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SWAT

Andy Chen

Andy Chen

Joined
Jul 14, 2010
Messages
208
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Location
College Station, TX
The 2017 SWAT (SouthWest Association of Woodturners) symposium has come and gone. By all accounts it was a great success with 906 registered attendees. The SWAT symposium has a 2-for-1 raffle where your single raffle tickets have a chance to win two prizes. On Saturday night tickets are drawn to win ~40 donated turnings and the winning tickets are put back in the hopper for another chance to win tools including 3 Jet 1221s and the grand prize of a Robust American Beauty. I donated a segmented southwest style hollow form that was won by none other than our moderator here on the AAW forum, Bill Boehme.
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Bill actually won two turnings Saturday evening. It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy!

All the while we were in Waco, besides the woodturning, hurricane Harvey was the hottest discussion topic, for a good reason. Some of my friends' homes in Houston had already been flooded by Sunday morning. Others decided to extend their stay in Waco because they could not return home with all the road closures. We'll keep all our friends impacted in our thoughts.
 
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Winning the beautiful piece that you donated was my personal highlight of the whole symposium.

I had the pleasure of meeting several newer forum members as well as some of the regulars.

The severe flooding is still a concern. Parts of Houston has received 25 inches of rain and forecast to get up to 50 inches by the end of the week.
 
Well I would have loved to be there and really would enjoy seeing Bill and Andy and my other friends in that area. Maybe next year. Simply too much going on in my life right now to take part in symposiums.
 
The flooding in Houston is a major disaster. Hopefully loss of life will remain low.
So many people with devastating property loss. consider making a donation to help them.

I had a great time at Swat got to meet Fadi, chat breifly with Bill, Andy, Brent, & Steve.

The Hill country turners took good care of us and the SWAT board did a terrific job.

Like all aaw regionals, Swat is run by volunteers who give their time year around to make it a success.
Also they have big crew of volunteers who work mostly just before and during the symposium.
Keep in mind the SWAT board has been working on 2018 for 10 months+.

All AAW activities are made possible by AAW volunteers.
Regional symposiums, chapters, aaw symposium, auctions, video source, Fundamentals, and so much more.....
 
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The wife and I attended and had a great time. I enjoyed SWAT as much as the KC symposium. Actually, I think I enjoyed the sessions even more. Of course, meeting Bill was the highlight of the whole weekend! :D
 
By the way, you'll notice in the picture that Andy and I were both sporting the official SWAT hair style as were quite a few others there. We're still waiting for Al, John T, John L, Fadi, and others to join us in this low maintenance coiffure. :D
 
Bill Boehme said:
By the way, you'll notice in the picture that Andy and I were both sporting the official SWAT hair style as were quite a few others there. We're still waiting for Al, John T, John L, Fadi, and others to join us in this low maintenance coiffure. :D
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I went for gray! -:) over achieved and got white!

Fadi is way behind us on going gray!
 
Bill Boehme said:
Winning the beautiful piece that you donated was my personal highlight of the whole symposium.

I had the pleasure of meeting several newer forum members as well as some of the regulars.

The severe flooding is still a concern. Parts of Houston has received 25 inches of rain and forecast to get up to 50 inches by the end of the week.
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What a lucky guy!! Beautiful work of art. Congratulations.
 
This was my first SWAT, and it was a blast!

Al, I didn't know you were a funny guy always joking. And your wife is amazing! I had a chance to exchange few words with her before I walked up to you. I had a lot of fun in your session. I need to make space for sandblasting now.

Oh and don't worry, I'm starting to gray out. I got married late, so I have a late start but it is starting :)

Bill, I'm glad I got to meet you. I knew you were a nice guy, but I never new you were such a nice humble guy.

Andy, I did not know it at the time, but we sat at the same table at lunch on Sunday. I was sitting at the corner. It is good to kind of meet/see you :)
 
Interesting. Thanks for posting the photos. I have registered for the Turning Southern Style symposium in Dalton, GA next month.
 
Bill Bulloch said:
Where are the Gallery Pictures from SWAT? No body has posted any that I can find.
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The number of pieces in the instant gallery were far fewer than usual... it appeared to be less than half as many pieces as recent years. The rain was probably the main reason. I usually take a few pieces, but didn't this year. The only exception was the Beads of Courage which had a large number of beautiful and clever turned boxes.
 
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