Welcome new members

Lots of new faces appeared at our last meeting thanks to the hard work of the many, many BAWA people who helped with our booth at the Woodworking Show. Thanks again to all those BAWA members who worked at the Show. In addition some of our members have boasted about our club to their friends and neighbors and have enticed them to come to our meetings too. As a result we had 15 new people show up at our November meeting. That's a record! Some of these 15 new visitors have already joined and several more will join shortly. Welcome to all these visitors and new members!

Each month we have an interesting speaker from outside our club, or a knowledgeable club member will give a talk on a particular facet of woodworking (such as Carl Johnson's demonstration last month of scraper sharpening), or we'll cover a woodworking topic ourselves (such as November's Jigs and Fixtures night.) BAWA is a place where you can get top-flight information to help increase your woodworking skills. In addition, it's a great group of people that you can associate with at our events, and in between. For example our Toy Making workshops are mostly about getting together with other woodworkers to discuss woodworking. We're making something to help others, but the main event is the camaraderie and fun of getting together. All of BAWA shares this enthusiasm for working with wood that can't help but rub off on others.

I encourage the new folks to get involved --- make it your club. And I encourage our older members to extend themselves to the new folks --- talk to them at meetings, repeat the invitations to attend the other events, and make them feel welcome. To me, BAWA is a great resource of people, events and information that is a constant inspiration for woodworking. I hope it becomes this for all of you new folks too. WELCOME TO ALL OF YOU!

Happy Holidays

We're having our meeting early this month because of the holidays. This will give you time to finish the woodworking gifts your making or buying. Warm holiday greetings to you all!

It has been a great year --- I can't believe this is our last meeting in 2002! We've had some great speakers and gone to some really interesting places. I look forward to more of the same in 2003. Thanks to all of the officers and committee chairs who've contributed their time and effort to make this happen! Most of you have volunteered to "do it again" next year, so it shows that you get something out of it too. BAWA is a great club because of your work --- thank you!