OFFICERS:

PRESIDENT:        DAVE GRAU,   dg33@mindspring.com

V. PRESIDENT:      AL TAKATSCH,al_taka@yahoo.com

SECRETARY:        JOHN REILLY, jrol@aol.com

TREASURER:        STAN CRAIG,  no e-mail

SERGEANT-AT-ARMS: EARL KNIGHT, earljan@mydirecway.com

DIRECTORS:

JERRY KINCAID (07)      tictoctwo@aol.com

BRETT LOUIS (07)        no e-mail

DAN SPATH (07)          daspath@verizon.net

GEORGE TRESANSKY (07)   geotnant@aol.com

JACK KENNAN (08)        jgkennan@webtv.net           

GEORGE PAINTER (08)     gpainter@adelphia.net

Message:

I thought I’d lead off this month’s message by once again thanking Stan Craig and John Kuntz for sharing their expertise with fellow HAM members. Their energy, dedication, and terrific instruction help to make HAM the terrific club that it is.  And it’s not only John and Stan.  So many of you (I’ll forget to list someone’s name if I list individuals, but please know that your name is on the list!) have contributed and continue to contribute to our group.  To all of you, a huge “Thank you!”

As many of you know, I consult with groups in organizations to help them to work well together.  Those are folks get paid for what they do and often times have a mission to ensure the health and well being of our nation’s citizens (or their nations’ citizens, if I am working with individuals from another country).  Many of those groups need a lot of help to get them on the right track.  And here, in our Association where we’re not saving lives and not getting paid, our “team” members have fun, work well together, enjoy each other’s company, break bread twice a month (you know, the Double T is a pretty good place to eat; for those of you who can make it and have yet to come to dinner before our meetings, you’re invited; we meet at 6:15p) . . . to continue . . . we turn that camaraderie into just such a great club and such a wonderful group of people who we have the pleasure to spend a little time with each month..

The workshops are going well. We have an all-day workshop in the works for the end of June on the use of the lathe.  We’re advertising for new members in the Horological Times and the NAWCC mart.  In addition, we’ve talked about a field trip and next time we get together we can talk about making that happen.

As always, your constant feedback as to what’s going well and what you’d like to see work better is always appreciated.  Please let me know what you’re thinking, especially your ideas for moving us from great to even greater.  Thanks!

That’s it for this month, hope to see you all soon.

David

Newsletter: March 12 Meeting

Introductions were made, in attendance were: Al Takatsch, Bill Miller, George Painter, George Tresansky, John Kuntz, Jack Bishop, Dan Spath, William McLean, John Reilly, Dave Grau, Earl Knight, Bob Rothen, Jack Kennan, Brett Louis and Dave Hannemann.

The treasurer’s report by Stan Craig showed that our treasury is still in good shape. The report was accepted unanimously. The secretary’s report by John Reilly was accepted as well.

Old Business: Our April 9 meeting is confirmed for the Howard County Senior Center (appropriate).  From the church continue west about a ¼ mile, take second left just behind the Library. Go to the back of the Center. The address is 9401 Frederick Road. This is a workshop that will start at 7:30. We must be out by 10 PM sharp, so we’ll have to start cleanup by 9:45.

New Business: The Woodsboro Mart is April 28, set up begins early but the doors open to members at 8 AM.  The speaker and topic, as of April 1, are undetermined. We plan to have a single table where we will hand out a blurb on the HAM, which Bob Rothen will work up. We will hang our banner and refer interested persons to copies of the NAWCC mart with our new advertisement in it. Your assistance in manning the table would be appreciated.

Dave Hannemann volunteered to take the HAM Library and equipment to his house for storage.  All requests for books and videos will now go to him.  He can be reached on-line at: david-patricia@verizon.net

At the April 9 workshop John Kuntz will go over the time and strike clock mechanism, how it works and what to watch out for when reassembling. John will bring some practice movements, but if you have your own to work on that would be preferred.  The book that we will use for the workshop is “Striking Clocks” by Steven Conover.  This is a great  guide to repairing American clocks and is readily available.

Dan Spath will ask the AWCI board what they expect HAM to provide for the National meeting which is scheduled for Maryland 3 years from now.  Based on that information we will decide if we want to go forward with the meeting or withdraw our invitation.  This would in all likelihood be a joint effort among Virginia, Pennsylvania and MD.

We talked about having an all-day workshop on Sunday June 24 at the Howard Co. Sr. Center. The suggestion was made to have a talk on the lathe at one of the meetings and a hands-on at the all day workshop. This would be in addition to having members bring whatever they want to work on.

The drawing was won by Dan Spath and the meeting was adjourned around 9 PM.

The meeting was followed by a talk with overheads given by Stan Craig on watch springs, how to handle, order and install. John Kuntz went over the use of a clock spring winder and the dangers involved when replacing clock springs, some of which can be quite strong. Watch and clock springs was the subject of our March 26 workshop.  This is a very important part of watch and clock repair and the details were well done by Stan and John Kuntz.  We thank both of them for their efforts.

Regards, John Reilly