Feb 7 Meeting Recap

[Jamey Saunders]

We had a great second Georgia Custom Knifemakers Guild meeting on Saturday. We got a lot accomplished, and we are well on our way to being a solid organization. We finally got a few important items nailed down, including the types of membership and dues. We also elected our first slate of officers, except for the President and Vice President which we tabled until the May meeting.

For those of you who wish to join the Georgia Custom Knifemakers Guild, we set the dues for full members at $50 per year. To become a Full Voting Member, you must live in the State of Georgia and present three knives at one of our regularly scheduled meetings for inspection by the Board of Directors. These knives must be entirely handmade by you (no computer-controlled machining allowed), except for items such as pivots, screws, and damascus bar stock. If your workmanship is accepted as being up to the standards of the Guild, you will become a Full Voting Member. If your workmanship is judged as needing improvement, you will become a Probationary Member and will be asked to present three more knives for judging within the year.

For makers who are not residents of the State of Georgia, you can become an Associate Member in the same fashion. The only difference between Associate Members and Full Voting Members is that Associate Members do not have voting privileges. The dues will be $50 for Associate Members as well.

Suppliers, embellishers, photographers, leather workers, dealers, and other non-makers with a commercial interest in joining the Guild may do so as an Affiliate Member by paying dues of $100 per year. Affiliate Members do not have voting privileges.

We have a Friends of the Guild membership for collectors and others who have an interest in custom knives. Dues for Friends of the Guild are $20 per year. Non-knifemaking spouses of members are considered non-voting members and may elect to pay no dues or become Friends of the Guild for $20.

Finally, we have a Youth Membership for people under the age of 19. Dues for Youth Members are also $20. Youth Members need to also present a letter of permission to join from their parents or guardian.

The officers we elected at the meeting were the Secretary (Kathleen Tomey), Treasurer (Brent Fisher) and the two Board Members at Large (Alvin Kinsey and Wayne Hensley). Our temporary President (John Poythress) was elected to serve until the third meeting, which will be in May. At that meeting, his office as well as the office of Vice President will be up for election.

The May meeting will again be held at Kathleen Tomey?s in Macon. Directions will be emailed as the date nears. We are also planning to have one or more demos at the May meeting. Information on scheduled demos will be announced as they are finalized.

If you wish to join the Guild, I have posted a membership application at http://www.internetbusinesslinks.net/application.pdf . You will need to send your application and a check for your dues (made out to the Georgia Custom Knifemakers Guild) to Brent Fisher. If you have any questions, you can contact John and Joan Poythress.

[mrsjoan]

Hey Jamie,

I tried the link in your post and received an error. Until you get that squared away, anyone who needs a copy of the application can e-mail me at: john@poythresscustomknives.com

I will e-mail or snail-mail an application.

[Jamey Saunders]

Link fixed! Thanks for the heads up. I tried to proofread everything, but I forgot to try the link!

[Crex]

Good job Jamey and Joan!
As Jamey said, the last meeting went very well and we accomplished alot.
Thanks to Kathleen for arranging a good meeting site and to John for keeping the meeting moving and focused.
Lot of experience sitting in that meeting and that was a definite factor in getting things ironed out. Honor to be apart of the process. If I can assist any of you in any way don't hesitate to let me know.
Now for all you slackers out there....the hard parts done and we're ready to rock 'n roll or is that hammer 'n grind. Get with the program and join us. You will not regret it. This Guild is for the benefit of us all and future generations. This is the best opportunity for networking with other makers across the state. There are a lot of us out here and we are a pretty good bunch of folks to get to know.
Come join us.

Carl Rechsteiner
Charter Member GCKG