About the SOLG
The Southwestern Ontario Luthiers Guild is a non-profit association of artisans, based in Southwestern Ontario, Canada, that design, create, promote and expand the boundaries of the art and craft of lutherie. Lutherie is the act of building a stringed instrument, and an individual engaged in this activity is known as a luthier.
The Guild holds a number of meetings throughout the year, in London, Ontario at the Lee Valley location on Oxford Street, with presentations and demonstrations by members and occasional guest speakers.
Our meetings enable the productive exchange of ideas and experience and help the Guild in its mission, as well as providing a lively and rewarding social network for local luthiers. .
In addition, the Guild provides the opportunity for members to showcase their work other members.
If you're reading this and you are not a member, consider joining the Guild. You might be an experienced luthier that wants to share with others, or maybe you've never built an instrument but would like to get started. Visit our website from time to time to see when our meetings are re-starting:
Woodstock Show?
The annual Woodstock Show where we usually have a booth was set to not occur this year, but the show is now planning an online event of some kind. We are looking at how this might work for Guild and we will let you know as soon as we have more news.
We can't do so right now, but rest assured, we'll let you know as soon as we are able to once again hold regular meetings.
2020 Memberships Carry Over to Next Year
As you know, we have had only one meeting this year. It was the first meeting of the year following the winter break, and you might expect that attendance might be a little light, before members get back into the swing of the meetings. And things weren't helped by the fact that the meeting also fell on Valentine's night... hmmm... So, we didn't collect many renewals or new membership fees for the current year. And then the current crisis hit and social distancing has meant we have had no further meetings and we have collected no additional renewal fees.
Since one of the main benefits of the Guild is the opportunity to meet and share experiences with others and to see demonstrations, lectures and presentations - none of which have so far been possible - we are applying current memberships to the next year (2021) - in other words, if you have paid for your membership this year, in recognition of the fact that the club has been unable to operate in the normal way, your membership will be automatically renewed for next year without further payment. Thank you for your support!
Current Executive to Carry Over to Next Year
The current situation with social distancing in effect and with meetings not possible is unprecedented, and the current executive have not had the opportunity to implement new ideas or meaningful and beneficial changes and so, for all intents and purposes, this year has and for some unknown time will be "lost". And so for the same reasons as the membership fees in the article at left, the current executive will carry over to the 2021 year. (Of course, with Larry Morden's unfortunate step down from the presidency, we are missing a Vice-President and a Secretary so will of course be looking to fill those positions).
In case you missed them, we reprint these two articles from our last issue
SOLG Newsletter - Issue 2 - September 2020
Page 12