By the beginning of April, 1999 we had a
total of 500 members of the Scrollsaw Association of the
World. This was done with little or no advertising.
Thanks to the generosity of individuals like Pat
Spielman and Dirk Boelman for mentioning us in their
newsletters, and to the work of companies such as RBI
and Hegner for putting forth our membership information
to their customers.
Our first Directory was published in
February, 1999. This informative booklet has been an
immediate success with our members. The information
contained in the Directory allows members to contact
each other, find scrollsawing resources, and have an
individual copy of the By-Laws of the Organization. With
members from around the world, we are truly an
"International" Scrollsawing Association.
The summer of 1999 found us attending
picnics across the country again. The first event that
occurred was the Scrollsaw Festival sponsored by
Creative Woodworks & Crafts magazine near their home
office in New Jersey. This was a splendid three day
event that allowed us to talk to many more scrollers
from a new part of the country.
RBIndustries
also celebrated their 75th anniversary of manufacturing
and selling scroll saws at their home office in
Harrisonville, MO. Even though this event was limited to
customers of RBI, we had the opportunity to again meet a
lot of different people from a different part of the
country.
The Pennsylvania picnic
was held the same week end as RBI, and I couldn't
personally be in two places at one time, but I heard
that Dale again had an extremely successful event.
Joe
Diveley's Illinois picnic was held in early August. SAW
sponsored a Scrollsaw Contest again at this event. Joe
has very graciously donated the space to hold this
event. This may be the last time that SAW does this at a
picnic. We are planning a major event of our own for
early in 2000 and are planning on relocating the contest
to that venue.
The winners of
the Scrollsaw Contest held at Joe's picnic were:
Another picnic has sprung up near
Sacramento, California. This one was sponsored by Joanne
and Max Lockwood. Joanne held this event in her back
yard with a limited number of people attending. They had
so much fun though that another one is being planned for
2000.
Gunnar Asplund also held a
Scrollsaw picnic in Sweden. Scrolling is truly an
international art. From all reports, this was also a
very successful event. Gunnar is also planning to
repeat it in 2000.
