Organisational Talks

[Bryan Milham]

At an event I did a couple of years ago, I was asked by a lady if I did talks about woodturning to groups.

Figuring it could not be that hard, and having been taught to stand up and talk in the Army (subjects like 5 mins on a polo mint or the good old safety match) I said yes. So I found myself standing in front of a ladies church group talking about woodturning and what is a woodturner and showing them some of what I make.

My name has travelled to other groups and I now find I am booked to do 40 minute talks to a range of local Organisations.

I did one the other evening to a group of ladies, one of which was a school teacher. Now I have been asked to do 2 x 20 minute talks to 10-11 year olds on different woods and their uses.

Now I quite enjoy doing these, and feel I am doing something for the woodturning fraternity and making more people aware that we exist and what we do.

Has anyone else found themselves in this sort of area of Organisational Talks.

[seventhdevil]

cant say i have but i can talk for england on the subject of timber though. the slight aspergers i have helps with that.

not sure i could get up in front of people though?   that's where the aspergers doesn't help...

[The Bowler Hatted Turner]

Hi Bryan,
                yes I do "talks 'n demos". Church groups and wood working clubs, WI groups (I did a demo and teach in type thing for their 100th year celebrations) I have been to a couple of schools but with the pressures on the curriculum these days that seems to have been dropped for  a bit. I have presented to gardening groups and at one group I did a slide show on trees and their diseases. So yes I do do it but I normally get paid to do it as it is how I earn part of my living, and as you said, experience in the forces helps. (I did 5 minutes on a pencil and another time I had to explain why straight lines were better than curved ones!) You will find eventually that there is a list of talkers and demonstrators for some of these groups, each year I am contacted and have to update my information and tell them my charges for the coming year. It is normally just for an hour or so and setting up and breaking down can be longer than the talk but it is worthwhile and helps to spread the word. The other thing I have done, and this is with one of the club members is go to a school for kids with learning difficulties during their craft week. We did a hands on hands on day, so the kids held the shisel and we held their hands and helped them make a rolling pin each. It was a full day and we would sit and have lunch with the kids and take part in their whole day. Every child ended up with a rolling pin which they used the next day to make a pizza. These events only happened when the demographic was right for it, some years it was not but the chap who was their teacher told me that he had never seen the kids concentrate for such a long period of time when we were there. Those events were very humbling as you can imagine.

[Les Symonds]

Hi Bryan....like John, I too do talks to varying groups, from Woodturning clubs to little local groups of just a half-dozen souls. I usually take a little lathe along and quickly demo turning a piece of fruit or a Christmas tree, then give a talk about local timber, what makes it unique and why it's such a pleasure to use. I also take loads of samples of pieces of timber and of finished pieces of work, just to show what the raw material, plus a little bit of effort and knowledge can achieve. At the larger clubs, there's always a slight feeling of preaching to the converted, whereas with the smaller, local groups I feel as though I'm breaking new ground and raising awareness of our craft and of the materials that I work with.
Les

[Derek]

I have only given one demo to our club but was asked by a women's group to talk about woodturning that is one which I will have to think about.

[John Plater]

Next month I am to give an illustrated talk to a branch of U3A which will be a new one for me. In the past I have given talks to multidisciplinary craft societies about my way into woodturning,  to woodturning clubs about influences and designing, to groups of school children in an attempt to interest them and to local groups during local craft events. It is a way of putting something back and it helps widen the interest in our craft. It goes without saying that one needs to know a bit about the audience and their expectations of a speaker in order to make the talk relevant. I have found that a "bank" of stock topics can be given a different slant for different audiences. Many people are quite ignorant of turning timber into things !
ATB John