2020-21 Season News

Greetings RWS members,

As promised, here’s a rundown of how RWS will operate this year (September 2020 – June 2021).

The short story:

We are still going to have monthly national speakers and SIG meetings and some local workshops. These are all going to be on-line.

The longer story:

Membership
If you haven’t done so already, you need to buy your membership to participate. Early bird price is $35 until the end of August. $40 thereafter.

Meetings
Meetings will be the third Friday of the month, as usual. First one will be September 18. (You will get a Zoom meeting invitation a few days beforehand.) Beginning at 6:45 we’ll have a short business meeting followed by a well-known national speaker beginning about 7:00 pm. (Not to worry, the national speakers committee has been in contact with plenty of great speakers to fill our schedule!) Some of our speakers will host on-line workshops in the days following the meeting with varying schedule and format. The speakers might charge admission to these workshops. If so, RWS will negotiate reduced prices.

Missing the Pre-meeting displays?
To allow time for socializing and to show everybody what you have been working on lately, we are going to have a separate “Show and Tell” meeting each month. The first one will be Tuesday,September 22, 7:00 pm. All members will get an email with a link to join the meeting. To show your recent projects, take some pictures and email them to the Show-and-Tell coordinator ahead of time, then discuss and answer questions during the meeting. Denise Dee has volunteered to coordinate the first one using a PowerPoint format. Please send between 2 and 8 jpeg picture files (or up to two PowerPoint slides with multiple pictures on each slide) to showcase@rochesterwoodworkers.org no later than Friday September 18th. Depending on the number of projects submitted your time allowed will vary.

Local workshops
We hope to offer several local workshops on-line this year. Let us know what topics you would like to see covered.

RWS Library
John Alescio will continue to manage our library. He can support no-touch pick-up and returns.

Newsletter
Gary Tviet will publish the next newsletter in October. We will skip the usual August issue.

Other stuff

Publicity chair
John O’brien is stepping down from his position as Publicity chairman. We thank him for the many process and communication improvements he made during his tenure. Now we need someone to fill his shoes.

RWS Logo caps
If you didn’t get one last year, we have a stock of these great-looking caps embroidered with the RWS plane logo. We had them made to sell at the Showcase. Get yours at our cost, $15. Contact Gary Tviet at news@rochesterwoodworkers.org.

Helping our partners at CP Rochester
Tina Bennet at CP Rochester has sent us a list of items her teachers need this year. She also sent a request for used item donations for an upcoming fundraiser for CP Rochester. Click on this link to see her list — Help request from Tina Bennet at CP Rochester

John Alescio will be collecting wish-list and fund-raising donations as he has done in the past. Members can drop them off in John’s breezeway until Oct 1. He’ll deliver them on the 2nd. You can contact John at lib@rochesterwoodworkers.org.

Thank you for your continued support and involvement with RWS.
Al Kupchella
RWS Chairman