COMING MEETING: Tuesday, March 14, 2023 Following meeting. April 11, 2023 Location: Schramm Education Center (NGP-SEC). Program: Wildlife Photography, Jim Thomas will show a series of his photos. Jim is an amateur photographer with a special interest in wildlife photography. He comes with a high recommendation for quality photos.
PRESIDENT’S NOTES: Greetings to everyone. I hope it’s not telling that my first action as President was to cancel the February meeting. However it’s March, spring is almost upon us, geese are flying north and carving shows are gearing up. Hopefully everyone will have a successful competition season.
I’d like to take this opportunity to bring up something that some of you may be aware of but which everyone in the Club and the carving community should be concerned with. I’m talking about what is transpiring with the Ward Museum and Salisbury University.
Brief history of the Ward Foundation -Established in 1968 and ironically in that same year bird carving was established as Maryland’s Official Pastime. -Ward Museum officially opened in 1975 housed in the Salisbury State College Great Hall. -Major fundraising effort gets underway in 1989 for a new museum facility. -State of Maryland donates $1M in seed money. -City of Salisbury donated 4.2 acres of prime waterfront land. -Ward Museum opens officially in 1992. -Ward Foundation becomes an affiliated member of Salisbury University in 2000.
In becoming part of Salisbury University, the University forgave $1.6M in debt and they became the owner of the Ward Museum, the property and all of the art in the collection.
In July 2022, the HVAC system serving the collection failed. Within a matter of days mold developed on many of the items in the collection. Needless to say there have been many conflicting statements about what is happening to address the situation. The University and the Foundation are indicating that fixing the HVAC system would cost millions. Others apparently have indicated it could be done for much less but the University/Board are not considering this. Per a news release from the Foundation, efforts are underway to find an alternate location for the museum.
Also work is supposedly underway to clean carvings/artworks that were effected by the mold; however exact details are scarce.
The World Championship is still on this year although per the Foundation it “will likely look a little different, as some visitor elements are being changed to bring focus back to the competition itself and to accommodate a smaller staff”.
Aside from the Ward Foundation situation, there are a number of exciting things going on in the Club.
Efforts for the 2024 calendar are under way. I want to thank Ron Pigg for his continued support in making this happen. One thing I’d like to mention is the months that are being reserved for decoys that have been collected by Club members. An email was sent to all members seeking any decoys in your collection that you would like displayed. These can be anywhere from 200 years old to 1 day old. Collecting decoys was part of the basis for formation of this Club. I hope you’ll agree that we should continue to recognize this. So far I’ve received several submissions. If you’d like to participate send me a small photo. My initial thought is that we’ll use a few pictures of the decoy with a little something about the carver but that may change. Not sure yet how many will be featured in each calendar or how they’ll be chosen. Possibly by drawing them out of a hat.
I met with Norm and Jim to talk about changes to the website and they have some great ideas. Jim has suggestions about what can be done to make our site more visible in internet searches. We need to make decisions about what we want it to do, such as, make it a better asset to the club as well as to serve as a means to attract new members. I’ll be sending out a survey (just what you want to hear) to get your input on what you would like to see as well as what you think needs to be done to achieve those goals. I appreciate your help on this as we need everyone’s input.
Norm, Al and I met with staff at Mahoney State Park to discuss the display case. We received some good input and Norm will have additional information in the newsletter. Norm will also have some additional information about display possibilities for the Schramm display case. As you know, several club members carved blocks for the Serenity Garden display. I was impressed by the great carvings that were completed.
I appreciate the opportunity to help the Club and look forward to your support. Kirk
Meeting agenda for 3/14/2023 Welcome members and visitors President’s remarks. Kirk Treasurer’s report. Norm Old business: 1. 2024 calendar edition plan. Ron P. 2. Website revision plan. Collector’s page. Norm New business: 1.Display Cases update and discussion Mahoney and Schramm 2 Woodruff collection update. Bill B. 3. Library additions in 2023 4. Future public carving classes 5. April meeting program 6. 2023 Mini Decoy show 7. Library additions 8. Agenda additions… Member’s carvings. Program. Calendar photo session Adjourn. Since the last meeting… Calendar project… Ron is well under way with the 2024 edition. We have gathered photos from the honorees as well as most of the members who have agreed to have their work in the calendar. He continues to “tweak” the organization of the mockups. We will continue to take photographs at our meetings and by appointment with Norm. Let us know if you have questions or concerns.
Library additions… At the January meeting, we agreed to purchase 3 more Godin CDs. We have received CDs on two teal hen carving CDs and one on the pintail drake. These have been added to our library and are now available for loan to our members.
If you are not familiar with these resources, here’s a brief description.
Pat’s instructional CDs are a sequential series of photos with text describing his approach to the carving and painting each aspect of a carving. He includes his plans as well as some photos of the finished product. Presently we own the majority of his CDs. It is our plan to add more as the year goes on.
Jim Layman continues to convert our VHS tapes to more useful digital platforms. We will distribute a list at the coming meeting and post on our website.
Display cases…Since the January meeting we have researched sources for the Mahoney display case.
To date, we have sent the description to 2 professional cabinet builders with a request for price quotes.
We also found affordable cases at Nebraska Furniture Mart and other online sources that may fit our needs. We will wait for the builders’ feedback to make a selection.
In the meantime, we will submit our plans and questions to the Nebraska Game and Parks for their input.
Serenity garden…. Ron Pigg has gathered photos and put carvers names with each totem block. Ron Pigg recently sent out an email trying to connect the names of carvers to the blocks they carved. If you participated in this please contact Ron. Perhaps as the weather warms, we can make a visit to the garden.
Schramm Venture Park Activity…. Saturday April 8th has been set for the annual Venture Parks Discovery Fair. Last year we participated in this event so we are planning to have a club display during the fair to feature the club. If you with to participate, call or write Norm Wise. See attached flyer.
Tom Christie continues to pump out excellent instructional videos on a variety of interesting wildfowl carving subjects. We are keeping a log of his productions on YouTube. These are well worth the effort to access and watch.
Coming shows and competition news: No competition results to report.
March 18-19, 2023Ohio Decoy Collectors and Carvers Association Independence, Ohio. https://www.odcca.net/