The Chippewa Valley Woodturners Guild was formed in November, 2008 with ten charter members as an affiliate of the American Association of Woodturners, AAW.
At the time there were eight AAW chapters in Wisconsin, Duluth/Superior, Rochester, as well as in the Twin Cities. Printing up a simple brochure and taking interested parties names down on a sheet of paper passed around at an Alan Lacer seminar at Heartland Hardwoods was the impetus for the core group to start the chapter.
Our organizational meeting was held at Heartland Hardwoods on the first Wednesday of November, 2008. Richard Golde volunteered to serve as Vice President, Carl Brown volunteered to be treasurer and Al Waite as secretary. Brian George, as founder of the chapter, was to become the first president.
We established our dues at $13.00 for the first year which included December, 2008.
From a small group of ten, CVWG has grown in our third year to 75 members. We purchased our first lathe and held the 2nd Annual Wisconsin Woodturning Expo in 2010. We were busting at the seams in our second year and have moved to a larger facility that should meet our needs for years to come.
We have established the Chippewa Valley Woodturners School and had 26 students go through our beginners classes the first year. In the summer of 2010 we had a class of 3 Tech. Ed. teachers take our course and we assisted them in setting up their classrooms to teach their students. We have worked with Boy Scout troops, Cub Scout packs, Middle School students and 4H groups.
In May, 2011, we moved into our new “clubhouse” located at 1125 Starr Ave., in Eau Claire. We fixed up an empty space, installed a new HVAC roof system, and are currently having our monthly meetings there on the first Wednesday of each month.
The 3rd Annual Wisconsin Woodturning Expo is being held this year at the Plaza Hotel & Suites, 1202 West Clairemont Ave., Eau Claire, WI. We have more than double the space for demonstrators, exhibitors and vendors.