The meeting was called to order by Vice President Jay Perrine at 7 PM. A guest, Sophia Duluk, identified herself as a woodturner and lathe metal worker from Seattle.

Steve Rosenblum announced the new Board policy on classified ads in the newsletter: "Classified ads must be from members or ex-members or their estates who are closing down their workshops. In addition a non-member may attend a regular meeting as a guest and announce personal items for sale that are directly related to member's woodworking. The details of the announcement may be covered in the meeting minutes in the monthly newsletter, subject to editorial review."

Fred Reicher announced that we need 2 volunteers to go to Frank Ramsay's shop this coming week to cut wood for the Janet Pomeroy Center gates. He also mentioned that the talk next month would be by Toby Judith Klayman on how to market your work. Mark Rand then described the history of the use of nametags at club meetings. Initially they were self-made tags that were handed out at the meetings, but they got lost and jumbled in the box. Mark will make up new nametags and again have them available in a box at the meeting. Members are requested to wear them so as to facilitate getting to know each other's names more quickly. Ed Marinaro gave a brief report on the work of the Shows committee. They are pursuing two options, a juried show and an open show. They have investigated several venues including the Palo Arts League where we could have several pieces in the main gallery as well as a more extensive display upstairs for a month and Woodcraft San Carlos which is moving to a new larger location on El Camino in Belmont. Woodcraft would have a 1000 sq. ft. workshop/classroom space that they could make available for exhibits. Individual exhibitors would handle all sales with a 35% commission to the exhibition's sponsor.

In Show and Tell, Frank Taylor showed a piece of bamboo plywood which sells for $160 for a ¾" thick, 4x8 foot sheet. It is very hard on edge tools as it has a lot of minerals in its fibers.

Neal White talked a bit about the September meeting which will be a handplane seminar and asked for suggestions at to what information to cover. He also mentioned that there would be a class given at Woodcraft San Carlos in September on constructing a wooden handplane.

The featured speaker for the evening, Bob Nisbett, gave a detailed talk and a demonstration of the use of the Dowelmax jig to join cabinetry. This is the only method that Bob has used in the joinery of the many pieces he showed in his presentation. He was very effusive of his praise of the accuracy and simplicity of use of the jig. According to the Dowelmax literature (www.dowelmax.com) the doweled glued joints are stronger than mortise and tenon joints. Although the jig is expensive (about $300), it is very precisely made.

Bob demonstrated the use of the jig to drill a series of ¼" holes in two boards, one representing the long grain side and one representing the end grain side of a corner joint about 12 inches long. He used the jig to drill a precisely spaced series of holes a few inches apart in each board showing how the jig allows you to easily and accurately align the holes to the boards so that, in the end when the dowels are inserted, everything fits together precisely. Bob then showed photos of some of the many projects he has completed with the Dowelmax. Among them were a mahogany TV table using light and dark mahogany (sapele), a blanket chest made of quila and soft red oak lined in Spanish cedar, a blanket chest made of walnut and pearwood, a cocktail cabinet with drawers with handcut dovetails, a pearwood cabinet with ebony handles, a mahogany china cabinet with rosewood and pearwood panels which was done as a project at the College of the Redwoods. He also told a funny story about James Krenov and Arnie Champagne during their time at the "College. Arnie had been designing a Chinese bookcase and had shown Krenov the cardboard mockup, at which point Krenov said, "I can't help you with that", implying that he had no knowledge of Chinese furniture. Arnie immediately burned the cardboard mockups and started over. As a final point, Bob mentioned that he uses only shellac as a finish on all his projects.