Would you sponsor a woodworker?

We get a lot from woodworking here, information, camaraderie, prizes, cheap stuff etc, and occasionally I think we forget how much effort our benefactor Neil Ellis has put into woodworking in general over the years (not just the forums). I believe this Bulletin Board started out as an aid to woodies and just grew, until it is the monster it is today. (Thanks Neil :2tsup: )

There is no reason the effort and sponsorship of woodwork should remain with a few though, and we have a perfect opportunity here to assist (for those in a position to do so).

I would like to suggest the forums consider starting a series of initiatives to sponsor woodworking. A few possibilities are:

1. Awards to be given at the Working With Wood Shows in each state (perhaps voted on by members who attend the shows).
2. Maybe a student work of the month at a major institution, with a tool or cash award attached.
3. A prize to be awarded at a major training institution that sponsors traditional woodworking
4. A full scholarship (would need the money to be collected up front, probably over a year, maybe two)

These are just ideas, and I certainly would not expect sponsors of the site to be involved, just the members.

With online cash transfers and a large membership I reckon this could be done, even if we start with just one award and see how it goes.

So, what say the members, are you interested?

If it takes off I'll create a poll for potential donors to see what they would like to sponsor, and how much (privately).

I'm in, !. sounds good.

This could be done in conjuction with some of the bigger woodwork clubs who hold exhibitions. I am more than happy to help organise with the clubs.

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Originally Posted by Wood Borer

This could be done in conjuction with some of the bigger woodwork clubs who hold exhibitions. I am more than happy to help organise with the clubs.

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To organise with other clubs I reckon that would be for the scholarship. I hope that is what you meant and I haven't misread it. :-
We'd have to nut out details such as what the scholarship would be called, what institution would it go to etc.

My preference for a scholarship would be to the Australian School of Fine Furniture, the main reason for this being that they seem to offer the most to students who are interested in the hand made arena, rather than production skills. I guess this will need debate too, but as a gut feeling I think it is a good one.

In case anyone is wondering, I was thinking $5 and up. Maybe we could also run a tin collection at the WWW show (if it is allowed).

The Victorian Woodworkers Association holds exhibitions and one section is devoted to students of woodwork mainly from Universities and Colleges.

It is called "Start" and was devised to give exposure to the students who are starting out after completing their studies or whilst they are still studying.

The VWA always welcomes sponsors for the prizes awarded in Start.

Thisis a great idea, Im in,

Count me in too,
but I'd like to see it extend beyond students.

This could be a good idea, but I think the emphasis should be on the newness of a person to the craft/art rather than on their age. I have had the experience of being chosen for awards then being unchosen because there was a cut off age of 25 or something even though it was a student award, or "emerging". (I hate that term. Don't know why. Just do.) In a era when everyone is supposed to have a number of careers in their life time, it seems contradictory to only take notice of the "young achiever". (Another term I hate.)

Another thing that happens in "art" funding world is that there is student awards and and life achievement awards but not much in between. In some ways, supporting someone mid career has some merit. When you're not a beginner, but also not quite there yet. Wanting to investigate new area or tackle big project where seed funding is needed.

Just my thoughts.

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Originally Posted by echnidna

Count me in too,
but I'd like to see it extend beyond students.

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Thanks Bob. You're right. I hadn't intended to put that slant on it but it is clearly there. For the scholarship idea, yes, that is related to students. The prize money at the WWW Shows or club shows was meant to be 'open'. There will be some difficulties with assessment to be thought through but I'm sure Rob and others can help us with ideas there.

In response to Tea Lady, good points, the original the concept was to encourage people who are new to woodworking but probably should not be restricted as such. Ideas on how to practically do this are needed. Maybe a segment at the shows? Perhaps an ongoing segment in the forums themselves?

Lots more detail needs to be considered yet. I'm trolling for ideas at this stage. For it to work, the concept (or each concept) needs to be clear and very simple to implement.

I wonder if a series of workshops on different topics might be practical.

Obviously making videos of each workshop should be helpful to those who can't come.

Well, with only six people interested I'm going to let this one slide for a while. I'll bring it up again at a later time to see if any more are interested then.

Thank you to those who responded :2tsup:

Its a top idea Groggy the problem is we are all to busy sponsoring ourselves and thats not cheap.