For years, the OWA has not met face-to-face.  We held a 2023-24 season opener as an in-person meeting on Saturday, October 14th.  Rob Suarez demonstrated the use of Lee Valley's combination plane, while Don Duchesne briefed us on the history of the Stanley 45, 50, and 55.  And there was a special surprise for the members.  On a lark we recorded the meeting.  The footage -- Should we say bittage? -- was then edited, blended with Don's slides, and uploaded to YouTube.  If you would like to view the video -- it's about an hour -- just stomp here .  (You may have to click READ MORE first.)

When we announced a hiatus in our meetings last year at about this time, the Ottawa Tool Library (OTL) reached out to us with a proposal that we somehow partner to keep the OWA going.  Thanks to the OTL we were able to meet in person on a masked small scale, and thus keep our activities going.  For that, the OWA cannot express enough gratitude for the boost that the OTL provided. The OWA members who still hang on, the clingers, strive to resurrect the OWA.  A step in that direction has been to secure a meeting place large enough to house a re-built membership.  Namely, Lee Valley has offered us their seminar room, the place where they hold workshops, tutorials, and the like.  Time slots are limited; the only one available was Satruday afternoons from 2 to 4 PM.  Don created a monthly schedule of meetings for the first Saturdays of each month.  The only exception is the very first meeting coming up on October's second Satuday, the 14th, to skip ...