Welcome to BAWA!

Greetings to all of you who are finding BAWA for the first time! BAWA has just finished attending the annual Woodworking Show at San Mateo County Fairgrounds October 28th through 30th. We again had a booth at this year's event, and what a colorful and highly successful booth it was! BAWA has had a booth at this Show for many years and it has always been a source of new members for us. In fact at a recent meeting when the members were asked how many came to join BAWA as a result of seeing us at the show, more than half raised their hands. Like these members, if you have found us by seeing us there, let our members know --- it will reinforce how valuable our presence there is to our club.

The BAWA booth just keeps getting bigger, better and more professional looking! This year Show Co-Chairs, Tony and Robbie Fanning added some new twists. Tony built a kiosk in the center of the booth, on which he placed big banners that talked about the three chairs made by our members that were on display there. This attention grabber was very nicely done --- thank you Tony! Behind the scenes, Robbie organized and scheduled all of us, which allowed the booth operation to flow very smoothly. Thank you Robbie!

Of course our lighted display cabinet containing a selection of recent projects made by BAWA members once again grabbed the attention of Show attendees. This always gets people to stop and look! It had a lot of nice woodworking projects in it --- thank you all who provided pieces for display.

Dick Reiser demonstrated pen turning for many hours, and hundreds stopped to watch and chat with him and other BAWA folks. Thanks Dick! Of course Arnie Champagne was there again with his workbench, a variety of joinery samples, and other pieces displaying the finely crafted woodworking he does. People can't help but be drawn to his high quality work, and since he is so enthusiastic when they find out more about BAWA from him, they want to join right then. Thank you Arnie for promoting BAWA! And thank you to all the other members of BAWA who donated their time to staff our booth for the three days. They got the chance to talk to all of you and tell you what a great club BAWA is!

Year after year at these shows, I see the interest Bay Area woodworkers have in learning more about woodworking, and that's what the Bay Area Woodworkers Association is all about --- sharing information and having presenters show us what they do in this wonderful world of woodworking so that we can all become more skilled and knowledgeable about our craft. I hope to see you at our upcoming meetings where you'll learn even more about what a vibrant, interesting group we are!

While at this show, I picked up some good information about finishing and other aspects of woodworking from the educational lectures during the weekend. I hope you took advantage of these. But more importantly, after seeing our booth at the Show, and finding out a little more about us, I hope you'll join BAWA for all the benefits we provide local woodworkers! So, to all you who visited our booth, come to a meeting soon and see us in action! And if this month is your first meeting with us, welcome to BAWA! We look forward to your participation in this great club!

To our members, 2006 is looming and that means a new slate of officers and Committee Chairpersons. To keep the club humming, we need to have people willing to commit some time to make it work. Most positions don't take that much time and the old timers will always be there to help. So, please consider volunteering for some office. Contact Gene Wagg at 510 527-5805 or gwagg2002@yahoo.com as soon as possible so that we can have a list at the November meeting with ballot voting in December. Voting positions are President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, Newsletter, Programs. Appointed positions are: Membership, Toy Workshop, Library, Education, Open Shops, Mentor Program, Rebuilding Together, Outreach, Raffle & Door Prizes and Silent Auction Coordinator. If you have enjoyed the meetings and our other programs remember, that someone had to put in some time to make it happen. Let that someone be you.