woodworking group

allen levine

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new york city burbs
im curious if anyone here has been invovled starting up or help manageing a woodworking group,
Im thinking, only thinking, of trying to start a woodworking group/club in nassau county LI, and Id like to know what kind of legal issues would be invovled to form such an organization, insurance? how do I go about looking for members? wheres the best place to advertise? how to plan meetings, gatherings, events?

anyone with any experience Id appreciate any thoughts. whether here or pms or emails

getting 20 people to say, yeah, ill be a member, and then never show up at a meet, or attend something we plan, is not what I want.
 
Does your High School have a woods class? Possibly talk with the teacher. I would gladly give up a night a month to have local adults in my shop. It would be great publicity, give them new ideas, possibly extra hands with specific projects, etc. Then you have a meeting place already situated for groups. Just an idea.
 
Ialready asked my wife about space in her school, but thats out.

the high school has shut down its shop programs, as well as some other training programs, budget this or budget that.,

I was hoping to get one of our members to share his or her shop while Id be willing to host meetings in my home eventually when its all setup.

we thought alike jon, school was the first place I was thinking.

my sil works for the high schoold district, so Im going to ask her to speak to the people who handle the building space for after school clubs and activities. see if theyd evne consider it, but then I have to find members who will commit their time.
 
Okay, next best alternative, ask some of your American Legion members. They'll have a building and you might be surprised at the numbers of those people that dabble in woodworking and how they will share their building and expertise.
 
Most of our local woodworking guild meetings are at a local church, no real tools are there except for ones that members bring in for the night. Most meetings we have a show/tell of projects that were brought in in different categories (i.e. furniture, turned items, and jigs). They also do some give aways from due proceeds and donations. They will do fund raisers for charity, but have gotten away from charity builds due to liabilities. The larger guild here in town does have their own shop and hundreds of members. For $50 (annual...great deal) I can sign up for safety training and volunteer work, then can schedule time to use the shop at my leisure. They have a lot of big tools and even a CNC Router table for members to use. They also do a lot of builds for local charities.
 
. they are a decent drive for me, and 7u pm meeting times mean rush hour traffic.

I might pay them a visit and see what type of membership they have , if the travel is worth it for me.
 
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. they are a decent drive for me, and 7u pm meeting times mean rush hour traffic.

I might pay them a visit and see what type of membership they have , if the travel is worth it for me.

I bet there would be some members there that are borderline to far away just like you Allen. Ask to talk to a board memeber or two there to find out what's involved to start one up. I'm lucky here in Des Moines to have a big group (almost 500 members) and we get to use the seminar room at the Woodsmith Store for meetings, seminars, etc.
 
summertime might be the wrong time of year to try to start things up, people are off on family vacations, home events, but Im going to look into a few things over the next few months to see whats going on around me.
I have one guy in my nieghborhood, who is a very beginner woodworker, but has a garage full of machines, hes interested and could give it a go, so we may both work from there.
 
I belong to a wood turning club that has been in existance for quite a few years. Recently we discovered some weaknesses in our insurance coverage. The American Association of Woodturners (AAW) has a couple plans that are available to member clubs. It looks like the best coverage is, no surprise, the most expensive. It will be about $500.00 per year. We own a Jet mini lathe and give demonstrations and individuals sometimes meet in members homes. With actual machines in use that brings up questions of liability. One question that has many various laymans opinions is: if one member goes to the home shop of another member is that a club event? Don't try to respond, we already have lebenty dozen different opinions. Do get your insurance question answered before trying to move forward. I'll opin that meetings without demonstrations of some kind would be very boring and the club might not succeed.
 
my thoughts on a club, its more of a group of people with similar interests, woodworking, and Id like to get groups invovled in making projects that we can donate to help local causes.
pta, other school events, helping out a family in need, nothing spectacular, but a few guys making boards, jewerly boxes, outdoor planters, furniture, game boards, clocks, things that wont cost a ton of money, and things that people might buy a raffle for either by themselves or grouped with other items.
Im not saying Im a great human being that wants to help people in need, Im just saying we can use woodworking for good causes, (I find it more rewarding seeing someone truly thrilled to get a product, not just because they purchased it)not just to put another chair on our porch, or another box on display on our shelves.
we can always build together for ourselves,

im looking for people like me, with alot of time, loves to mess around with wood, non competitive, and wants to hang out in a wood shop or someones garage passing some time chopping up lumber.

its all in my head right now, I have to start at the bottom and see how these groups work. find out if any members of any groups live near me, might want to branch off. im not sure of anything yet, but over the next few months Ill start asking questions.

cant have a woodworkers group without machines with blades. not sure if the liability issue could be solved.
 
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cant have a woodworkers group without machines with blades. not sure if the liability issue could be solved.
That is the big issue. Nice folks can turn very nasty very quickly if hurt and believe, rightly or wrongly, it was someone else's fault.
But, there is no escaping the fact you MUST address the liability issue. Your solution might be to do nothing and risk it, or to get the best insurance possible, or to not form the group at all.
 
Can I politely remind you that you are in a group right now and in a group that takes its own risk in their own shop. Give a try with what you want with the new group with this group. For example, everyone make a specific thing by a certain date and post it. ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
 
That is the big issue. Nice folks can turn very nasty very quickly if hurt and believe, rightly or wrongly, it was someone else's fault.
But, there is no escaping the fact you MUST address the liability issue. Your solution might be to do nothing and risk it, or to get the best insurance possible, or to not form the group at all.

thats my main concerns. I know people who knew people for 40 years, as soon as theres an injury, the ugly side becomes the only side.
 
The Long Island group has been around a long time and likely have found solutions to problems. Take a close look to see what you can learn. Typically woodworking clubs only have demonstrators in and the members do not actually do any woodworking there.

It sounds like what you would like is a group woodworking activity. Look into the AAW at their insurance program and see if it allows for woodworking other than turning for clubs. I think that is the only source of insurance for woodworkers. I know people have been working on this for decades with no inexpensive workable solution. Good luck.

I was a officer and board member of the San Diego Fine Woodworkers for 5 years, including President. We had group activities and worked with releases for liability; not much protection then and probably totally useless today. Potential liability has killed many opportunities.
 
The Long Island group has been around a long time and likely have found solutions to problems. Take a close look to see what you can learn. Typically woodworking clubs only have demonstrators in and the members do not actually do any woodworking there.

I was going to say the same, our guild doesn't have machinery at the meetings, typically they may have demonstrations and show/tell, but members only handle their own projects. The demonstrations are just that, no other members are involved other than observing from the audience side of the table. We typically have 60 - 100 members show. Any club projects are done on members own time.

BTW...Have you checked MeetUp (http://www.meetup.com/) to see if there are any groups meeting around you?
 
that would throw a monkey wrench right in at the start, because im looking more towards a group working envirnoment, not looking for demonstrations, id prefer woodworkers with more experience to just show the less experienced, make new friends, make gatherings more of a social thing, like bringing spouses, and together we can attend any woodworking shows that offer demos.
I think Im thinking more of a woodworking working club.

lilke I said, I appreciate all the wisdom and knowledge this board has and shares with me. this is very new to me, and Im not naive, so I know Im in for an uphill battle if insurance creates the only obstacle.

I will ask around and attend a woodworking club out here on the island and ask questions. thanx everyone.
 
So, just thinking out loud here, but some woodworking stores have classroom type setups that they may not be using all the time.

I'm wondering if it would be possible to work out something with one of them to use their shop for a group meeting?

Of course you'd have to go through their certification class to use the machines, but why wouldn't they want a group of woodworkers stopping by once every couple of weeks to get together?

Might be a stupid idea, just thinking out loud.
 
Woodworking stores often do host the meetings but no woodworking is done beyond the qualified demonstrator. Again it is an insurance issue. Note, I said 'qualified.' When I was doing demo's as the Router Lady all over the country, a woodworking store who shall remain nameless, required me to come in several hours early so I could take their safety class. Insurance requirement. Good thought, Brent. You were half right. Allen is in for a vertical climb without footholds for his idea for a woodworking working club.
 
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