newsletter Archives - Mid-Island Woodworkers' Guild

Greetings woodworkers!

I hope that you have prepared for winter with snow tires, shovels, and salt! It is time to get out of the nasty weather and into our workshops after such a beautiful Fall.

Our next Mid-Island Woodworkers’ Guild meeting is on Wednesday, November 8, and the scheduled presentations will be Ed Tremblay on flattening boards with a router, and Brian Rigby – Vice-Chair of Jonanco.

After the presentations are finished at our next meeting, we will hold our Annual General Meeting with the election of our Directors who become the Executive of the Guild.

Several of us had a meeting with Paul Mottershead, Associate Dean – Trades and Applied Technology, and MLA Leonard Krog a couple of weeks ago to explore the potential joint efforts of MIWG and VIU to provide some woodworking instructional options to the community in the future. The most likely early outcome of this would be that VIU would provide a classroom venue for instructional activities. Paul also conducted us on a tour of the Carpentry Program shop, and the Heavy Duty Mechanics shop next door.

We have purchased a gallon of “End Seal” which should be painted onto any ends of any green wood that has just been cut. If you are a member, please contact me directly if you are planning on cutting or acquiring freshly cut wood and would like to add this End Seal.

Stay tuned here for the first of many woodworking courses that we hope to offer to our members on in the future. We hope to begin very soon with a Safety course and a First Aid course. There will be public announcements here when we have details on instructors, dates, times, locations and costs. Our Guild insurance will cover all members who take these courses! (If you are not already a member, see our Membership page if these courses are of interest to you.)

Anyway, as usual, I extend an invitation to any and all to attend our next General Meeting on Wednesday, November 8 at Meeting Room A, 355 Wakesiah Road, at 6:30 pm. Put it on your calendar, and we welcome all visitors!

Meanwhile, …while you are on your computer, we would appreciate it if you “Like” us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/miwoodworkers/.

Hopefully, I’ll see you all soon!

Best wishes,

Tony

N.B. This is a test of a new “public” newsletter blog post. As you can see, I have added a “Subscribe” button which will allow you to subscribe to the Newsletters, and to receive an email every time there is a new posted version.

Greetings to you all!

As September cools and we have probably reached the end of the fabulously warm and sunny summer days on Vancouver Island, it is time to get back to woodworking thinking, planning and projects. For me, this means opening up my shop doors and once again pondering the layout and configuration of a shop that just doesn’t quite match up to my aspirations and hopes for organization. The good news…I am beginning to see the functional daylight in a reorganized woodworking environment. Someday soon, I hope to become a woodworker again!

On the “what’s happening” side of MIWG…we have members scattered and away from their home on the Island, we have an upcoming meeting this coming Wednesday, September 13, at NDSS (see the maps at www.miwg.ca/meetings/) with the Australian Editor of Woodsmith Magazine – Chris Clark, as our featured presenter, and an upcoming members and affiliate members (VIWG) only wood sale and family barbecue on September 23.

(As a reminder to the non-member readers of this newsletter, you are always welcome to attend a meeting as a guest, and our membership fees are extremely low-cost – $25 initiation and a pro-rated annual membership fee of $50 in case you feel you would like to join us, or just learn more. This membership entitles you to attendance at our upcoming workshops, as well as wonderful fellowship with others of like interests.)

In addition to our guest presenter next Wednesday, we will have our regular door prize draw as well as a full discussion on where we have come, and where we are going with the MIWG activities.

We have plans for upcoming woodworking training workshops, as well as hopes for more wonderful shop tours. I am sorry if you missed June’s outstanding visits to Karen Trickett and Cam Russell’s beautiful workshop near Mill Bay, and the visits to Michael Moore’s amazing wood and metal-working shop nearer to Duncan and the LiveEdge workshop in Duncan. All three visits were awesome (in the full sense of the word) and inspiring!

We hope to make our core business this year “educational” in the sense that we hope to fulfil a gap in mid-Island learning needs for woodworking. Join us if you feel the need for these workshops, or would like to pass on your skills!

Best wishes to you all, and I look forward to seeing many of you soon!

Tony

Tony Dobson, President

Mid-Island Woodworkers’ Guild

Nanaimo, BC