Hands on Night 14 Sept 2021

Firstly, apologies if you received an email about this News Post last night and then when clicking on the link it came up with a 404 Error message.  I accidently hit Publish instead of Preview when creating this and the system started sending emails out and I could not stop it quick enough.  Hopefully, if you are now reading this you will have got a new email and this has now worked as normal.

As of 14 Sept 2021, we are pleased to be back in the Village Hall for the first Hands on Night since 10 Mar 2020.  After a lot of thought and planning by our Social & Fundraising Sub Committee along with a group of us who set up the hall on the night, we finally reopened our doors to an eager bunch of members and some old faces that were great to welcome back to the Club after all this time.  We made sure all the necessary precautions were in place due to Covid to ensure everyone would be as safe as possible.  It is appreciated that a social face to face meeting like this after living with Covid all this time and irrespective of jabs, for some people they are still very nervous and its a worrying step forward and rightly so. Hopefully, as we all get used to what could be the new normal to get our lives back on track, we will encourage those who did not attend to come along, even its just to pop in to say hello.

We were pleased to see 23 paid up members, some of which we had not seen during our monthly zoom meetings, so it was great to welcome them back.  Also, really pleased to see three gentlemen who were previously members, but had not rejoined this year due to the covid situation and the use of zoom was not for them.  The evening got off to a good start with Peter Barrack selling raffle tickets as everyone came through the door to win some great prizes.  He was also selling disposable cups with the makings of tea and coffee for individuals to help themselves during the evening.

We had two Club lathes set up in the hall, of which Chris Fisher and John Liles manned to keep the audience entertained and for anyone to have a go if they felt comfortable to do so. The lathes and tools were all wiped down between use and masks, visors, wipes, hand gel etc were all readily available for everyone to use.  John was even seen making a segmented bowl which was something new for him as he is Mr Spindle!  Good to hear the usual banter back in the hall and I think a lot of people were just pleased  to get to see old friends and have a good chat.

Mick Close had sourced a new supplier of timber so there was plenty of a different woods to choose from in all shapes and sizes, some of which were varieties we had never heard of.  John Radford was kept busy out in the Shop as vital woodturning supplies were being purchased so we hope to see some finished items in due course.

All in all it was a good first night and shows it can be done and safely, so lets see you back next month.

Thank you to everyone that helped make the night successful and for helping set up and clear away at the end, which as we are all getting older, the more hands make it soon much easier and a lot quicker.  Thank you.

Remember, we are still having the online Workshop nights which have now been moved to next Tuesday 21st Sept 2021 (3rd Tuesday of every month).  If you have items to show us, please send me the photos as soon as possible.

As you are hopefully aware, the Club is now a Registered Charity with the Charity Commission.  This gives us the benefit to obtain support in various ways, such as Gift Aid from the HMRC and certain companies offer cash back on purchases made, by people like you.  We registered with Amazon Smile earlier in the year and if your house is like mine, I don’t think a week goes by without a very distinctive Amazon box being delivered at our door.

We can get money from people who use Amazon and want to give their Smile funds to us.  Below is the link for you to sign up.  It doesn’t cost you anything and the price you pay on the items you buy is not increased.  We then get 0.5% of whatever you spend.  Now that does not sound much, but every penny helps and it soon builds up.  The last I heard, we already have nearly £20 for doing nothing, so a big thank you for choosing us as your selected Charity to support.  So if you have not done so already, please go and have a look and support your Club in this way.  Thank you.

https://smile.amazon.co.uk/ch/1192167-0

Turners Retreat have informed us they will be trialling Saturday opening to enable those working during the week to visit them at the weekends.  This starts from the 2 Oct and then is on the 30 Oct, 6 Nov, and 4 Dec.  On the 6 Nov this will also be a Robert Sorby day, so worth going along and see what they will be doing.

Our wonderful Programme Secretary, Alan Buckle, has now finalised the programme for the demonstrators for 2022 which should be getting sent out this coming weekend.  You can also download a copy HERE.

On the subject of demonstrations, please don’t miss our next online IRD one on the 28 Sept 2021 by Jeff Hornung.  If you are a PAYG member, please go HERE to buy you ticket for entry to the online Zoom meeting.

Right that’s it for now, so look forward to seeing all our Zoom fans on next Tuesday, 7pm to 9:30pm.

If you would like to leave a comment below it would be appreciated to hear what you thought of the Hands on Night if you went or if you did not, still be good to hear from you.  Remember it’s your Club and we need your feedback to make things better.