Elections for two positions will take place this year: President Elect and Vice President. Each position has two society members who are interested in taking on the job in support of the IWCS and its members. The winners will assume the position effective 1 October. Mail in ballots will be in a forthcoming issue of the World of Wood (WoW) and available for download and email submission on this page for members who are Online Only members.
The two candidates for President Elect are Rick Long & Mark Peet:
Rick Long
My name is Richard Long, #9978, born and raised in Lafayette, Indiana (Go Boilers!). I moved to Bloomington IN in 1993 where I had my own business selling and installing the built-in vacuum systems in homes and businesses all over the state for 25 years. I moved to Crawfordsville, IN, in 2013 to be closer to family. This is when I joined the Montgomery County Woodworkers. While attending a woodworking show I discovered a lot of our members were also members of the I.W.C.S. This is when I decided to join, nine years ago. After five years I became Vice President of I.W.C.S.
My service record within I.W.C.S. includes:
* Vice President 2020-2022
* Member of By-Laws Committee
* Developed PowerPoint for the Society’s website
* Helped run the 2022 Southeast Winterfest
* Hosted the 2023 Southeast Region Winterfest
* Hosted the 2023 AGM in Shocco Springs, Alabama
* Instrumental in the 2024 Southeast Region Winterfest
* Feb. 2024 appointed Trustee replacement for Mike Fraser through October 2025
Further wood interests include:
* Currently Vice President of our local woodturners club
* Will be hosting 2025 Winterfest in Alabama
* For the past five years I have been making about 50 toy cars, trucks, and tops annually to donate to different charities in our area, as well as giving them away at the craft shows I attend
Mark Peet
My name is Mark Peet, #9804L and I was been born and raised in the hands-on way of living life. My early years were shaped by the honest and challenging life of the small farm. This opened my eyes to the reality of life and death and the everchanging balances in life’s intertwining circles. When markets crashed and things got tight, life morphed. My father reverted back to his other hands-on trade before my birth, carpentry. So, from there on, my life was influenced by wood. My older brothers became carpenters. I followed higher education and acquired a few equivalent degrees from Penn State. Shortly after graduation, I took up employment with Pennsylvania’s Department of Conservation & Natural Resources (DCNR) for a brief stint and then moved into a roll with the USDA Forest Service.
Marriage and children moved my employment to change. To be closer to home I took employment with several different landscape companies. I’ve since settled into working for a school bus company and perform consulting on forest and ornamental plant stock on the side. I still work parttime for a landscape firm with a focus on training summer recruits. My hobbies include participating in sport activities, supporting 4-H activities, working with The American Chestnut Foundation, being a trustee for the Greene Dreher Alumni Association and being a volunteer firefighter with Greene-Dreher Volunteer Fire Association. Like many of you, I am involved with many more activities than time to list.
In support of the IWCS, I have served for the last 7 years as an Associate Editor for the World of Wood and served 2 terms as the Trustee for the Northeast USA region. As President Elect, I will continue to actively participate in the IWCS in as many ways as I can but retain priorities as God first, family second and work in that order. I promise to be available to members and represent them to the best of my abilities.