ANNOUNCEMENTS

Chronicle of the Early American Industries Association, Inc., The, May/Jun 2005

SPOOM CONFERENCE - 2005 A MASON-DIXON TOUR

From September 8-11, 2005, the Union Mills Homestead Foundation, Inc will be hosting the annual SPOOM (Society for the Preservation of Old Mills) Conference in Westminster, Maryland. The Homestead is located in Union Mills, Maryland, about seventeen miles south of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The Homestead Foundation is an international organization whose purpose is to "promote interest in old mills and other Americana now passing from the present scene."

Each year from various regions throughout the U.S. and Canada, SPOOM selects a host mill which then has the responsibility of organizing tours, workshops, seminars and other events for this 2 ½-day conference. For those who wish to extend their visit, optional activities are also planned for the day prior to and the day after the conference. In addition to mill-related information, participants have the opportunity to enjoy special points of interest and local cuisine. The cost of meals, transportation, speakers, and conference center activities is covered by a conference fee.

For 2005 the Conference committee has adopted the theme "Mills along the Mason-Dixon Line." Headquarters are located in the Best Western Conference Center in Westminster, the dates will be Friday Sept 9 through Sunday morning September 11, 2005, with optional activities on Thursday, September 8th and Sunday afternoon.

Friday seminars will be held at the conference center, and will include a midday excursion to the Mason-Dixon Steam & Gas Roundup at the Carroll County Farm Museum. Friday evening's banquet and business meeting will be hosted by Roop's Mill at their new banquet facility in Westminster.

Saturday features an all-day bus tour of mills in northern Maryland and Southern Pennsylvania. The buses will return late afternoon to Union Mills where activities will include demonstrations, artifacts, historical displays, and the working grist mill. The evening concludes with casual dining and entertainment.

SPOOM hopes you will include this unique event on your to-do list. For more information please call Bob or Jane Sewell at (410) 833-2313; or Marlene or Ivan Lufriu at (717) 359-4363. Please also see the Union Mill's Homestead Web site at www.unionmills.org or SPOOM's Web site at www.spoom.org.

MADELEINES REWARD NEW MEMBER

Former EAIA President JB Cox has found some unlikely allies in his campaign to recruit new members for the EAIA. At his tool sales table at the PATINA show/ auction this past March, he decided to reward purchasers of his tools with madeleines.

Cox hastens to explain that no one named Madeleine was involved in any exchange - that his madeleines are small cakes created in the early nineteenth-century France by pastry chef Madeleine Paulmier. They were made famous by the French author Proust and baked by him personally.

Cox says, "At the yearly Patina sale/auction, I usually have a supply of EAIA recruiting materials on hand at my sell table. Normally, Toby [Hall, EAIA Executive Director] supplies me with a stack of flyers and some old Chronicles, so I have something to hand out, but this time he sent no Chronicles. [See related story following this one-editor.] Since I had decided to make madeleines to give to purchasers of my tools and books, I thought I'd also give madeleines to the first five people who signed up for the EAIA and made a sign accordingly."

Whether it was solely the result of Cox's baking or the other items on his table, (it was unclear at the time this Shavings went to press), the EAIA now has one more new member-Richard Vallentich of College Park, Maryland.

To record this unusual and historical recruitment event, Cox happily put down his own madeleines and photographed Bill Curtis, EAIA's Second Vice President receiving Richard Vallentich's dues check in exchange for his madeleines (photo below). Shavings does not know whether Curtis ate any madeleines.

THE MORE THINGS CHANGE: U.S. (SNAIL?) MAIL

Ripped from the files of Nothing-Is-New-Under-the-Sun:

"We are experiencing enormous difficulties with the U.S. Mail lately. Chronicles are taking as long as one and a half months to reach members less than 400 miles away. The last Chronicle was delayed because the Post Office took ten days to deliver the proofs twenty-five miles and they were sent first class! . . . . If any member has a solution to this we would appreciate hearing it. About fifty copies are lost in the mail each issue. This costs the Association over $100 to replace them, plus the inconvenience to the subscriber and the large amount of extra labor involved."-from Shavings, No. 18, November 1974.

The 2005 Shavings is mailed 3rd Class from Columbia, Missouri, (usually) during the last week of the following months: February, April, June, August, October, and December. Please be patient, expect delays, and allow two to three weeks for delivery.

EAIA-EASTFIELD 2005

At this writing applications are coming in for the Sixth Annual EAIA-Eastfield program at Eastfield Village, East Nassau, New York, July 11-15. In addition to being a very agreeable summer vacation in an early nineteenth-century style rural setting, these workshops provide a wonderful opportunity to get a feel for old tools, the practice of a variety of trades, and instruction from master artisans.