Having waited for years for someone else to do this, and seeing no one making any attempt at doing this, while not wishing to detract from any other professional or amateur association that might be wholly or peripherally pertinent to the subject, I hereby propose the formation of
The American Green Woodworking Association.
I Propose that this should be an association of those craftsmen, both professional and amatuer, engaged in all phases and types of woodworking and related crafts, where there is a predominance or preponderance of Hand Work, and Hand tools involved. That should include such crafts as: Green woodwork, Sloyd, Country Woodcraft, Basketmaking, Bark Containers, and any other making that is predominantly hand work, and any ancillary or connected craft such as Blacksmithing, Leather Working, or Rope Making that are often required skills needed in conjunction with the woodworking craft. I further propose that we do not specifically exclude any craft or craftsman whose practitioners wish to be included.
My reasoning being that we need a place, or places, to come together to learn, to teach, to promote our mutual goals, to clarify what those goals should be, and to unite us. Such an association can be a clearing house or center for disseminating information about classes, supplies, materials, meetings and all the other things we are concerned with in our craft.
We need to get the word out that we are here, too many of us do this in a void (some books and some YouTube videos), And the teachers among us need to get the word out that they are out there teaching.
Until such a time as we have a sufficient membership that can vote on officers, I will act as all the officers (I sincerely hope that people who are good at running things come along and depose me soon). But as this sort of thing doesn’t happen without someone starting it I propose a start.
England has enjoyed the benefits of their Bodgers Association (https://bodgers.org.uk/) for many years.
We can do the same for ourselves. Please help me make this happen.
There is already an excellent international Facebook presence at “Spoon Carving, Green Woodworking and Sloyd” so starting a new FB page is redundant, and we already get to interact with the Bodgers on that page.
But perhaps it might serve to post announcements that only people in the USA will be interested in? … so, I will start a FB page. If you become a “member” on the page I will count you as a member of this association.
I will start a web page so that people can send me articles or announcements to post there.
I will start an Instagram acct.
Please tell me what else you think should do to get this started?… tbc
Look for our FaceBook page “the American Green Woodworking Association”
and for the website with the same name.
be well
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