[Crw-talk] Turmoil in the AAW

[Ken Grunke]

I have spent the last couple days reading all of the various forum
postings, trying to make sense of this mess. Although for personal
reasons of my own I didn't renew my AAW membership for this year, I
still feel tied to the organization. I also feel an obligation and
desire to inform the club about the situation, being the club
webmaster.

 What I have been able to glean by filtering the wheat from the chaff
is this: The AAW bylaws are fundamentally flawed. They give too much
power to the Board of Directors, and very little to the membership.
Read the posting on the AAW Forums by Alan Lacer for more on this:
http://www.aawforum.org/vbforum/showthread.php?t=7384

It is up to the AAW membership to insist on a rewriting of the bylaws.
Hopefully the current Board of Directors can agree and cooperate with
this. If not, a recall vote of the BOD members may be pursued by the
AAW membership, requiring affirmative votes by 5% of the membership
(about 650 votes). According to Jamie Donaldson, preliminary
discussions have begun to this end:
http://www.woodcentral.com/cgi-bin/turning.pl/page/1/md/read/id/232244/sbj/some-of-us-are-having-discussions/

If you care about the AAW, keep an eye on this situation and make your
voice heard. The best place for this, and most appropriate, are the
forums on the AAW website. There has been enough negativity and
sniping on this matter to turn one's stomach, what is needed is
positive pro-active action.

http://www.aawforum.org/vbforum/forumdisplay.php?f=2

I would like to keep you all informed on this issue, but some
information is accessible only to AAW members on their website (the
minutes from previous board meetings for example). I hope interested
club members feel free to informally discuss this situation here on
crw-talk, and also make yourself be heard on the AAW forum. I will
post here tidbits of info as they appear.

thanks,
Ken Grunke
CRW webmaster


On Wed, Jun 23, 2010 at 9:33 PM, Ken Grunke <kengrunke at gmail.com> wrote:
> Many of you might have heard about Mary Lacer's termination as
> Executive Director of the American Association of Woodturners and the
> resulting fury by the online community of AAW members.
>
> If not, and you are an AAW member, you will probably like to know
> about this. There are heated discussions on all the woodturning
> discussion forums, and a good one to start with is the AAW forum at
> http://www.aawforum.org/vbforum/forumdisplay.php?f=2
>
> Another good site is Woodcentral:
> http://www.woodcentral.com/cgi-bin/turning.pl
>
>
> According to AAW Vice President Malcom Tibbets, Mary's termination was
> forced by a majority of the AAW Board of Directors in what some have
> described as a "coup" or some kind of power struggle, resulting in the
> resignation of Mr. Tibbets along with Bill Haskell--neither whom were
> informed of such intentions ahead of time.
>
> The AAW President has gracefully given out his mailing address for
> members to send comments to by snail mail (remember that? Mail using
> paper and a postage stamp?) . He is interested in all comments from
> AAW members, positive or negative.
>
> Tom Wirsing
> 8995 N 39th St.
> Longmont, CO 80503
>
> Just thought I'd pass this on to everyone as news worthy of paying
> attention to if you are an AAW member.
>
> Take care,
> Ken Grunke
> CRW webmaster
>