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It’s cold! West Bath is icebound! Fifty-one members arrived on this
red-nosed, blue-toed frosty Winter day, many having traveled great
distances from Maine, Massachusetts, Maritimes Canada and from out west,
New Hampshire. All traveled across
frost-heaved highways and secondary roads.
But we’re tough and used to this stuff. When we arrived at our favorite watering hole, New Meadows
Inn at West Bath, Maine, few wasted any time retreating to the warm and
spacious dining room.
The 147th meeting and 34th year
of Maine Chapter 89 got underway with some NEW faces in the crowd. President Jim Lea extended a hearty
welcome to our visitors and friends of members.
President Lea called for members to make
“self-introductions”. The
Secretary’s Report and Treasurer’s Report were rendered and accepted by the
membership.
Looking ahead: Our March 15, 2003 Meeting will be held
at New Meadow’s Inn at West Bath, Maine.
Luncheon will be $12.50 for a buffet spread of seafood and
landlubber choices. Paula Marchand
of Gorham, Maine, will offer a presentation on gear cutting and special
machining.
SPECIAL GUEST: Bob Frishman announced his goal of
filling the office of NAWCC Director.
He implored us for support as he revealed his aspirations and goals
for NAWCC. Bob was formerly
President of Chapter 8 (New England) and comes with worthy qualifications.
NEW MEMBERS INDUCTED: David Smith of
Sidney, Maine and Bob Williams of New Harbor, Maine were formally inducted
as new members of Chapter 89. Welcome
to the family of Chapter 89!
Show & Tell: Don Rogers brought in
the waist door to his Dutch floor clock.
He’d done a marvelous repair of the full-length split. His mend was accomplished using threaded
rod in two places to pull the crack together and to hold the glue
joint. In addition, he also made
inlay repair of the decorative design on the door. Thank you Don.
Member
George Collard brought in several schematics of watchmaker machinery. In addition he had several floor plans
and elevations of the Waltham Watch Company. His thorough explanation about the various automatic and
manually operated machines used by Waltham was a gem of information.
raffle draw:
First Prize of $20 went to Cal Morgan, Second Prize of $10 went to
Mel Foley, who then held up a string of tickets to also claim Third Prize,
a shopping tote bag from “Merritt’s Antiques”. Happy shopping, Mel!
chapter outreach: President Jim Lea
asked for ideas regarding how Chapter 89 could effectively reach out to
prospective members in the region.
Secretary Ern Grover spoke briefly regarding the possibility of the
chapter subsidizing an area vocational technical institute student to come
as a guest to each future meeting.
The topic is open for further consideration, since two volunteers
are needed in order to effectively implement the outreach.
Silent auction: Cal Morgan changed hats and became our
auctioneer during the next few minutes.
There were a number of handsome items available on the mart
table. Cal got to sell the watch
cleaning machine for two meetings in a row.
presentation: Ern Grover offered a program
on the topic of Dutch clocks.
Because of time restraints, we saw some of the countryside of the
Netherlands to include some farms, windmills and watermills, inside and
out, a wooden shoe factory, a tour of an antique shop featuring Dutch and
European clocks of many designs. A
portion of the presentation took us on a tour of a working factory of H.
Rensink, clockmaker, of Winterswijk, Netherlands, where he and his daughter
make some handsome reproductions of many of the exquisite Dutch clock
designs.
Invitation: Reach out! We encourage each of our members to invite someone to a
future meeting.
Respectfully submitted,
Ern Grover, Chapter 89 Secretary
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