We got a good start to the new year with our January meeting. It was nice to see a good turnout at Maker Nexus in Sunnyvale, including three new visitors. Thank you to those who participated in our Show-and-Tell / President’s Challenge. I enjoyed seeing what you've all been  turning.  Our visitors must have enjoyed what they saw as well, as they are now our three newest members!

SVW has always been about the enjoyment of learning and growing our own skills, while sharing our art and passion for woodturning. I'm excited about this upcoming year and the opportunities we have to continue and expand on that in our new meeting location. We’ve got a full calendar of demos, including three professional presentations this year, and our monthly show-and-tell to learn from each other and ask questions. We are also expecting some new opportunities this year to collaborate with Maker Nexus and potentially share some of our woodturning expertise with a wider audience.

If you haven't had a chance yet to see all that's going on at Maker Nexus, please ask one of their staff for a tour either before or after our meeting next time you are there. In addition to the laser cutters, 3D printers, sewing lab, electronics lab, metal shop, and so much more, you might notice that in the back corner of the wood shop there are half a dozen lathes calling for attention. Since there's currently not a full-time woodturning instructor at the facility, their woodturning calendar of classes has been mostly for equipment certification and occasional basic woodturning projects. This presents ample volunteer opportunities for a woodturning club with the collective knowledge and expertise of SVW to help out with mentoring, curriculum development, assistance with woodturning instruction, and who knows what all else.

As we're still figuring out what our collaboration with Maker Nexus will look like I'm hoping you'll come up with some ideas about how we can spread our love for woodturning to the maker space members and the wider community. If you'd like to volunteer as a woodturning mentor, assistant instructor, or anything else please let me know. The willingness of SVW members to share their expertise with others has always been one of the selling points of the club.

Which reminds me of one more thing I wanted to mention. Many of you saw the impressive wood turned lamp shade that Dennis brought to the January meeting. He offered to show his techniques for such a delicate turning to anyone who wanted to come to his shop as he turned another one a couple of days later. Unfortunately I couldn't make that demonstration, but it put a big smile on my face to hear that a couple of our new club members were there. I thought wow, what a great first experience of the camaraderie and talent in this club!

Kevin