[Coffeeman]

Its obvious that one joins a carving club to carve and learn more about carving, but I have a more specific question in general dealing with the agenda of a clubs meeting, in this case our club meets once per month in the evening.

If you belong to a carving club, I address this question: How much time during the meeting do you spend on the "business concerns" of the club, and how much time on actual carving?....

We're having some question on how to balance these two aspects out during our meeting night which runs from 6-9. Looking to get a feel on how other clubs structure their meetings agenda. Thanks, Bill

[Mitchell]

Our club has a structured agenda for each meeting. OUr club meeting time is from 7-9. It goes like this (ususally):

Welcome (identify new members) <5 minutes

Approval of Minutes (as published in newsletter) ~1minute

Committee Reports (Finance, Show, Entertainment, Membership, Program) <10 minutes total
The Finance report is just a statement of our balance. Any questions (rare) are addressed.
We have a "party" each year and the Entertainment committee will report on details
The Show committee handles the arrangements of the show - the "long" report is after the show - usually, just brief updates during the year otherwise
The Membership committee is responsible for contacting old members that do not "re-up" and trying to get possible new members into meetings
The Vice President handles our Programs (carving projects, etc.) His "report" is short - just an update on future plans

New Business (anything that club members wish for the club to address) ? time - We do not really do much "business", so there is little discussion during this time. Mostly we may address upcoming shows (other than our own) or update club on results of shows. We have quite a few "successful" bird carvers in our club that participate in shows throughout the Eastern part of the US.

Old Business (things not finished) ? time Rarely any old business

Show and Tell - Strongly encouraged ~15 min

Door prize drawing - The club supplies a gift certificate to the local "Woodworking Shop" as a prize during each meeting. Some members will also donate a prize to be drawn for. ~10 min

Program - Rarely, we will have a guest carver as a demonstrator. This works ok, but can sometimes cost a bit and is difficult to be effective with 25+ members attending. Our MAIN method for making carving a part of the club meeting is by having a project presented by the Vice President. This will be a "One day" project. It's usually a reletively easy project and can sometimes be taken from a magazine. The VP "helps" by working with interested carvers (we usually get >80% participation). Another very successful program is Mentorship. We have MINI Projects led by members of the club. These can take 3 months and are worked on during the club meeting. The Mentor will work with a small group on a project. We have Birds (small/simple), animals, chip carving, realistic, stylized, caricatures, etc as projects. These are very popular with the members.

As an example, this month we worked on a bottle stopper as the project. It was designed as little heart bubbles (Valentines theme).
We also had sign up sheets for Mentorship projects - (6 total). Next month, we will start working on these - and these will continue for three months. Any members not attending at the start will be able to join in later in slots that are open (we usually limit to 5 or 6 "students" per Mentor) or at least watch.

Our club has about 40 members with 25 -30 attending each month.

[bbowers]

We call ourselves a club but have no "regular" structure to our meetings. We carve every week on Thursday evening from 7-9pm. Once in ahile we organize a class for beginners or a special project. We hold a 2 day Carve & Show event every fall to display our carvings & carve both days too. We invite the public to visit along with anyone wanting to learn more about carving. Our intention is to provide a place to carve with others there to visit & help. We have 24 members and will average 12-16 on any given week. Our dues are $25 for the year and they are used to donate a little to the senior center for use of the facility and to purchase tools for the club to use. I've been to the opposite style of carvin clubs where everything is business and/ or speakers with no hands on carving. I much prefer making chips!

[Coffeeman]

Mitchell & Barry,,,,thanks to both of you for your replies, we have a very active club with at each meeting 50+ in attendance. Our current problem (issue) is balancing out or appropiating the time split between the "business concerns" and "carving". With this club just meeting once per month, it becomes hard to skip over either one of the areas.

Bill

[TommyPhillips]

The Colorado Carving Club holds meetings one Sunday morning a month. The first three hours or so are not strictly the club meeting: just carving, chatting, and usually a couple of classes.

Then there is a break for lunch, usually a pot-luck.

Then the meeting starts.

Frankly, I've never stayed long enough to see an actual meeting ... I'm really there for carving time, and to talk to other carvers. I'm probably going to drop my membership and stop going altogether. Sunday mornings are just too inconvenient.

I've only been to one meeting of the Loveland Carving Club, and it seemed to be exclusively carving and chatting. Some club business was done during the carving, very low-key. I'll be joining up with this group. Tuesday nights are much easier to fit into my schedule.

-Tommy Phillips

[Scott Hagerty]

I belong to the same club a bbowers. If I had to sit through a business meeting I probably wouldn't be very interested in the club. When we need to discuss a matter of business, we sit up, listen up, take care of it and move back to making chips.

I like the idea of mentoring. It is something I have thought of doing more of in the future. 3-4 people working on the same type of project and learning together. I taught 1 class of around 18 and it about drove me nuts!

Scott

[Mottles]

Hi Bill, I belong to the Prescott Wood Bee Carvers in Prescott, AZ. We meet twice monthly on the 2nd and 4th Saturday of each month. Unless, of course it falls on a Holiday. We meet from 8am-12pm, we chat and carve for about 2 hours then brake for our business meeting. Our business meeting usually takes about 20 minutes, all the while the members are encouraged to continue carving if they wish. So, only 20 minutes is spent with business and the rest of the time is pure carving. We have 46 members as with 'Mitchell's' club we have usually 25 to 30 attending. We publish a monthly Newsletter, sent via email and for those without computers snail mail. A meeting reminder is always sent mid-week prior to the meeting. Members find this very helpful.
We have a Show & Tell table, we also have a 'Library' of carving and drawing books that our members can check out and return. We also have a combination sharpening/stropping/polishing machine for our members use. We have 'go by's for our member's to use also.
Guest are always welcome, membership encouraged $12 yearly, and the coffee is always hot and the pastries yummy.
Thank you, for the opportunity to talk about our carving club.
Kathy

[Mitchell]

I should add that we have a Board of Directors that takes care of the "big issues" and they meet separately. The results of their meetings are discussed in the regular club meeting.

The Board consists of the President, VP, Secretary, and Treasurer who are elected each year. There are three other Directors that serve 3 year terms to add some continuity to the Board - a new one is elected each year.

We use Robert's Rules of Order (loosely) to conduct our meetings. It really helps to be prepared and orderly.

[jamesfa]

our carving group is very informal and we have no formal structure. we meet twice a week at our local senior center in the wood working shop and carve on our particular projects.
we charge 1.00 perday and with this money we
1) donate 50% to the senior center
2)we supply coffee free
3)we have subscriptions to both carving magazines as well as wild fowl carving
4)we also have a supply of glass eyes& bird feet
5)we also have a supply of bass wood we purchase when the price is right.

as a group we have full acess to all the shop tools.

While we could all carve at home, it is a chance to socialize and share thoughts and ideas,and to help each other.

Frank

[Donna_T]

Hi Bill,
Our club membership has declined in recent years, but we have about 25 members--and we vary from 6 to 12-15 at weekly meetings. We meet every Tuesday night from 7-9 and it's pretty much just visiting and working on an andividual project. Once a month, 2nd Tuesday, we have a business meeting that's pretty short and sweet.
Read and approve minutes of last meeting
Treasurer's report
Old business review and act on something if needed
New business discussion and action
adjourn to work on a project lead by one of our members

These projects can be something simple that can be finished in one night--or it may be a project that members can work on at home or at returning weekly sessions. For instance, our club is carving a S. Cipa nativity set to donate to the local YMCA (where we carve) for their annual holiday auction. One member is responsible for one piece per month--and they carve at least one copy of that piece ahead of time for members to use as a "go by" - then they carve one for demonstration purposes during that meeting. They keep one and donate one to the club project--everyone else just carves their one piece. When we get to the end of the project, each club member has had a chance to carve each piece--and we have one of each to donate. The club buys the wood--and a member cuts out the pieces.

Generally, when a member has a program carving, they donate the wood and usually do the cut outs themselves. If the project is big enough, members may pay for the cost of the wood.

So, we carve more than we discuss business. But we visit the whole time!!

Twice a year we have a potluck supper for members and their families on the business meeting night. One is for Christmas and the other is our spring auction--that's our fund raising event. The club pays for the meat--everything else is potluck.

Donna T