Board Activities

TFG Board of Directors – May Conference Call Minutes

 

First call began:  15 May 2002, 18:00 Mountain Daylight Time

First call ended:  15 May 2002, 20:13 Mountain Daylight Time

            Attendees:  Beemer, Chauvin, Christian, MacFarland, Madigan, McCarty, Mullen, Rower, Schmidt, Southworth, Williams, Witter

            Absentees:  Bennett

            Notes taken during the first call are recorded in roman typeface.

 

Second call began:  22 May 2002, 17:30 Mountain Daylight Time
            with a short interruption due to technical difficulties

Second call ended:  22 May 2002, 20:13 Mountain Daylight Time

            Attendees:  Beemer, Bennett, Chauvin, Christian, Madigan, MacFarland, McCarty, Mullen, Schmidt, Southworth, Williams

            Absentees:  Rower, Witter,

            Notes taken during the second call are recorded in italic typeface.

 

Agenda Items:

 

1.  ED performance and compensation review

 

Compensation:  history of salary and benefits.
            Year 1:  $35,000 + $5,000 health ins + $3,000 bonus each
            Year 2:  $35,000 + $5,000 health ins + $4,000 bonus each
            Year 3:  $38,000 + $5,000 health ins + no bonus yet

Originally it was planned that a single director would be paid $45,000 / yr.  Instead, we hired two directors.  We need to decide on a bonus and establish a long term salary policy.  Suggested long term plan:  bring salaries plus bonus up to $45,000 each after 5 years.

 

Proposal – Develop a long-term pay plan (policy) for all who earn money for Guild services.  EDs should help establish the needs and value for the other staff.  The Exec Committee should establish policy with input from the EDs.  EDs then execute the policy.

 

Proposal for immediate adjustments – bonus for 2001 of $3,000; salary increase for 2002 of $2,000.

 

Performance review:

 

MacFarland – expresses concern that the EDs might be overloaded by unrealistic expectations.

 

Christian – agrees that EDs need to know precisely what our expectations are.  They should not be required to anticipate what we want them to do.

 

2.  ED Report – Beemer

 

Supplied via email; gently edited here:  I sent around a budget report a few weeks ago, along with financials on the Banff conference.  The bank account looks good.  Membership is at 1680 and counting.  Truss article series grant has been into NCPTT since February and we should be hearing from them soon.  I have had to put my work on the apprentice program on hold for the time being with all the events going on this spring (two conferences and a bunch of rendezvous & workshops), so I anticipate Grigg will have to pick up where I left off.  We have discussed getting together in early June up here.  Since Phil Whitney passed away I need someone to help out with the rigging course; Grigg has agreed to do some of it.  I also need someone to present fall protection; any suggestions.  The England tour is filling up.  Joel is going to try taking over invoicing of advertisers for Scantlings and Timber Framing; I have found it confusing to invoice after he has negotiated the contract and not having all of them in writing. I'm not sure this is the answer but we'll try it.  Sechelt is getting plenty of participants, but we're running into some immigration issues for US members.  We should try to establish a policy for these international events.  No word from Cynthia Grippaldi-Yates, the woman who we're hoping will take over some of the office duties.  This is a slow time for the Guild office, so Michele's OK for the time being.  Heartwood classes are all full, except for the Schmidt/MacKay Engineering Design Course which has seven and we really need ten to make it worthwhile. Because they're both flying we're committed to run it.  Please help promote it if you know someone who'd be interested.  Most surprising is the Introduction to the Trade course which has almost 20; I thought it would be too basic but it seems people want a good overview. I think this shows that there's strong support from the general public for the curriculum.  5 Apprentices arrive June 17th, one already has a job at Dreaming Creek but I could use some help figuring out how to place the rest with other companies. While Grigg and I can work on this, your input is welcome.  They each will be looking for (at least) a six week stint starting Aug. 2.  John Mumaw is coming to the Compound Joinery course next week at no charge but paying his own lodging in order to experience that curriculum and become an instructor.  I'll be at Palomar College from  May 26-June 8.

 

3.  ED Report – McCarty

 

No substantial report – Joel will attend the project at Sechelt. 

 

4. Project/rendezvous reports

 

Northfield Mount Herman, MA:  Williams report – incredible accomplishment considering the conditions.  400 timbers to cut with 3 instructors and mostly novice Guild members.  Instructors had responsibility for teaching school students and faculty plus novice members.  Lack of tools.  Focus shifted from teaching to finishing the frame.  By week end, more experienced framers arrived and were thrown into the fire.  This didn’t fit the mold of a rendezvous –sharing of experiences and expertise.  Felt more like a rushed workshop.  NMH didn’t do the advertising that would have been needed to pull off the event.  Availability of Guild tools was critical to being able to use labor that was irregularly available.  Raising was difficult due to lack of rigging.  Incredible experience for associate members but likely unsatisfying for the professionals.  Specific person in charge of logistics was important.  Needed someone whose only job was to plan the raising.  Raising was not complete – 2/3 of the rafters and some wall purlins were not installed.  School was ecstatic with the result.  Overall the event was a big success, to a large extent because of the ability to deal with the challenges. 

 

Southworth – membership has changed toward more associate members without a proportional increase in professional members.  Hence production power is reduced accordingly.  School projects are challenging because of the short time availability of the students.  Continuity is not possible.  It’s possible that some of the students don’t even want to be there.  In the future, assure that more paid staff will be on hand and that an appropriately sized labor force is guaranteed by the project recipient.  Need to be sure that you have professional capability in some key areas.

 

Beemer – some projects need only experienced personnel.  Attendees could be pre-qualified for the scope of the project.

 

Christian – We can’t rely that the same skilled help will arrive in the nick of time to assure success.  Prior planning is critical to success – doesn’t guarantee no problems, but is needed to know that what must be done is getting done.

 

MacFarland – We need to pay attention to all these warning signs in order to avoid a failed project.  Planning of all phases of the project is critical – even use of tools from the Guild tool crib should be planned.  Perhaps we need to reduce the number of events.

 

Christian – McCarty and Beemer are asked to record experiences with past events from the perspective of how to predict what can go wrong and what can be done to avoid them.  That will allow us to assemble a management plan for projects to assure success.

 

MacFarland – We need something, someone, a plan B in reserve to pull us out of jams that might develop during a project.

 

Beemer – One problem is that we are taking on projects without knowing who our crew will be.

 

McCarty – We need to perform a post mortem following each project to document what happened while it is still fresh.

 

Mullen – Expectations need to be communicated more clearly to project sponsors.  Free labor is expensive.

 

Action item – McCarty will do this planning for the next project:  Sechelt.

 

Beemer – Sechelt report.  Instructors have their act together.  Scheduled to have about 30 people each week.  The event seems to be on autopilot now.  Beemer will not attend, but McCarty will.

 

5.  Conference planning

 

Burlington status report:  Beemer – Japanese carpenters could be brought over with the possibility of external sponsorship for some/most of the travel expenses.  We want to avoid offending anyone in this regard.  Matthys Levy (not Mario Salvadori, who died in 1997) is a possible keynote speaker.  Gordon McDonald will return to repeat his safety workshop.

 

McCarty – Schmidt will organize a track on engineering issues.  Scott and Judy Northcott are interested in doing something on running a small business.

 

Beemer (via email) –

            Confirmed speakers:  Keynote: Matthys Levy, architectural engineer, author of "Why Buildings Fall Down" speaking on that and maybe George Nakashima's conical roof.  Bruce Beeken, Beeken and Parsons Woodworking; will lead tour of his shop at Shelburne Farm and speak on SmartWood and sustainable woodsourcing in their business (furniture). Check out www.beekenparsons.com.  Simon Gnehm on Swiss apprenticeship program; Richard Cormier on chip carving (possible hands-on long workshop).  Rudy on square rule layout (possible hands-on long workshop).  Harrelson Stanley on sharpening; Pre-conference tours of Shelburne Farm and Shelburne Museum. 

 

Tentative:  Panel engineering discussion (multi-session?) with Levin, Schmidt et.al.  Dietrich's Cad workshop.  Someone from Shelburne Museum to talk about the structural reconstruction of the Ticonderoga (boat) 

Suggested:  Frederick Brilliant- French scribe (possible hands-on long workshop);  Les Jozsa: Forintek Corp; wood morphology; Kelley McCloskey; forestry issues;  Jerry Rouleau on lead management software; Judy and Scott Northcott on running a small business; Anders Frostrup on stave churches and use of small timbers (2 Presentations). Curtis Milton or Darryl Weiser on Golden Bridge.  Norwell Crane.

 

Joel has alluded to some recent comments from folks preferring more hands-on and less theoretical at the conferences. I think that may be a self-selecting group if they were present at hands-on event when the comments were made.  I could be persuaded to do more hands-on during the body of the conference, along with more demonstrations, and less breakouts. Might be less expensive too (longer, fewer presenters). Given the roster of potential speakers above it might be possible to try out this different format in Burlington. We could discuss this on Wednesday's call, and whether we should include the tours of the Farm and Museum a second time during the weekend, rather than just pre-conference.

 

The Japanese carpenters being present is very tentative as I have to tread carefully. Hida Tool brings them to the West Coast Kezurou-Kai annually and has agreed to consider holding it close to the Burlington date so that we would only have to pay them to come from the West Coast instead of Japan.  Harrelson Stanley wants to host an East Coast Kezurou-Kai and was going to contact Mr. Sugimura to see if he's agreeable to that. He is going to suggest holding the Kezurou-Kai in conjunction with our conference, which would be very exciting, tie-in neatly with the hands-on format change and the Sheraton has a huge exhibition hall which would work well (including the trade show). The main issue will be financing their visit and working out the politics between Hida and Harrelson. If Mr. Sugimura can smooth this it would be wonderful; any ideas from you would be welcome. I wish we spoke Japanese; although Hida (Osamu-san) has the established relationship Harrelson is much easier to communicate through.

 

Madigan – Perhaps Len Brackett can provide some help identifying how to handle this situation and avoid anything improper with respect to how the Japanese carpenters and the rival companies are treated.  Beemer will add that to his to-do list.

 

Madigan – What about the Norwell crane?  Discussion:  it would cost about $2000 to bring it.  MacFarland moved to allocate up to $2500 to make it happen.  Second by Madigan.  Discussion:  concern expressed that this was not a Guild project but might become tee-shirt art.  No apparent problem with that.  There doesn’t appear to be a willing owner.  It was built with funding by the Davis Educational Foundation.  The crane is cool and inspiring.  Someone is already ready to disassemble the crane and move it.  They might sponsor the venture. Perhaps some cost-sharing arrangement could be developed.  A conference track on cranes, rigging, hands-on stuff could be included as a nice tie-in.  We could have a Thursday workshop to put it together at the conference.  Vote:  11 yea,  0 ney.  Motion passed.

 

Conference content/structure/venues:  

 

Outdoor activities could be held at both Asilomar and Montebello.  Workshop and hands-on doesn’t always mean outdoors.  Problem with these activities is that they limit the number of people who can get involved.  Blacksmiths have various tents with different demonstrations going on for 8 hours/day.  Attendees just wander around, look and see.  Hands-on means a little less lecture and a little more lab – no projects.  Beemer – it’s normally easier to find people to do lectures rather than demos.  There seems to be some doubt that this is the case.  Summary:  Beemer knows what needs to be done and will work on it.

 

Discussion of length of sessions and quality of presentations.  We need to provide our speakers with support, possibly education, on how to make an effective presentation.  Beemer will attempt to assemble a kit of speaker guidelines and recommendations to help improve presentations.  Schmidt will contribute such materials from the engineering world.

 

Conference partnerships: 

 

Joint/Collaborative conferences are hard to arrange and pull off.  They have high financial risks.  Perhaps a “trial date” event could be scheduled to test the relationship with another group.  Suggestion:  start with a joint TTRAG and traditional log building event.  Polish synagogue project (4-6 years in the future) could be an appropriate theme.  Rudy volunteers to present this to the Polish reps.

 

6.  Apprenticeship program -

 

Mullen will go on staff 1 June for 12 months at a salary of $35,000 plus an additional $22,000 budgeted for expenses to be paid over two fiscal years, split equally between the Guild and the TFBC.

 

Mullen – will spend lots of time at various sites and events to identify the content of the curriculum, classroom materials, etc.  Then the whole, complete package will be created and/or assembled and delivered in June 2003.  Specific deliverables:  class outlines, lecture notes, visuals, etc. on a per-subject basis.  Everything will be available in electronic format. 

 

Christian – is it feasible to provide a series of progress reports in Scantlings to keep things on schedule.  Mullen expects to do that as well as present progress at upcoming conferences.  Christian – perhaps the website could be used as a forum (for board access only) to report on progress, including postings of materials as they are developed.

 

7.  Central Campus - Strategy overview and sequence  Delayed for some time in the future – perhaps via email.

 

8.  Website review  The site looks great and functions wonderfully.  The Wormingtons deserve our thanks and positive comments.

 

9.  Publications review

 

Patriotism demonstration at conferences:  Witter – the issue of demonstrating patriotism at a conference through the slide show appears to have gone away.

 

Beemer – Russell Ley has indicated his intention to drop the idea if the Guild does not support it.

 

Christian – We should not use the slide show as a venue for other activities.  Limit its scope to presentation of individual projects and accomplishments.

 

Conclusion – The slide show will remain the slide show.  Someone should put together a program on past projects, slide shows, etc. for presentation at some other time than the slide show.  It could be used as a promo for project sponsors.  Jim Young, first ED of the Guild, developed such a program in video form.  Rower will attempt to locate Jim and secure a copy of the program.

 

Jack’s Joinery book:  Rower – Guild is obliged to produce something in archival form from Jack’s six articles.  A chapter on truss work should be included or published as a second volume that could be combined with the joinery articles at a later date.

 

Christian – prefers 8.5x11 inch format.

Beemer – Spiral bound publications are easiest to reproduce in limited quantities.

 

Action item – Rower will write up a description of the format and method for producing such a book for review by the Board. 

 

Timber Framing on CD:  McCarty – we are closer than ever to achieving this, assuming that the latest vendor manages to stay in business following receipt of the Guild curse in this regard.

 

10.  Next conference call:  Tentatively Wednesday, 26 June 2002  7:30 EDT

Respectfully submitted:  Dick Schmidt, Clerk