April 21 Events
FEATURED SPEAKER: Rudy Christian, "A Place for Trades: Cultural Change in the 21st Century."
Few, if any, among us are unaware of the cultural divisions that exist in our own society when looking back at the lives of our parents and grandparents. The story of the bricklayer or the taxi driver who worked six days a week and took on part time work so that his son or daughter could go to college and “do better” than he did is a part of our past that is indelibly etched on our group memory, but have you ever taken the time to really think about what it means? Everyone of us has heard, or more than likely at one time joked, about the “butt crack” drywaller or carpenter on some "union job" or other but how many of us have ever really considered where the carpenter or plasterer might belong in the rich historic pallet of the built environment that we have inherited from our forefathers? During this presentation we will look not only at how the “hand of the master” can be found when we unlock the time capsule of historic architecture, but also how it influenced the forms buildings and even cities took on when the skills of the builder were what powered the wheels of progress.
Today the demand for skilled trades people to work in the fields of conservation is rapidly outpacing the supply at which they are being brought into the workplace. A recent study in England produced a lengthy report entitled Traditional Building Craft Skills, and subtitled Assessing the Need, Meeting the Challenge, which clearly points out and quantifies this shortfall of qualified trades people in Great Britain. In 2005 the World Monuments Fund created a task force to document and tabulate the same information for the United States with the goal of publishing a similar report, and in Sweden a group of concerned individuals in the province of Dalarna, including representatives from the Ministry of Trade and the Ministry of Commerce, are planning a conference in 2007 which will network traditional trades people from Northern Europe and the United States in an effort to shine a light on the current state of the trades. We will look into the origins and infrastructure of these initiatives as well as their relationships to one another and the influence they are having on the training and educational opportunities available to students of the trades today and tomorrow.
As developing countries in the world today become part of our global economy changes in their culture become unavoidable, but when we look back at the birth and growth of our own culture and economy we have an opportunity to realize the effect of that change in both our personal and professional lives. Much of it is for the good and has resulted in significant gains in personal wealth and leisure time, but how much has that change resulted in the loss of skills that have for generations been handed down from master to apprentice, father to son and mother to daughter and how often do we even consider the consequences? During this session we will take some time to investigate just how this process has affected our society and built environment and look at the indicators of the same process occurring throughout the world. In the last two decades the awareness of the importance of conserving the knowledge and practice of the traditional trades has produced communities like the Timber Framers Guild and the Preservation Trades Network and the example set by these organizations has not gone unnoticed. We will take a minute to look at the international outreach of these organizations and investigate the importance of the potential influence this outreach has. Whether or not the existence of these entities represents the beginning of a period of change in the fabric of our culture is a matter of opinion, but it is an idea which might open doors to an exiting and wonderful new world in which there is once again an elevated place for trades.
Rudy has been timber framing for more than 25 years. His company, Christian & Son, Inc. in Burbank, Ohio, includes his wife, Laura, and their son, Carson. They currently specialize in historic timber conservation and adaptive re-use of timber buildings.
Design and Engineering Track
- Jim Destafano: Wood Behavior– The Good, Bad and Ugly.
This talk will cover the structural and mechanical properties of wood. Topics include strength, stiffness, creep, shrinkage and decay resistance of various wood species. Jim DeStefano, P.E. is a structural engineer and woodworker located in Connecticut. Jim is a founding member of the TFEC.
- Joe Miller: Capacity of Mortise and Tenon Joinery.
Joe will show the results of his engineering research on this topic.
- Jesse Kendall: Using Software for Beam Sizing & Frame Analysis.
This workshop will take a look at software programs suitable for analyzing timber frames. We will explore software used by timber framers for the initial sizing of timbers for pricing or ordering materials, as well as professional level structural analysis programs used by professional engineers for sizing and designing timber frames. Jesse Kendall, P.E. works for Timberpeg in West Lebanon, NH. Jesse has been deeply involved in timber frame design and analysis for the past five years. He has designed major structures and trusses for many projects around the country, and has a particular interest in wood-to-wood joinery, minimizing the use of steel connectors.
Business Track:
- Jerry Rouleau: Getting the Most Out of Your Advertising and Website.
Learn some of the basic website development tips, advertising ideas and techniques that will give you more bang for your dollar and create leads. Stopping advertising to save money is like stopping the clock to save time.
- Jerry Rouleau: Follow-Up Skills That Bring Customers Back.
Timber framers spend a lot of money to get leads and referrals. Following up on those customers and properly screening and qualifying them is key. In many case you don't need to get more leads, you need to work more effectively with the leads you already have.
Summarized Description:
o Why Follow Up! Your leads are your bank account
(Group involvement and demonstration)
o Court your customers (they expect it)
o Reason for follow up
o Using the power of impending events
o Beware of the Be Back Club
o Screening and qualifying leads
o Getting the right information up front
o Using Lead management systems
o Save time and money: Make your follow up easy
o The nine S's for getting the right information
- Ross Grier: Yours, Mine, and Ours. Four Timber Framers Form a Worker’s Co-operative.
Ross will recall the creation of the Bellingham Bay Builders, a Worker’s Co-operative, describe the legal and operational structure of the business, explain the efforts involved in working together as a team, and discuss the social implications of sharing the wealth of our rewards and how that might be a sustainable business model.
Ross Grier has wielded a chisel as a joiner and a telephone as a marketing and sales person in the current timber framing industry for over twenty years. Now he wields a business license (and often a wire banger) with three others in a uniquely structured framing/timber framing/general contracting firm. After winning the heart of the first Executive Secretary of the TFG a dozen years ago, he and Sharon have moved into their new hybrid timber frame home in Bellingham, WA.
Natural Building Track:
- Craig Hillman, Natural Building Instructor at the College of the Rockies: It’s Not Easy Being Green.
Or is it? With a wide range of green building systems and certifications, there is room for every timber framer to improve their craft. Explore the journey that starts from the greening of conventional building materials and techniques, and then expands to the rapidly growing field of natural building.
- Elke Cole: Houses That Love You Back.
Enter the magical environment of Natural Buildings in a slide presentation of cob and natural hybrid construction in Western Canada and abroad. Elke Cole, designer, builder and teacher at O.U.R. ECOVILLAGE and for Cobworks.com shares her passion and experience through images and stories that are sure to inspire you.
- Robert Laporte: Earth-Based Enclosures for Timberframes.
Soul of a tree meets soul of the earth when massive clay/fiber walls enclose a timber frame. Laporte, co-author of newly released EcoNest, will demonstrate "outsulating" wall systems utilizing woodchips or straw: Creating Sustainable Sanctuaries of Clay, Straw, and Timber.
Shop Practices Track:
- Mike Laine and James Wiester: An Introduction to Japanese Tools
Woodworkers interested in acquiring Japanese hand tools often find the process complicated and confusing. Personally selecting the tools is not always possible, and in the various catalogs where the tools are sold, the tool sellers frequently make claims that are amazing, astounding, even outrageous. So what's up with these tools, anyway? We hope to answer a lot of these questions in this introductory seminar. Topics to explore include: how the tools are made, and who makes them, quality issues and how to identify the better and worse, basics on how to use and care for the tools, and resources for getting reliably good tools. We will discuss ways of using various tools, and will answer questions about any specific tools people have, or are curious about. We will also weigh in on sharpening stones, both man-made and natural, and probe some of that mythology. Which is best, how to choose, and where to find them? Preferably, this seminar will be informative and controversial.
- Rudy Christian: Timber Repair
Rudy will demonstrate repair
techniques for restoring timber frames in the shop. Basic scarf joint selection and layout as well as let in repairs will be discussed using damaged timbers. Selection of appropriate repair material will also be covered.
- John Boys: Jigs, Tools and Work Methods.
John has coordinated the International Log Builder's Association “Tech Talk” for the past decade. This informal session will be a Timber framing “Tech Talk.” Participants are invited to bring their ideas or unusual tools and jigs. We will examine strategies and materials for designing and constructing jigs and fixtures.
A successful jig should do some or all of the following:
- Make a job easier
- Make a job safer
- Perform the job faster
- Produce a more accurate and repeatable end result
A jig often allows you to physically manifest and multiply your brainpower. A good jig incorporates your understanding of a problem and allows a relatively inexperienced worker to apply your solution in a very predictable manner.
As with any good system, it can help ordinary workers produce extraordinary results.
John Boys has been log building, with the occasional foray into timber framing, since 1983. An active member and past president of the International Log Building Association he has struggled with a life long addiction to tools, jigs and shiny things. He is author/editor of A Boy's Big Book of Jigs: A Log Builder’s Reference to Jigs, Tools and Techniques, an ILBA publication.
Also on Friday the Children's Discovery Workshop will commence. There will also be the Trade Fair Mixer/Reception and the CNC Users Group Meeting.
Finally, Friday will wrap up after dinner with a new Conference feature, ”The Year in Review.” Since 2005 was such a big year for noteworthy Guild projects, we will have the principal organizers for each project give a visual summary of what we learned and achieved. These projects include the Great Oak pavilion in Fredericksburg, VA; the Rotary Club Pavilion in Salem, OR; the Selman Pavilion in Angola, IN; and the Conservation International Visitor center in Suriname. We will also have a recently released and award-winning video from the Kicking Horse Covered Bridge project, which the Guild completed in Golden, British Columbia in 2001.
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