Annual Meeting, Tidy Fridays and Blacksmithing

Greetings all you Metal-Fabbers… Here’s your Metal Fabrication Studio newsletter for February.

I have one important announcement, an update on the Forge/Blacksmithing program, and another couple of items, so do please scan the whole newsletter.

First the announcement: The Studio will meet for a long overdue annual meeting on March 14 from 4 – 5:30 PM (or longer if need be) in BARN’s Great Room. Incredibly, it’s been four years since we held our last “annual” meeting, so we’re certainly due for this meetup. We’ll have coffee and other beverages, along with a treat or two. Various folks will provide an update on the activities in our various shops (Forge, Foundry, Machine, Sheet Metal, and Welding & Plasma). You are urged to attend for a say in how Metal-Fab continues to mature. Please RSVP to metal.lead@bainbridgebarn.org so we know how many folks to expect.

Another item of business will be to approve an updated set of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). Our SOP document is an attempt to lay out our “Rules of the Road” for how we operate within the guiding principles of BARN’s Mission Statement and other guidelines. The document will not be read during the meeting, so in response to your RSVP, you’ll receive a PDF of the SOP document.

Metal-Fab’s steering committee has several voting members, including the lead, programming manager, our five shop managers, and treasurer. There’s also a provision/need for a lead-in-training and secretary that we’d like to fill. If you have an interest in helping the studio with any of these essential functions, please contact metal.lead@bainbridgebarn.org.

Now, on to the fun stuff: Jim DeRoy has successfully conducted two Introduction to Blacksmithing beta classes on the concrete apron in front of the Welding shop. Everyone had great fun forming hot steel into hangers and hooks, so we’ve taken the next step and posted these classes.

Our Forge program is beginning to take shape in other ways, with Yori Seeger, a master craftsman, agreeing to teach some classes during the year. And, as is our way, two folks have stepped up to monitor open studios. These events will be scheduled as demand is demonstrated. It feels like our fledgling Blacksmith program is beginning to show promise, and I am delighted … I hope you are too!!

I’ve intended to mention another point that deserves attention … We urge members to attend our Steering Committee meetings to stay abreast of all the happenings in Metal-Fab. We have a distribution list for the meeting schedule, agenda, and minutes (when one of us manages to get it done). If you’d like to be added to that distribution list, please let me know.

I want to finish up with an update on our re-energized Tidy Friday events we hold every second and fourth Friday from 10 AM to noon. We’re more than three months in now and have had six to eight people show up each time to pitch in and help keep our shops clean. Both members and visitors alike comment on how clean our shops are, and that is a direct result of the help you folks lend in making it so. Make no mistake though, we have great fun when we meet, sometimes having more fun than actual work being done. And that’s great because there’s coffee to drink with tasty treats, projects to talk about, and friendships to be made and renewed. I hope to see you at our next Tidy Friday.

Until the next time, be safe and have fun!!
David Hays
Metal Fabrication Lead