Guys,
I am mightily impressed by the activity on this topic. Sorry I Haven't seen it until today (thanks for e-mailing me the threads, Ian). Joel usually monitors the ATE, not me, but he has been laid up recently and will be back in the saddle soon.
I will forward the threads on the the TFG Board, because this is really their decision to put staff time and effort into this, not Joel's or mine.
However, I should say that as much as we want to help as an organization, this effort is not part of our stated mission. We are not United Way or Habitat for Humanity. Our mission is to educate timber framers, not provide housing. If you can figure out a way to convince the membership and the IRS that using membership dues to finance any part of this effort helps fulfill our mission, then we could do something. It would be much more appropriate for one of you to coordinate this at a grassroots level, with the Guild providing promotional support through Scantlings and the website.
Here's an analogy: say we have a charter member of the TFG pass away and his family is left destitute and without anything for the kids education. Should we put Guild time and effort into raising funds for the family? 'Fraid we can't, but we can support any of you who want to do so. We can put money in that person's name into the scholarship fund (which helps educate timber framers), but not give money directly to the family.
We could build frames here as part of a workshop/training program; that would work. We could train Indonesians to build timber frames; that's OK. But I don't think we can mobilize timber framers to provide housing, according to our charter.
Ultimately, this is the Board's decision.
