We now start the second
half of our first decade. What an enjoyable experience
this has been. Our newly elected Board of Directors is
now taking a long look at some of the by-laws and
procedures we have used for the last five years with the
plan to make a few changes and help SAW to grow even
more in the next five years. Part of this growth will be
in rearranging some of the duties and jobs that need to
be done so they can be accomplished in a more efficient
manner. Another part of the planned growth is to help
more Local Chapters be formed and become a part of
the SAW family. We find more picnics being planned
as more and more scrollers discover the joy of getting
together and sharing ideas and techniques in person.
2004 finds us holding our Third
Conference, which has now been renamed to SAW EXPO. This
event will take place on June 11 and 12 in Lebanon, PA.
There will be the opportunity to attend many free
seminars, participate in the SAW sponsored Scrollsaw
Contest, meet and greet many of the SAW Board of
Director members, and in general have a lot of fun.
The AtoZ Scrollers in Phoenix, AZ are
holding their first ever picnic in March. The scrollers
from the northwest part of the country is holding their
second Scrollsaw picnic in Portland, OR. Dirk Boelman
and Ocooch Lumber have moved the IL picnic from Pontiac,
IL to Richland Center, WI. That event, known as the
MIdwest Scrollsaw Picnic, will continue the fine start
that Joe Diveley gave to the picnic all the years that
it was held in IL. The Pennsylvania Scrollsaw Picnic has
given way to SAW EXPO. This will be the first event that
SAW has sponsored in the East. Where will SAW EXPO
end up in 2006 at our next event. Marvin Shelley is
holding his second picnic in Arkansas. The numbers are
growing tremendously, surely everyone can find one event
that they can attend this year.
Branson, MO hosted their
first ever Scrollsaw Picnic. SAW attended and held a
contest and had a record number of people enter a record
number of entries. The judges for the contest continued
something that was started at SAW EXPO by holding an
impromptu critique after the prizes had been awarded.
Anyone who did not want to have their entries critiqued
were free to remove them from the contest area prior to
the critique. All the rest were used in this seminar and
the judges explained what they found that kept that
particular project from receiving a ribbon. The critique
has been well received at each of the events it was held
at so far, and we hope that it will become a part of all
future contests. Many favorable comments were heard
afterwards about how much they had learned after
listening to the critique of, not only their projects,
but of all of the projects. Our thanks go out to
the judges for taking the time to do this.
The ACES program is being
introduced this year. We hope that this is just the
beginning of bringing scrolling to more and more people.
Aces is designed to make it easy for anyone to introduce
a group to scrolling. You would not have to be an expert
scroller to put on this program. A 20 minute video is a
part of this program. The demonstrator need only
introduce himself and the video, then have the group
watch the video, and have a short question and answer
period afterwards. What a great way to spread the joy of
doing scrollsaw work.
