New Carving Club

[MC297]

I have never been part of any type of club before and am looking for any tips or suggestions for a new carving club. The club has no fees at all. What are possible liabilities with a club. The club is very informal and open to any skill level, and type of carving. Any suggestions for ways to run the meetings would be helpful.
Regards,

Michael

[GaryMc]

Hello Mc, I have a group that meets here in Decatur AL. We don't call ourselves a club, though we have a name (River City Carvers). We just meet and carve about every Saturday.
You need to determine what you what your club / group to be. For us, we just want to carve and all of us belong to a club that meets in Huntsville. They don't do so much carving, but they have business meetings and a show and sale once a year. WE have all skill levels and we teach the newbies, and have all styles of carving going on.
Hope that helps.
GaryMc

[Donna_T]

Hi,
If you will do a Search (menu bar) and type in "starting a new carving club" you should find a number of previous postings with lots of ideas on how to start a carving club---and how to grow membership.

You shouldn't have any liability if the club doesn't own any power tools...You may want everyone to sign some kind of waiver, but our club is over 20 years old and although we've had some folks get cut while carving with us, no one has ever held anyone of us responsible.

Our club charges $5 membership per year. We meet every Tuesday night from 6:30 to 8:30 pm. On the second Tuesday night, we have a short business meeting first. We just sit and visit and carve. Anyone who needs help with their carving, just asks and one of us tell them/show them our best suggestion. Once or twice a year we bring someone in for a workshop--we used to do this several times a year, but we've got from 25-30 active members to 10-12 and it's hard to have workshops. We used to offer carving classes for 6-8 weeks twice a year. This was very effective in getting new members and bringing in new "blood." We've had window displays in storefronts, library, and public events. We've had newspaper articles. All of these have helped spread the word about the club.

Good Luck!
Donna_T

Good Luck

[idigjars]

Hello and welcome Michael. Our club charges $1 a month dues but I've never really seen any push to collect the dues.

A carving club is a great way to get ideas, inspiration, confidence in trying and learning new things, and most especially make new friends.

A few times a year at our club folks will teach a class on how to carve something. My Grandson and my first finished projects were fish decoys from a class that somebody taught. We actually had two Saturday's in a row for the decoys. The instructor who is an awesome guy taught us how to carve the fish, burn in scales, etc. It was really fun.

I don't have any talent compared to most of these folks on this forum but I still keep on trying. Practice makes us all better.

Keep reading all the posts that folks on this forum have also. This forum is full of helpful and generous folks willing to share ideas and their work.

Good luck in your new club and safe carving. Paul