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Sad news today

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I will admit, and apologize, I fell into the trap. The original post was like someone with thumbs in their ears wagging their fingers and going "na na na na na na naaaa". Well the response then is "Oh yea, well take this". Two little kids doing battle. That was the only way I could interpret the need for him to post which was childish, and quite frankly my response was also. He could have simply folded his club which would have proved his point without the need to try to evoke a response on a public forum.
One of my female friends chides me saying men can have a fight and 30 minutes later be drinking a beer together. well I hope that's the case here.
I value all woodturners, and woodworkers,and carvers and I think I prove that daily with my efforts to educate fellow woodworkers.
Some people simply don't want to be active club members and certainly not to join the national group. It's a fact of life. Still I welcome them to the fold however active or inactive they might be.
I try to look at the bigger picture. I've seen how the growth in the AAW has affected the availability of tools, lathes, chucks, and turning videos and books.

John, point well taken.
 
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Excellent!

I will admit, and apologize, I fell into the trap. The original post was like someone with thumbs in their ears wagging their fingers and going "na na na na na na naaaa". Well the response then is "Oh yea, well take this". Two little kids doing battle. That was the only way I could interpret the need for him to post which was childish, and quite frankly my response was also. He could have simply folded his club which would have proved his point without the need to try to evoke a response on a public forum.
One of my female friends chides me saying men can have a fight and 30 minutes later be drinking a beer together. well I hope that's the case here.
I value all woodturners, and woodworkers,and carvers and I think I prove that daily with my efforts to educate fellow woodworkers.
Some people simply don't want to be active club members and certainly not to join the national group. It's a fact of life. Still I welcome them to the fold however active or inactive they might be.
I try to look at the bigger picture. I've seen how the growth in the AAW has affected the availability of tools, lathes, chucks, and turning videos and books.

John - Thank you for demonstrating forum leadership. Nice Job!

Jerry
 
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Well Played Curtis, Congratulations.

With just one post, the first one I might add, you rekindled this past summer's battleground and got people from both sides of the fence to:

* Fortify their sides
* Stumble on their own words
* Scramble to correct themselves
* Make fools of themselves

If this were a race, you would have lapped everyone, maybe even more than once.




There was one light in this whole thread (Thank you John)
I will admit, and apologize, I fell into the trap. The original post was like someone with thumbs in their ears wagging their fingers and going "na na na na na na naaaa". Well the response then is "Oh yea, well take this". Two little kids doing battle.




To everyone else, how are you going to respond to the next thread like this?
 
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John, it was very nice to come back to this thread and read your post. thanks.
I have been pondering this thread all night. As I was reading the vitriole was just oozing off the pages and it was almost a bit of shock to see some underlaying anger still unresolved.
So after sleeping on it and waking to Johns great post I have some thoughts.
When a person makes up their mind you sometimes just have to let them go on. In my case I wish the fellow well. I could actually care less if he wants to be an aaw member. Its better the anger goes away and steams in its own juices. Letting those who wish to live and let live get on with living.
As far as a small group is concerned our 1st club started with five founding members. Went uphill for about 10 years. Events and shear size made a second founding on the other side of the island possible. We did that with six founding members.
The question that needs asked is what keeps a group alive, active and fun? The few who continue year after year to be the nuts and bolts of the group. To come up with challenges for each meeting. A demo from a club member on some aspect of interest to the group. A new group always needs basics. Over and over again. What tool does what. Reverse chucking to do the bottoms. Faceplate or chuck and why. Etc. When the fun starts going away so does the group. One person can sour 60. Our new tactic is to slowly distance the person from responsibility and to politely or not stop them when they get on a verbal tirade.
And I dont care if any member is an aaw member. They know its available. They have to see a value in membership.
Its their loss.
 
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John, it was very nice to come back to this thread and read your post. thanks.
I have been pondering this thread all night. As I was reading the vitriole was just oozing off the pages and it was almost a bit of shock to see some underlaying anger still unresolved.
So after sleeping on it and waking to Johns great post I have some thoughts.
When a person makes up their mind you sometimes just have to let them go on. In my case I wish the fellow well. I could actually care less if he wants to be an aaw member. Its better the anger goes away and steams in its own juices. Letting those who wish to live and let live get on with living.
As far as a small group is concerned our 1st club started with five founding members. Went uphill for about 10 years. Events and shear size made a second founding on the other side of the island possible. We did that with six founding members.
The question that needs asked is what keeps a group alive, active and fun? The few who continue year after year to be the nuts and bolts of the group. To come up with challenges for each meeting. A demo from a club member on some aspect of interest to the group. A new group always needs basics. Over and over again. What tool does what. Reverse chucking to do the bottoms. Faceplate or chuck and why. Etc. When the fun starts going away so does the group. One person can sour 60. Our new tactic is to slowly distance the person from responsibility and to politely or not stop them when they get on a verbal tirade.
And I dont care if any member is an aaw member. They know its available. They have to see a value in membership.
Its their loss.

Kelly, excellent question, I doubt there are few "one size fits all" answers. One group I belong to, for the past 8 or 9 years, is constantly in flux when it comes to membership. Yet we have maintained a fairly steady 60+/- number. We attract 2, 3 or more new members each year. One or two stay on after a year or two, the rest don't bother to voice why the leave, we just never see them again.

As with what seems the majority of Chapters, 10 or 15% of the members do all the heavy lifting for the rest.

The other Chapter to which I'm a member has a pretty stable membership, with few defections. They are in some ways very active, yet the 10,15% rule still applies.

I doubt if half of either group are members of the AAW. No one pushes them to join but the reasons for joining are presented often enough that they are very aware of its existence. I have serious doubts that "value" plays much of a role in either instance. This is just a supposition but most seem content to come to meetings, ask a couple questions, then go home and play at the lathe. So it goes. In the nine +/- years I have never seen a turning of any kind from probably 15 or so regulars that come to the meetings.
 
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Correction

I checked the Excel file from Linda Ferber again, and I have made a mistake.

The 13,941 figure is for December 2010, not January 2011. The January 2011 figure is 11879.

The January 2011 figure is still the highest January registration on record (next best 2009, at 11,310). The December 2010 figure of 13,941 is also the highest on record (next best 2009, at 13,601).

The December 2010 to January 2011 renewal rate is the second-highest for the records we have.

My sincere apologies for my error.

MZ
 
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I checked the Excel file from Linda Ferber again, and I have made a mistake.

The 13,941 figure is for December 2010, not January 2011. The January 2011 figure is 11879.

The January 2011 figure is still the highest January registration on record (next best 2009, at 11,310). The December 2010 figure of 13,941 is also the highest on record (next best 2009, at 13,601).

The December 2010 to January 2011 renewal rate is the second-highest for the records we have.

My sincere apologies for my error.
MZ

Malcolm, what is the explanation of there being 2062 less members in January than December? Is this a normal difference based on past years? Without a historical reference possibly in percentages the figures really don't mean that much to me.
 
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Barbara,

Since AAW membership is on a calendar year basis, January is always the lowest membership month. Typically, a large percentage of the membership do not renew on time, let their memberships laps at the end of the year, and then come to realize they need to renew when the 1st Journal of the new year doesn’t arrive in their mailbox. This year, I think there was an unusually high number of on-time renewals, perhaps motivated by the paper copy Resource Directory (opt-in) deadline of 31 December.
 

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Barbara
Ed is right. If it is a typical year we'll have 2800 join AAW or renew a lapsed membership during the year.

The annual renewal for AAW runs a bit over 85%.
The annual growth has been running a bit over 6%

Why people do not renew is a thousand individual stories:
sadly a few members die each year, a few become unable to turn, A few can't afford it this year,quite a few of the newer members decide turning is not for them, some just decide AAW is not for them.
About half the new members drop out within 3 years. The good news the other half are with AAW long term.

When I held a couple of offices for a local chapter over 8 years we saw much the same thing we would get 5 to 10 new members each year and maybe 3-5 would stick around long term. But our club kept growing. We seemed to lose a high percentage of the 20-40 age group as family and work got the better of their turning time.

Happy turning,
Al
 
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