{"id":920,"date":"2019-08-06T16:51:31","date_gmt":"2019-08-06T23:51:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/?p=920"},"modified":"2019-08-06T16:51:31","modified_gmt":"2019-08-06T23:51:31","slug":"san-diego-has-largest-woodworkers-guild-in-u-s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/general\/san-diego-has-largest-woodworkers-guild-in-u-s\/","title":{"rendered":"San Diego Has Largest Woodworkers Guild in U.S."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On\nJune 29,2019, I attended the San Diego County Fair held at the Del\nMar Fairgrounds with my family as I have done annually for the past 20 years.\nOne of my favorite exhibits is the fine woodworking exhibits, actually divided\ninto two exhibits, one for hobbyists and professionals and one for\nstudents.  For the first time, I picked\nup a pamphlet about the San Diego Fine Woodworkers Association (SDFWA<\/a>) and a flyer for the\nCabinet and Furniture technology program at Palomar Community College.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\npamphlet described the new woodworking shop in San Diego, open for all\nwoodworkers to join. The shop is a membership based, non-profit, all volunteer\nshop run by the SDFWA.  I was able to\ninterview Gary Anderson, Member Shop Chairman about the organization and its\nhistory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gary\nsaid, \u201cThe Association was started by Lynn Rybarczyk in 1981 after he had seen some\nbeautiful custom furniture in the San Francisco Bay Area. At that time, woodworkers\nin San Diego had few opportunities to collaborate and had no way to show their\nwork to the public. Lynn was motivated to present the idea of creating a fine\nwoodworking exhibit at the San Diego County Fair to the exposition staff, who agreed\nto develop an exhibit as long as there was an active community woodworking\norganization to sponsor it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fortunately,\nSan Diego\u2019s first retail store selling woodworking supplies, tools, and\nmaterials opened about the same time \u2014The Cutting Edge. The owner allowed Lynn\nto set up a card table at the store during the grand opening, and Lynn began to\nsign up the members of what became the San Diego Fine Woodworkers Association.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During\n1981, regular meetings were held at local public schools to attract members.\nThe San Diego Fine Woodworkers Association (SDFWA) was organized as a 501(c)(3)\nnon-profit corporation in early 1982, and by June of 1982, the first annual\nshow, initially called The Southern California Expo Fine Woodworking Exhibit displayed\n45 pieces selected from 95 entries, all submitted by SDFWA members.  The\nshow was such a success that Fine Woodworking Magazine gave it a multi-page\nspread.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\nadded, \u201cThe exhibit at the Fair is now called the Design in Wood Exhibition,\nand has grown to display more than 300 entries. It has achieved national and\ninternational recognition and includes demonstrations by wood turners,\nscrollers, carvers, and model ship builders \u2013 all members of local\norganizations. A traditional woodworking shop at the exhibit produces red oak\nchildren’s chairs for donation to local social service organizations. More than\n1,700 chairs have been donated over the past 34 years.\u201d    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nanswer to my question about the growth of the association, Gary said,\n\u201cMembership steadily increased and peaked at 1690 members in 1999. There are\nactually over 200 woodworking guilds\/associations in the US., but San\nDiego\u2019s is the largest with about 1200 members. \nAs far as we know, only four have their own woodworking shop.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\nasked what the difference between a \u201cguild\u201d and \u201cassociation,\u201d and he said that\nthe term \u201cguild\u201d is often used interchangeably with \u201cassociation,\u201d but guilds\nhistorically referred to individual craftsmen rather than company members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\nexplained that most of their members are doing woodworking as a hobby, and only\nabout 10% or less are professionals who make a living from woodworking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gary\nadded, \u201cMembers have access to a variety of special interest groups that\nprovide the opportunity to connect with experts in a variety of woodworking,\nsuch as carving, CNC machining, toy building, and women in woodworking.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When\nI asked when the association opened the Member Shop, he replied, \u201cWe opened the\nshop in June 2017, and it is 4,000 sq. ft in size.  Membership provides access to just about\nevery kind of power and hand tool and equipment<\/a>\nthat a woodworker would need to complete a project, including, saws, router,\nsanders, lathes, etc.  It also has an\nextensive library, design software, classes, and a 3D printer.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\nexplained, \u201cOne of our reasons for opening the shop was that we were concerned\nabout the diversity of membership, both with regards to age and ethnic\ndiversity.  Before we opened our Member\nShop, we were an association of \u201cold white men,\u201d above the age of 60. We\nrecognized that we needed to attract more diversity in age and ethnicity. Now,\nwe have a lot of young people joining as members. When the shop opened, only about\n3% were female and now 40% of  our new members\nare female.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nSDFWA pamphlet listed two levels of annual membership:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Silver\nat $250\/year, which provides 15 slots (a slot is one visit to the shop for up\nto three hours<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gold\nat $395\/year, which provides 50 slots<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When\nI asked if they also have an hourly rate like a \u201cmakerspace, he said, \u201cno, you\nhave to be a member to use the facilities. \nWe don\u2019t have provision for using on an hourly rate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\ntold him that I had also picked up a flyer at the Fair for the Cabinet &\nFurniture Technology program at Palomar College and asked if the association\nhas a relationship with the college<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\nreplied, \u201cWe have an Informal, but students have to pay to be a member to use\nfacilities.  Some of their members have\ntaken or are taking woodworking classes at Palomar to get more training on to\nexpand on the member shop classes.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When\nI asked if there are any other colleges in San Diego that have a similar\nprogram, he replied, \u201cI don\u2019t know of any other college that has a program as\ncomplete as Palomar, which is a nationally recognized program, but I did hear\nthat SDSU has a small program as one of its instructors became a member.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nanswer to my question as to whether there are any high schools that have\nwoodworking shop classes, he said that he heard that Oceanside High School has\na program, but he didn\u2019t know of any others. I told him that the San Diego\nContinuing Education Center on Oceanview Blvd. has a small woodworking shop and\nclasses, and the MakerPlace on Morena Blvd. in San Diego also has a small\nwoodworking shop and classes. After the interview, an internet search showed\nthat Escondido High\nSchool<\/a> also had a woodworking shop and classes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With\nregards to whether or not there are any local furniture manufacturers, he\nresponded, \u201cI don\u2019t know of any furniture manufacturers in San Diego other than\nshops making cabinets. But, SDFWA President, Travis Good, recently visited a\nlumber supplier by the name of Bennett-Crone, and the vast amount of their\nbusiness is with woodworking manufacturers in Mexico. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After\ndoing search on the internet, I found seven furniture manufacturers listed in\nSan Diego County, but three of the seven have addresses down in Otay Mesa,\nwhich is the industrial park on the U. S. side of the border with Mexico, and\ncompanies in this park usually have offices on the U. S. side and manufacturing\nplants on the other side of the border in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\nare two musical instrument companies that would utilize the woodworking skills\nof SDFWA members:  Deering Banjo Company\nin Spring Valley, and Taylor Guitar Company in El Cajon.  However, Taylor Guitar also has a plant in\nTecate, Baja California, Mexico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\nthanked Gary for all of the information and arranged to visit the Member Shop\nsoon. I enjoyed learning about the background of my favorite exhibit at the San\nDiego County Fair. If any furniture manufacturers doing business in China and\nother parts of Asia decide to return manufacturing to America, the San Diego region\nwould have an abundance of skilled workers to staff their plants<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On June 29,2019, I attended the San Diego County Fair held at the Del Mar Fairgrounds with my family as I have done annually for the past 20 years. One of my favorite exhibits is the fine woodworking exhibits, actually divided into two exhibits, one for hobbyists and professionals and one for students.  For the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[11,240,38],"class_list":["post-920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-american-manufacturing","tag-manufacturing-skills","tag-training-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=920"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/920\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":921,"href":"https:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/920\/revisions\/921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savingusmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}