Club Traditions

Guiding Principles:

Our organizational name is the Woodworkers Club of East Texas, and also known as WCET. We are a private, unincorporated, non-profit group. The club was formed in the early 90s and has run continuously ever since.

Our goals are to encourage our fellow Americans with an interest in woodworking to nurture and expand their knowledge, to provide their skills in support of public woodworking projects for the common good, and to promote the practices of woodworking into the next generation through public education.

These Club Principles may be amended/modified/deleted at any Club Meeting by a majority vote of the members present.

Regular Meetings:

Club meetings are held at the SFA Forestry Laboratory Building at 2212 Raquet, near corner of Raguet and College streets, in Nacogdoches, Texas at 9:00 AM the first Saturday of each month, excluding January and July (total of ten meeting per year). Events during meetings include Woodworking Program, Show & Tell sessions from members, and discussions of woodworking topics to inform the members of new information.

Special topics for meetings during year:

October: Annual Woodworking Contest for members.
November: Annual Elections of Club Officers.
December: Christmas Brunch & Christmas Gift Exchange for Members
February: Renew Annual Club Dues

Annual Dues:

Annual dues are $20 per year, and are due on or before the first meeting of the calendar year. For new members joining in the middle of the year, the dues will be prorated at $2 per month for each remaining meeting. For old member paying their dues after the first meeting of the calendar year, the dues are $20.

Christmas Gift Exchange:

Following the Christmas brunch, at the club’s December meeting, a modified Christmas Gift Exchange is conducted. Several preferences and rules have been developed over the years, and are explained below:

Members, spouses, children of members, and guests are all welcome: Everyone may participate in the exchange if they provide a wrapped gift that can be selected during the exchange. (in other words, one gift for every person participating).
No White Elephant gifts please. All gifts should be wrapped so as to be undeterminable to the selector. Handmade gifts of wood are preferred: however, for non-woodworkers (such as spouses/children/guest), homemade items like preserves, Jellies, wine, candy, etc. are also preferred. If you must purchase a gift, please make it inexpensive and commensurate with the other types of gifts listed.
All participants receive a number when they deliver their gift to the front table before the start of the meeting. When the gift exchange is begun, following the brunch, numbers are drawn one at a time from a “hat”. The participant holding the first number drawn is the first gift selector.
Beginning with the second participant selected, that person may pick a wrapped gift or MAY “snatch” the opened gift of the first participant (who then opens another wrapped gift). The third participant may pick a wrapped gift or MAY “snatch” an already opened gift from any available. That option continues its way down through the entire set of numbers. If a participant has his or her gift “snatched”, then they may “snatch” a gift from someone else (BUT NOT the gift they just lost) OR they may select another wrapped gift from the table. In other words, everyone participating always ends up with a gift.

One overriding rule, the THIRD owner of a gift is the FINAL OWNER of that gift. This final rule applies only to first participant in the game; If, at the end of the game, that participant NEVER had his or her original gift selection “snatched” that participant may swap that original gift with any other gift in the room.

Annual Woodworking Contest:

The Woodworking Contest will be held during the regular October WCET meeting.
The entry must have been never been entered in a previous year’s woodworking contest.
The entry must start with and be made primarily of a 2”x 4” x 8’ piece of wood of pine or any other soft wood.
The entry does not have to contain all of the material in the 2”x 4”; but no other wood may be included in the entry.
Only WCET members in good standing may enter the contest and vote in the selection of the contest winners.
There is no limit on the amount of money spent on incidentals (stain, paint, hardware, etc.), but the entry will be judged solely on the woodworking skills demonstrated by the contestant.
Each WCET member can place no more than one entry in the contest.

Procedures and Prizes for Contest:

Each ballot will contain an entry block for up to five votes.
Each Member will cast a vote for up to five places (1st through 5th).
Ballots will be tallied by the point system, with 5 points awarded for a first place vote, 4 points for a second place vote, etc.
The entry with the most points tallied from all the eligible ballots will be awarded First place, the second most points will be awarded second place and so on.
First place will be awarded $50, second place is awarded $40, third place $30, fourth place $20 and fifth place $10.
If, at at the beginning of the October meeting, fewer than five members are scheduled to compete in the contest – the contest will be canceled for that year. The program will be conducted as a Show & Tell with out judging and prizes.

Show and Tell:

Members may bring an item that they have made and display and explain how they made it. WCET has many accomplished members that can share their woodworking skills with others and be very beneficial.

Door Prize Drawing in Regular Meeting:

Club funds are not to be used to purchase items to be awarded as door prizes. Any articles offered as prizes will be obtained either through donations from members or from outside sources. Only one door prize per meeting is awarded to either members or guests that have the winning number from the drawing. If several gifts have been donated to the club to be used as door prizes, then the winner may select their favorite from the group of gifts.

Honorariums:

At their discretion, the Executive Committee may authorize the Treasurer to provide a specified cash amount to guest program speakers and to cover some of their trip expenses.

Funeral Condolences:

At their discretion, the Executive Committee may authorize the Treasurer to expend a specified dollar amount for floral arrangements at funerals of members, or for immediate family members