First, I hope this message finds all of you managing to stay safe and in good health throughout this uniquely challenging year. We are about to turn the page on 2020 and like most of you, I am looking forward to better days ahead in 2021. A year ago, GNHW was about to close out 2019, having completed a record 65 actual in-person live meeting/demonstration events and a modest growth in membership from 547 members in January to 560 at year end.
We started year 2020 filled with optimism, looking to build on our successes of 2019, and were on a good track to improve upon the 2019 in-person live meeting/demonstration events. Through March 13 we had already completed one General Meeting that featured Owain Harris as our guest demonstrator. We had also conducted 4 Small Meeting/Demonstrations, 11 Subgroup Meeting/Demonstrations, and 2 promotional Guild Subgroup information sharing membership drives.
The arrival of COVID-19 compelled our GNHW Board of Directors to suspend all in-person meetings and demonstrations following the Goosebay Lumber - Lie Nielsen Tool Event on March 13 until such time that conditions become safe for us to resume scheduling normal meetings and event activities. Notwithstanding our disappointment with the suspension of in-person events, GNHW membership experienced surprising new growth in 2020. We began the year with 560 members and expect to end the year at around 635 members. For all of our new members, welcome to our Guild.
Absent the availability of in-person meeting/demonstrations, I encourage our new members to explore the many information sources we provide through our GNHW.org website (more on this later). I assure all of our members that our leadership team continues to brainstorm on various ways we can provide new virtual content of the highest quality we can provide, to supplement our existing sources of instructional content. Be sure to check out and subscribe to our new Guild of New Hampshire Woodworkers YouTube channel, where new content is being added as it becomes available. We also have new material on our Facebook and Instagram accounts, where you can submit a request to quickly become a member of these groups and share your own content with our administrator for posting to these accounts. Once you become members of these groups you will receive notices of all the new content as it is added.
As soon as it is safe to resume business as usual, our events calendar will quickly fill with new scheduled meetings and event activities. Watch for general meetings, small meetings, and subgroup meetings as they are scheduled. Most of these meetings open with a coffee and social meet & greet period before they start. The meetings feature live demonstrations, how-to instructional guidance with Q & A related to woodworking techniques, tool setup, maintenance, safety tips, etc. Also, we plan to reschedule our planned GNHW 30-year anniversary celebration, which is expected to be an outdoor catered event with special guest demonstrator(s), a raffle, assorted prizes, and surprises, all of which will be under a large tent.
Until we resume normal, post-pandemic activities again, here are a few additional sources of free information and instructional content available to you on our website:
In the coming weeks I will share with our members, additional sources of available quality content, including a few recommendations of some of my personal favorites. In the meantime, if you have a question, don’t hesitate to reach out to any member of our leadership team here or other members through the member directory. I wish everyone a safe, healthy Happy New Year!
Bob Wyatt, 12/30/2020
Please be aware that there is a scammer answering these ads. Be careful!!!!
I recommend that you only take CASH or checks from people you know. Very little of the stuff that is advertised is so rare or such a great deal that someone would hire an “agent” to ship it.
BE CAREFUL!!!!
Peter
If you are selling something online, as a business or through classifieds ads, you may be targeted by an overpayment scam.
The scammer will contact you, make you an offer—often quite generous—then make payment through credit card or cheque. They will be for an amount that is greater than the agreed price.
The scammer will contact you with an apology for the overpayment, offering a fake excuse. The scammer might tell you that the extra money was included to cover agent’s fees or extra shipping costs. Or they may just say they simply made a mistake when writing the cheque.
The scammer will then ask you to refund the excess amount or they will ask for you to forward the amount through to a third party. They will ask for this to through an online banking transfer, pre-loaded money card, or a wire transfer such as Western Union. You then discover that their cheque has bounced or the credit card had been a stolen or fake card.
A newer variation on this scam involves online sales, usually through classified sites, where the scammer pretends to have made a payment for a larger than agreed amount through services such as PayPal by sending a fake receipt of payment. The scammer will claim that the money is being held until you forward on the extra money.
If you send any money, you will not get it back. If you have already sent the ‘sold’ item you will lose this as well. At the very least, the scammer will have wasted your time and prevented you from accepting any legitimate offers on your sale.
I just wanted other Sellers to be careful as I see some valuable machines for sale here.