History of the Christchurch Woodturners Association Inc.

Early days

The first Annual General Meeting of the Christchurch Woodturners Association was held at the College of Education Lecture Theatre on March 7th, 1996, at 7.30pm.

A committee of eight was elected, three of whom are still on the present committee. An annual subscription of $25.00 was settled on, reducible to $20.00 if paid by June 30th. This subscription is still the same today.

That was the begining. The club started with a membership of 31 and has grown to a membership of 125 to date, and we are still growing.

Over the years we have joined in many “participating” events held in the South Island: “Otematata Experience” “Spin a Round Waitaki” “Learn to Turn” at Harihari and South Island “Fun Days”.

In 2000 we hosted the South Pacific Symposium at Living Springs. This was a great success with demonstrators from the North and South Islands, Australia and Hawaii. Again in 2005 we hosted another Symposium at Blue Skies, Kaiapoi. This time with demonstrators from New Zealand and the United States.

The Club hosted the “South Island Fun Day” in 2002 and 2003. This is a fun event with competing teams of six turning the set pieces. We chose for our competitions Skittles and Balls and Egg and Spoon. This ended with playing skittles and also having an egg and spoon race! What fun!

In 2006 we purchased a shuttle trailer to transport all our gear to the College on meeting nights, and to other venues. This includes a library, sound equipment, cameras and TV screen, an electrically operated stand and lathes, etc.

At present we are conducting the “Certificate in Woodturning” classes as an outreach programme from the Aoraki Polytechnic in Timaru. There are three volunteer tutors and three classes running at present. These are held at Cobham Intermediate School in their Technology Room. The first two classes have completed the course, and had a graduation ceremony at the Cashmere Club on October 22, 2009.

In September 2006 we held a special celebration dinner for our 10th Anniversary.