Frank Ramsey, BAWA's president, called the meeting to order at 7:00 pm. With a busy night's schedule and a woodworking class in session, we proceeded immediately to announcements.

Announcements:

Jay Perrine: This year BAWA will be working with the Mid Peninsula Rebuilding Together organization on two projects scheduled for Saturday, April 25. The first project is to build a 120' fence at a day care center in Burlingame to separate the facility from a next-door body shop. It will be constructed of T-111 plywood and will require digging approximately 20 postholes. The second site is a mobile home park where some residents on public assistance need to have some deck and steps redone. A volunteer list was circulated at the BAWA meeting. Jay needs two project supervisors. He can be contacted at perrinedazign@gmail.com.

Mark Rand: BAWA dues are now due and payable, $30 per individual, $35 per family.

Harold Patterson: The Toy Workshops will resume next month. Crafted wooden toys evidently are exempt from the newly enacted toy legislation.

Per Madsen: The SketchUp class will be held on March 5 and March 12 at the Garden Center in San Mateo. Space is available and the cost is $70 for both sessions.

Next month's BAWA meeting will be at the Colma Historical Society. Arnie Champagne will be showing and talking about the railroad benches he made.

Per is reconfiguring his business in the Bayview Industrial Park. He is subdividing his 1800 square foot space and offering individual work areas of 225 square feet suitable for artists, woodworkers and crafts persons. He has five spots available for $750 per month. Interested parties should call Per at 415-822-4883.

Stan Booker: The raffle for this evening's meeting is for two boards, one of purple heart, the other of paduak. Door prizes include a small slab of port orford cedar, a gift certificate in the amount of $10 at the Japanese Woodworker, a set of plastic bit holders, and wood turning blanks.

As Stan has previously described to the club, the Asante Network is supporting women's groups in Africa who make crafts for sale here in the USA. Several BAWA members have graciously contributed old and new tools, even cash to help establish a teaching program for woodworking in Tanzania. Now Stan will be making a proposal to the BAWA board, and with their endorsement, to the club membership, that BAWA adopt this fledgling teaching program and become its chief sponsor.

John Blackmore: The hardwood supplier Moore-Newton in San Leandro is offering to sell to BAWA members at wholesale prices. Contact John Moore at 510-317-6500.

John has a Rojeck 16" planer/jointer for sale. Single phase, 220V. Options include a horizontal mortiser and mobile base. You can contact John at 650-400-9429.

New Members & Guests

Tonight we were pleased to welcome Ed Aguilar of Palo Alto, Kathy Koberg of San Francisco and Paul Hons of Alameda.

Main Presentation:

Wood Technology Department

Laney College, Oakland, Ca.

Ron Mackrodt, Department Chair

Ron Mackrodt is an alumnus of the wood technology program at Laney College. He attended Laney in 1978. He received his BA and MA in Humanities at San Francisco State University. He began his professional woodworking career as a journeyman cabinetmaker with the Carpenters Union 2236. He has extensive experience in the Architectural Millwork Industry. He too worked on Larry Elison's house in Woodside.

He has restored two Craftsman bungalows in Alameda.

Laney College hired Ron to mothball the vocational woodworking program. Because of hard work, vision and perseverance, it has never happened. In fact, the program has prospered and grown. Ron teaches 5 mornings per week in the regular vocational program. In addition, an evening program is offered three days a week to Spanish speakers. This program that has now run for three semesters, offers training in woodworking, English as a second language (ESL) and a meal. The first semester focused on solid wood, the second on panel processing. The third has become a continuation course. The evening program is full and he would like to expand it to daytime offerings as well. Graduates can aspire to entry-level professional woodworking positions.

One particular challenge in the program is to teach three measurement systems:

* Fractions

* Decimal equivalents to fractions

* Metric

Ron would like to expand the program to offer non-vocational classes to the community. However, he emphasizes that the Wood Tech program is not a community workshop. The facilities are available only to those students who are enrolled in the Wood Tech program and working on curriculum related projects.

Jay VanArsdale teaches a Japanese Woodworking Techniques class in the department as well. Other classes offered include a Windsor chair making class and one on Arts & Crafts furniture using mortise and tenon construction techniques.

The Wood Technology Program is very well funded thanks to an approved bond measure, state and federal funding and support from industry and the community. Ron specifically mentioned the assistance the program receives from FastCap, including safety glasses, aprons, and tape measures for each student.

Excellent funding has meant that the Program has money in the bank and strong support from the school's administration. The mission at Laney is to bring the Wood Technology program into the 21st. Century. The new state of the art equipment in the shop bears witness to this commitment.

New equipment in the shop includes a Martin planer/joiner, five SawStop cabinet saws, six new Oneway lathes, an Atendorf sliding table saw, a Brandt edgebander, a Weeke Optimat BP CNC machining center and a Timesavers Series 100 wide belt sander. He has ordered a state-of-the-art dust collection system.

The cabinet design work is based on the European 32 mm system, using plywood and melamine sheet goods. They use Cabinetware Software to design the cabinets, construct cut lists and program the machines. Students in the program are being given the tools to use in the 21st Century. Within the industry, old school workers are phasing out and retiring, being replaced by students capable of working in the high quality, high technology woodshops of today. As an example, Ron cited a restoration project at San Francisco City Hall. An elaborate circular design was being repaired and required that a semicircular panel be replaced. Ron, while at a previous job, used a CNC milling machine to create the panel. It did not fit. Why? Because it was not a true semicircle, it had been done by hand. Fortunately, after finding some old wooden hand planes, the artisans working on the restoration job were able to fit the panel into the design. An essential skill in woodworking today is to figure out how to get the machine to do the job.

Jay VanArsdale held a hand plane contest for the students a while back and asked students to submit wood shavings as evidence of their skill. Ron, somewhat tongue-in-cheek submitted a shaving produced while processing the Port Orford Cedar for Larry Elison's boat house. It was 8" wide and two feet long. No one had ever seen such a specimen of fine workmanship. What kind of plane could produce that shaving? But it did not win the contest. The shaving had been made by a machine, not a hand plane. It produced the look of hand planing with the efficiency demanded in today's world.

Our tour was over and the visit inspiring. It was good to see that craftsmanship is supported and thriving. Perhaps vocational programs in the public high schools can be reinvigorated as well.