January Meeting: Elections, and Group Build Updates

The January meeting will take place on Wednesday, Jan. 8. Since it is the beginning of the calendar year, it’s time for membership renewals, so please bring your membership dues. Also, we will be holding elections for the 2013 slate of officers. All positions are up for election, and the following members are running for office:

President: Matt Kestenbaum and Stuart Moore

Vice President: Jerry Fishlin and Marc Gaertner

Secretary: Jeff Brown and Wilbur Pan

Treasurer: Doug Poray

Librarian: Jerry Van De Sande

We will also have updates from the joint stool group build, and presentations on the new set of group build projects being offered by CJWA. For those unfamiliar with the group builds, a group build is a project led by a CJWA member who leads a small group of members through the construction of a woodworking project. It’s much like a woodworking class, only the work is done in your own workshop, and it is a fantastic way to learn woodworking skills and techniques.

Finishing seminar from Mohawk Finishes available for CJWA members

The North Jersey Woodworkers Association has graciously invited CJWA members to attend a finishing seminar being presented by Mohawk Finishes at their January meeting. This promises to be an excellent opportunity to improve your results when applying finish to your projects.

The NJWA holds their meetings at the Allwood Community Church, 100 Chelsea Road, in Clifton. The January meeting will be on Monday, Jan. 20, at 7 PM.

December Meeting: Annual CJWA Holiday Potluck Dinner and Fundraising for Woodworkers Fighting Cancer

It’s time again for the annual CJWA Holiday Potluck Dinner, where there will be much conversation about woodworking and an even greater amount of food. The December meeting will be held on Wednesday, Decemeber 11, at 6:30 pm sharp. Please arrive early, due to the increased set up time and wanting to get dinner underway promptly.

As we have done in the past, everyone is asked to bring a main course, a side dish or a dessert. If you bring enough for 6 to 8 people we should have more then enough for everyone. The club will provide soda, water, paper plates and plasticware. Spouses are certainly welcome to come, and we will have a meeting following the feast.

To keep the menu balanced please e-mail Marc Gaertner at marcleslieg@gmail.com to indicate what food you are bringing to avoid a situation where we have all desserts. Not that there’s a problem with all desserts, of course.

In addition to our potluck dinner, donations will be collected for Woodworkers Fighting Cancer. As a reminder, CJWA and corporate sponsor Pentad People Solutions will be matching donations up to $250 each, which essentially means that every dollar donated will result in $3 going towards this fundraising effort. More information can be found here.

CJWA participating in Woodworkers Fighting Cancer

Woodworkers Fighting Cancer is a fundraising effort headed by Marc Spagnuolo, The Wood Whisperer, whose goal is to raise $10,000 for CancerCare, a national nonprofit organization that provides free, professional support services to anyone affected by cancer: people with cancer, caregivers, children, loved ones and the bereaved. This is the third year in a row that Marc has headed up this initiative.

At the November meeting, CJWA voted to participate in Woodworkers Fighting Cancer in a substantial way. CJWA members can participate by building a child’s easel and sending a photo of the project to The Wood Whisperer website. For every project submitted, Marc and various corporate sponsors will donate $5 each towards the fundraising goal. This project is quite easy to make and can easily be completed in two days. Plans, videos, and information on how to build this project can be found at the Woodworkers Fighting Cancer website.

In addition, CJWA will be collecting donations from the membership. CJWA and corporate sponsor Pentad People Solutions will each match member donations dollar for dollar, up to $250 each. Every dollar CJWA members donate will result in an additional $2 donation. We will be collecting donations at our holiday potluck dinner meeting on Dec. 11.

November meeting: Drawers and Cabinets in progress

The November CJWA meeting will be at 7:00 PM on Wednesday, Nov. 13, and will be a full agenda. We will have presentations from Matt Kestenbaum on a cabinet that is a work in progress, a presentation on making dovetailed drawers from John Aniano, as well as a shop tour from Walt Campbell. There will also be an update on the election of officers for 2014, our upcoming annual Holiday Potluck, and much more. We are looking forward to seeing you there!