Some special BAWA members

Last year I thanked the Officers and Committee Chairs at the Fall Kickoff Party, but I think they deserve special mention here for the job they've done:

Vice President & Newsletter Editor: Mark Rand

All of you read Mark's monthly newsletter. Mark has shaped the newsletter into a very efficient, helpful, informative tool to keep us up to date about BAWA. He spends hours each month writing, getting it printed and mailing it to many who don't receive it electronically. It is a great effort that provides monthly continuity and spreads the word of our club. He's doing a wonderful job at this! In addition, in his role as Vice President, Mark's behind-the-scenes input throughout the past year has been invaluable help to me, and made my job much easier. He has great ideas and really makes a positive contribution to make BAWA better.

Secretary: Ron Slayen

Ron had just joined when I tapped him to be our Secretary. He was doing a great job at this when is father suddenly became very ill and Ron was unable to attend our meetings for many months. Now we're glad to see that his father's doing better and Ron's back. I thank him for his efforts as Secretary. Ron is very interested in BAWA and a loyal supporter of our group.

Treasurer & Outreach Chair: Gene Wagg

Gene has done many jobs in BAWA over the years he's been a member. This past year, he just got started as Outreach Chair, when our previous Treasurer Don Stern, passed away suddenly. Gene quickly stepped up to the plate said, "I'll help with this," and took over. To make it more complicated for him, we changed our dues structure to paying on a prorated basis for the first year, depending on when you join. (We wanted to keep him on his toes?) Gene just simply took care of all this, and I didn't have to worry about a thing. Thanks, Gene.

Program Director: Jay Perrine

Jay's the person who arranges for a speaker and finds someone to give a Tools & Techniques presentation for every meeting. He's also found very interesting meeting places to see various types of woodworkers in action, and he presented a broad variety of speakers on many facets of woodworking. This contribution to BAWA is obvious and fundamental -- if we don't have good meetings people won't attend. This is not an easy task to find people, assess them and then convince them to present to us or allow us to go to their shop. We're growing as a direct result of Jay's creative programming efforts -- excellent work Jay!

Hospitality Coordinator: Connie Voos

Thanks go to Connie Voos, who, this past year organized and ran the banqueting portion of our Fall Kickoff Party single-handedly. She organized, purchased, set-up and served a full banquet for the entire crowd! Amazing!

Membership & Shows Chair: Robbie Fanning

Robbie has been an active volunteer behind the scenes for many years. She has maintained our membership database for the past 3 years, including mailing out membership renewal letters to all members each year, increasing renewals significantly. Robbie initiated and supported the "Silent Auction" which is now a standard part of our meetings. She also organized and co-ran the "new" annual banquet the previous year, then handed it off to Connie Voos this past year. Then she took over our annual Woodworking Show booth, instigated an early-in-the-year planning session, organized the staffing for the show, even made official BAWA woodworker's shop aprons for the volunteers to wear, and was responsible for our booth looking "the best we've ever had." Kudos to Robbie for all her support of BAWA!

Rebuilding Together Chair: Bill Henzel

For several years now, Bill has single-handedly organized and promoted our participation in the annual "Rebuilding Together" event. Most members probably don't realize how much effort Bill puts into this event before the actual day it occurs. In advance of the official Saturday in April, he meets with the event organizers, looks at the sites, finds out what materials are needed, and then obtains much of it from various places to be sure it will be on hand when needed. He even does some cutting and sub-assembling in his own shop to ensure that we can complete the task in the few hours we're given. He understands how to break down a large, complicated project into small tasks and assign them to club members who volunteer the day of the event. Whether it's building and installing 36 lineal feet of 12ft. high wall cabinets, or constructing and installing over 50 lineal feet of outdoor benches (complete with concrete footings), he's able to get us to do it all within a few hours. Many other groups contribute to the Rebuilding Together events held all over the Bay Area, but even among these overachievers, Bill has given BAWA a reputation for being able do the impossible, year after year!

Librarian: Mike Cooper

Each month Mike brings our videotapes and other library paraphernalia to our meeting so that we, the members, can borrow and enjoy library materials. He does this no matter where we meet. He keeps track of who has borrowed what so that it can be returned and everything kept orderly. Because he does such a smooth job, it just quietly happens each month in the background. Because he's so good at his job, many of you may not spend much time thinking about it, but if you pictured Mike not being there, you would realize the great job Mike does providing a very valuable service for BAWA!

Web Master: Jamie Buxton

Jamie's contribution is obvious -- we now have a website. But you may not realize that the website is completely Jamie's creation -- and he continues to come up with improvements and to implement suggestions to make it even better. Jamie or someone else will have a suggestion one month for something we could do with our website newsletter and voila! By next month, Jamie has simply done it! Pure wizardry!

Raffle & Door Prizes Coordinator: Stan Booker

Stan has been a loyal club member for many years. He has held various club office positions, including president. For several years now he has been dependable Stan -- procuring the prizes and running our monthly raffle and door prize contests. No fan fare, no big deal, he just does it! This always adds a little icing-to-the-cake for our club meetings. We always find Stan there supporting BAWA!

Nominating Committee: Tony Fanning, Don Naples, and Gene Wagg

These three guys have been BAWA members for many years and have held various offices and performed many duties for our club. They created the new slate of officers and committee chairs for this year. (Notice that they convinced many of the same people to continue for another year.) In addition, what many of you don?t know is that I've been able to draw upon the depth of knowledge and commitment to BAWA of these three in order to discuss issues and learn the history of how we've operated in the past and help me with every major decision. They've certainly made it easier for me to do my job!

These are the people that have made BAWA a success over the past year allowed all of us, the members, to have a great time. Without these dedicated, hardworking volunteers, we would simply not exist as an organization. For all of us I say, "THANK YOU! GOOD JOB!"