes on.
Myself and our committee would like to wish you all a happy and prosperous new year.