Hi everyone! I'm on the Turners Without Borders committee, tasked with moving along a draft proposal for "twinning" clubs. Probably that's more of a European term; perhaps in the US it would be more like Sister Cities. I'm not sure that this forum is the best place to to put this request, but I'm starting here with a few questions: Does anyone have experience with twinning clubs? If not your club, then have you heard of any? Does anyone have connections with turners/clubs in Inter or South America? Has anyone travelled there and visited a club?
I'll probably post this same message on another forum just to make sure I'm getting the right place.
Meantime, thanks in advance for any experience or insights.
PS - Emiliano is also on this TWB committee and has a lot of wisdom on the subject, but I don't want to overlook anyone else!
Cheers!
Hi Marianne!
As Emiliano mentioned, my club, the Georgia Association of Woodturners (GAW), has made the owner of the La Casa del Tornero woodturning club an "international" member of our club. Due to the massive difference in the exchange rate, we aren't charging them for dues. Our $40 membership would, at this time, be $57,550 Argentine pesos. And yes, they use the dollar sign just like we do, which is VERY confusing! Except they call it the Peso sign, of course.
This all started at the Turners w/o Borders meeting in St. Paul, where Emiliano introduced a young man, Thomas Lynch, to the group. Thomas is from Tierra del Fuego in far southern Argentina and is a graduate of the woodturning school. Thomas and I developed a bond during that weekend which will, I hope, be lifelong. My club has made him an international member of the club, also.
Since the St. Paul meeting, Matias and his son demonstrated at a woodworking event in São Paulo, Brazil, and garnered massive attention. That attention resulted in the formation of the first woodturning club in Brazil. When the Brazilians get their club organized, GAW plans to offer them the same arrangement we have with Matias' school. Both the school in Buenos Aires and the club in São Paulo are only one hour ahead of Atlanta's time zone, which is convenient for all concerned.
The agreement with the school is that Matia (and his son) are full-fledged members of GAW and get invitations to our Zoom broadcasts of our meetings, as well as access to the recordings of past demonstrations, which are only available to members. While Matias' students don't have direct access to meeting broadcasts and recordings, we permit them to watch in groups at the school under Matias' supervision.
Neither Matias nor Thomas has missed a meeting broadcast since we created this relationship. In addition, I have received several short videos from Matias, showing groups of students watching our meetings or past recordings, so it's working! I also receive a steady stream of videos showing activities at the school.
I have learned from Matias that, while there are many woodturners in both Argentina and Brazil, they are isolated and often self-taught. There are no clubs in Argentina that he knows of, and only the new one in Brazil. He has massive ambitions for changing that environment. One of those ambitions is to host the first Argentine symposium next fall.
The school is on both Facebook and Instagram, should anyone wish to follow them. Just look for La Casa del Tornero.
Interesting side note. Google Translate often translates the "Georgia Association of Woodturners" into "Georgia Association of the Bull". Given that it is a bunch of woodturners, one could argue that it isn't that far off the mark.
