FrankLong

Lehigh Valley Woodturners
June 13, 2002
Lehigh County Senior Center

Good evening.
My name is Frank Long and I'm president of the Lehigh Valley Woodturners.

We're going to begin our meeting tonight with a little history of this organization. Not just for the sake of revisiting yesterday, but to bring us up to date and to prepare for tomorrow.

We began as an organization at a meeting held at my house in October, 1998. There were something shy of twenty strangers there who had, at that time, only one thing in common - an interest in woodturning.
Our objectives at that time were basically, first, to get to know one another - so we went through the routine of self -introductions, a practice that we seem to have allowed to wither on the vine but one that we'll revive from time-to-time from here on beginning tonight. We'll start that right after the next piece of my presentation.
Another of our objectives was to shape an organization that would eventually become a chapter of the AAW- so we decided to fill the offices of President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer.
Since I had organized the meeting and was conducting it, I announced that I had no desire to be President and that, if anybody there did want it, the job was his. Strangely, nobody did. So I assumed the presidency. I asked Jim Neff, a man I'd never met before that evening, to be Vice President; he accepted. I asked Tom Buchner, a man I'd never met before that evening, to be Secretary; he accepted. I then asked Curtis Bingham, again, a man I'd never met before that evening, to be Treasurer and he accepted.
( Curtis had a career change during his term in office an had to vacate his position.)
Being, at that time, fairly new to our organization Tony Manella eagerly accepted our offer to fill Curtis's spot. In case you missed it, none of these offices was filled by an election process.
Also at the time of our organizing, the AAW had a thing about newsletters. So, somewhere during our infancy, we decided to have a newsletter and we established the position of Newsletter Editor and gave it Officer status. Bill Grumbine agreed to fill that slot.
Because of advances in media technology, which Bill was on top of all the way, the Newsletter eventually morphed into a Web Site and Bill became our Web Master. Unfortunately, because the time and effort involved in relocating his home and shop from Easton to Kutztown as well as webmastering was costing more time than he could afford, he was forced to resign his Web Master position. Tom Buchner volunteered to fill that slot. Bill, however, continues to fill the honorary position of Master of Ceremonies for Show and Tell.
From our earliest days, this group has placed significant importance on our library. Early on Lee Buck volunteered to fill the office of Librarian. While not an elective office, the Librarian is treated as having officer status in all of the club's dealings.
One other member who deserves special acknowledgement is our Manager of Miscellaneous Sales- Kevin Colarusso.
Now, I'd like to start the self-introductions.
Another of the objectives at our organization meeting was to find a suitable and convenient place to meet. Initially we had planned to meet at my place until we could find a place that would accommodate our anticipated ever increasing membership and the equipment we would need to conduct demonstrations. My shop would have been adequate to meet the latter need but not the former. I had previously attempted to get us set up at Bethlehem Vocational and Technical school but was turned down flat. I tried the Hanover Township Community Center but was told that they would charge $50 (whether it was per hour or per meeting I don't remember; in any event it was more that we could afford).
At our second meeting, the December, 1998 meeting, at my place, the Morning Call sent a reporter and a photographer to record who we were and what we were up to A story about us was soon thereafter published in that newspaper's Neighbors section. And, by the way, by this time we had become recognized as a Chapter of the AAW.

Soon after the publication of that article, I received a phone call from Rick Daugherty, the Executive Director of the Lehigh County Senior Center offering us the use of this facility free of charge on his assumption that we had something to offer to his senior citizen membership.
Jim Neff, Tom Buchner and I visited here to check out the facilities and it seemed to have the space and location we were looking for. But, of course, it did not have the equipment needed for our demos and, what Rick had in mind, the teaching and training of his members by the Lehigh Valley Woodturners.
We immediately began meeting here and Jim and I had several meetings with Rick to address the need for equipment and participants in whatever programs we jointly came up with to train the seniors. In anticipation of making this thing work, I took the initiative to apply for an AAW sponsored Educational Opportunity Grant. We were successful in getting that Grant in the amount of $980. The primary basis for the grant was to purchase a lathe so that we could start our joint venture with the Senior Center. The idea was that we would start with a fully functional lathe which we would donate to the Center and, as interest grew among its membership, we would expand our equipment base by the Center's purchase of several mini lathes so that we could conduct classes for a growing population of senior turners.
Well as it has turned out, that interest has yet to develop. Which brings us to the next episode in this in the "Life and Times of the Lehigh Valley Woodturners".
Very recently the Board of the Senior Center changed its free use policy as to outside organizations, For groups our size, i.e. using the larger rooms here (the McMullen room), the new charge is currently $25. Who knows what it will be two years from now? In any event, we have reached agreement with the Senior Center, to wit: the quid pro quo for the donation of our lathe and specified related equipment is a waiver of any charges for our use of this room equal to the stated value of the lathe and related equipment. Under current circumstances we will have free use of this room for the next 14 years. And, if we part company with the Senior Center, we have first dibs on buying the lathe and stuff back.
This brings me to the question "What happens to the Chapter's assets, including the library, if the Chapter disbands? Let me hasten to assure all of you that there is precious little likelihood of that happening. But, What if? In that event, we have amended our by-laws to include a section headed Disbandment. In essence, all of the Chapter's assets, except the contents of the library, would be converted to cash and donated to the Woodturning Center in Philadelphia. The contents of the library would also be donated.
Now let's revisit the matter of filling the chapter's offices- president, vice president, secretary, treasurer and web master. Our by-laws specifically state that the term of those offices is two years. The current terms will expire in October 2002. We'll need to have an election so that those elected in the coming election can take their seats in the October meeting. We had developed an election process for the 2000 election. We intend to follow that process this year also. Tom will now pass out copies of that process to the members present and will e-mail a copy to each of the absent members.

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