club involvement

You have a BellSouth address, which means you are somewhere in the Southeast, where? I ask this for two reasons.

1. I am interested in finding a club that is closer than 100 miles.
2. Perhaps, you are not letting enough people know that your club exists. The fact that you did not mention where you were located may indicate a belief that "everyone" knows we are here. That may well be an incorrect assumption.

Deb

Hi Deb, You didn't mention your address either. ;) I think you are near Dothan, Ala. and you have adm. & mgr. experience. Start up a local club and they will come. Lots of shy & retiring woodturners are hiding in the woodpile just waiting to be asked to help form a club. Regards, Arch

Fortiter,

Deb

If you are in the northern GA Area - there is a club in Chattanooga that may accept you as a member - especially if you are willing to be involved!

Ray - not a member of the Chattanooga club

Rick

Where is your club? What is its name?

Thanks

created(came

As with most other volunteer groups, 90% of the work is done by 10% of the members. Here's a couple of things that worked for me to increase participation with a non-turning group- - Look for the chronic complainers. Get THEM to lead a demo/discussion or three. - Assign refreshment tasks based on some random factor- age, location, hair color... something silly and attention attracting. - Public accolades for the worker-bees. Give the refreshment guy a block of donated wood, IOW- incentives to get the slothful moving- dangle a few carrots (then let them turn them too).

Add some new blood to the group. To paraphrase Dr Deb- Gotta know you're there to find you. PUBLICIZE. Do a top-turning competition. Most tops at a meeting wins. Then donate them somewhere, but be sure to get pictures and a write up for the local paper. Posters in local middle and high schools. You'll find lots of interest among young folks- if it's available and they know about it. Check with a local Scout group (Boy and Girl). Offer to do a demo at a meeting, or help with a woodwork badge.

Thats a few off the top of my head... hope they help some. Feel free to contact me off-list if you want.

Rick,

My suggestions include:

-Don't put out a sign up sheet for volunteers

-Don't make a blanket request for help at a meeting

-DO go to every member face to face and ask them if they would be willing to do a demo at a meeting, bring refreshments next month, check their local library to see if they have a display cabinet where some small woodworking projects could be displayed, etc.

-Do graciously accept 'no' for an answer.

-The gist is is that it has to be an active request for a specific action not a blanket request for 'some help from you guys out there'.

I am as happy as anyone to pay my dues and watch those that want to do the club administrivia. However, when asked for a specific action (i.e. a meeting demo, prepping some turning stock for a fund raiser, etc.) I have responded affirmatively more often than negatively (I think). The point is, somebody walked up to me and politely asked "Would you be willing to do XYZ" rather than waiting for me to shout out "I'll do it".

If that doesn't work, the only other successful(?) approach I have seen is for the existing leadership to so thoroughly botch things up that half the club is frustrated to the point of taking control just to get things done right. Not a recommended plan, though.

David

snipped-for-privacy@bellsouth.net wrote:

You have already got some good ideas here. I can only add my experience and that is by asking, get as many as possible to take some small responsibility for something in the club. Try to get as many doing something as possible. Just ask. Then, use your newsletter and a few minutes at each meeting to recognize those who are working. People like to have their name in the news and to be spotlighted. I use small committees of two or three to do everything. It seems that folks are more willing to work as a small group than to take on a job alone, even if it is a small job. When we have a big event, I try to get everyone in the club assigned to at least one committee, they may not do much, but more often than not, I have been surprised at what gets done. When I was asked to be President of my local woodworking group, I told them "yes, on one condition," and that was that I would be calling of each one to do something during the year. If they could accept that condition, I would do my part. I am six months into the year and so far I have not been turned down one time when I asked someone to do a job. I will quickly add that I am very thoughtful about who I ask to do stuff. Another point worth a few words is that I broke up past big jobs and made a number of small jobs out of it and it was much easier to get volunteers. A good example is the progam chairman. In the past he was responsible for refreshments, setting up the meeting room, getting the program, writing an article for the newsletter, introducing the speaker and cleaning up the place after the meeting. Now we have four small committees doing all that. Needless to say the program chair is much less stressed. I also try to snag a new member earlier and get him or her involved in a job early. A good place for that new member is tending to the library for a few months. They get to meet and talk to a lot of people and get easy access to all our books and tapes. Good luck, GCS

I've been reading the advice you've been getting and it's been interesting. I've learned a few things. One thing that I would add is what a couple of members have directly told me about this topic. They both said basically the same thing at different times. They said, in essence, "We don't want to be responsible for anything concerning the club. We've done that in our youth in various organizations and right now we just want to sit back and relax. You younger members can take care of it."

So, I guess what I'm saying is that some members simply don't want to get involved beyond show-n-tell, handing out "advice", telling stories, and watching demo's. That's fine but it gets difficult you know. I'm actually glad that these two members told me this so bluntly. I won't waste my time on them anymore.

- Andrew

created(came