How To Start and Run a Woodworking Club

By Ron Brown Founder of The Gwinnett Woodworkers Association & The Atlanta Scroll Saw Club

Section I.Introduction In October or 1998 the store manager at the local Home Depot store where I worked in Lawrenceville, Georgia (a suburb of Atlanta) announced there was a corporate push on to teach classes. He didn’t particularly care what the subject was, just so he could report to HQ that we were now teaching so many new classes. I saw this as a perfect opportunity to get out from behind the millwork desk, where I was the district specialist, for a few hours on Saturday mornings.

Each week for the next two years, I placed a 4x8 sheet of plywood on a mobile cart in the lumber isle and taught a one-hour class or gave a demonstration of some power tool. Much to my surprise, I developed a regular following. A core group of about 15 regulars came each and every Saturday morning at 8 am and if I was ever scheduled off, I had to find a “substitute teacher”, or face the consequences.

When it was time to move on, I announced that I would soon be quitting, whereupon everyone asked for directions to my home. They explained that I could certainly quit Home Depot if I wanted to, but there was no way they were going to let me stop teaching the woodworking classes! That is how my first woodworking club came to be.