Minutes from the Westonbirt Steering Committee
Meeting held at the Woolpack Inn, Slade on the 18th of November 1999.
1. Attendance- Joel Hendry, Stefane Roux, Henry Russell, Jim Blackburn, David Murrey, Justin Rose, Aurore, Rupert Newman (minutes).
Apologies- Charlie Brentnall
2. Name- It was decided that a good place to start the meeting was by thinking up a provisional name of the group, to be used in correspondence etc. After many suggestions the name finally agreed upon was
UK Carpenters Fellowship
3. Project or Conference-The group discussed whether it would be better to hold a conference or to undertake a joint project. Henry felt a conference would be better, and informed us about a recent trip to an American Timber Framers Guild conference. It was decided to hold a conference and to discuss joint projects then.
4. Aims of the Conference- The group decided that the main aim of the conference would be to create a Carpenters Fellowship (similar to the American Guild of Timber Framers). At the conference the steering committee would step down, and a new group would be elected to set up and run the Fellowship. It was also decided to invite 6 guest speakers, hold demonstrations, have hewing races (Henrys idea) and have music and beer!
5. Time and Place- August Bank Holiday weekend, 2000 was put forward as the best weekend. Justin was given the job of checking out the availability of the 3 venues, which were - Avoncroft Museum, Earth Spirit Centre Nr Glastonbury and David Murrey’s Farm.
6. Responsibilities and Actions of Steering Group- It was decided that each member should take on an area of responsibility:-
i) Logo-Henry and Jim to design conference logo and Paul Price to print it in the M&T
ii) Accounts and Budget- Charlie suggested using Peter Morris at Carpenter Oak to run the accounts. The group also thought it would be a good idea to think about a possible budget for the conference and to come to the next meeting with costing, such as paying guest speakers. Jim to ask Charlie to set it up.
iii) Organising Speakers- Henry to draw up a list of possible speakers and to check on availability and cost (It was decided to pay all the speakers the same rate).
iv) Contact-Rupert to be the contact person and distribute information (see later).
v) Publicity- To be arranged (if anyone would like to take on this, please come forward).
vi) Sponsorship- We thought it would be a good idea to raise some money to help fund the conference. Sponsorship may be had from Carpenters Company Charitable Trust, Mafell, Earth Cook Foundation, Self-Build Magazines, English Heritage etc. Perhaps Bill Keir or Tim Crump maybe interested in taking this on?
vii) Industry Stands- Louis Rocker to contact tool manufacturers etc. to see if they would be interested in exhibiting at the conference.
viii) Beer and Food- Stefane to find costings on Beer!
7. Entrance Fee-It was decided to pay an entrance fee for the conference and some of this money would go towards setting up and running the new Fellowship.
8. Web Site- Rupert thought it would be a good idea to set up our own web site in the future, where we could have a forum (open discussion on topics) and post the minutes of meetings etc. Also the M&T could be published on the site. It was decided that if interested parties wanted the minutes of the meetings, they should send Rupert an email address to Rupert@westwindoak.com . The minutes will also be posted on the American Framing web site under the UK Today section in ‘Ask the Experts’ at
www.tfguild.org . Hard copies of the minutes will be sent to members of the steering group only, by Joel.
9. AOB- Jim suggested building a low cost village hall as a project that the future fellowship could take on.
10. Date of Next meeting- 14th of January, 2000 @ Jim’s Dads, Stackpool Rd., Bristol.
[This message has been edited by Bill Keir (edited 11-19-99).]
