The February meeting was held on February 9 at Woodcraft in Peoria. This was our lst meeting at Woodcraft as they closed on February 14. The Peoria meetings will be moving to James Pearce's shop at SW Washington St and Persimmon in Peoria. Here is a map to the new location. The address is: 1101 S.W. Washington St. Peoria Illinois 61602.

We had 30 members in attendance including new member James Pearce. Welcome to the club James.

The President's Challenge for March is to complete a bowl with thumb rim.

The 2009 symposium will be in Albuquerque New Mexico. More information is available on the AAW website at http://www.woodturner.org/sym/sym2009/

Spring 2009 President's Letter
From Bill Haskell ...

At our November AAW Board of Directors meeting, we thanked outgoing Board members Al Hockenbery, Corey Anderson, and past president Angelo Iafrate for their service and wished them well. We look forward to working with and welcoming new 2009 Board members, Dale Larson, Binh Pho, and Cassandra Speier, knowing they will bring fresh energy, ideas, and effort to our organization. In early February, the Board met in Albuquerque to finalize plans for the symposium this summer in that enchanted Southwestern city. It should be an exciting conference in a delightful area of our country.

This past year, the AAW continued to grow, adding new members and chapters. Membership ended at just over 14,000, and the 301st chapter joined us in December. Along with this growth, your Board continues to look for ways to better serve members and local chapters. With that in mind, here are some recent and in-process initiatives that keep the AAW moving forward:

• Staff changes in the home office and the promotion of Mary Lacer to our Executive Director.
• Bringing a new American Woodturner editor, Betty Scarpino, on board who has creative ideas and also restructuring the journal’s production in order to be more cost effective. We are preparing for expanding publication of American Woodturner from four to six issues per year, hopefully in 2010.
• Arranging cost-effective insurance for AAW members for medical, dental, and other insurance coverage.
• Implementing new software systems so that communications can be sent to every local chapter and each member, keeping everyone better informed. A new system to better serve the Professional Outreach Program members is under development.
• Planning for a special 25th AAW anniversary celebration in St. Paul in 2011, including a colorful and expansive book on the AAW and woodturning.
• Initiating new programs for helping local chapters with youth activities and education.

On March 21, the Spring Bloom Arts Festival. Please contact Bob Adam with any questions

On April 18, Frank Kobilsek will be hosting ‘Stabbing and Slabbing’ in Mendota

On May 30, "Living History" Day in Toluca. Please contact Terry Quiram with any questions

The Tool raffle winners were; Ron Pierce, who won a Caliper set, Keith Zimmerman, who won a small depth gauge, and Larry Moreau, who won a large depth gauge. The Show and Tell Raffle winners were Joe Landon, Dick Coers, James Pearce, Jerry Rhoads, Larry Moreau, and Jack O'Bryan.

The following members shared and discussed their work with us:

Terry Quiram - depth gauges, Maple vase, Cherry bowl, threaded boxes, and hollow forms
Hod Bailey - baby rattles
Joe Landon - Colored hollow forms
Dick Coers - 3 medium sized bowls and Large White European whitle poplar bowl!
Jack O'Bryan - Plum hollow form and bowl
Ron Ghighi - Segmented vase
Jerry Rhoades - Walnut bowls w/texture
James Pearce - His First Bowl…..Walnut

See photos of our members showing their work at the February Show-n-tell.

   

The February demo, by Keith Zimmerman, and assisted by Dennis Belcher, demonstrated different methods for mounting bowls in order to finish the bottoms of bowls. Keith showed how to use Jam Chucks, Cole Jaws, a Kirsten Chuck, and how to use a chuck by itself. He also discussed the use of homemade chucks, such as a donut chuck and a longworth chuck. Dennis Belcher followed with a demo of his vacuum chuck and a discussion on using it to finish the bottoms. Thanks Keith and Dennis.