Thread: Quilt Guild Meetings

I belong to 3 guilds - a very small one (fewer than 30), a very large one (over 300), and one in the middle. The very large guild (in Salem) has a morning meeting and an evening meeting. Most people come to the morning meeting, so it can be very crowded. Each meeting has the same speaker, but there is a different set of officers for each meeting (a morning president, an evening president, etc.) They meet together for board meetings. I never thought about the challenges, but I think they are the same for both groups.

Originally Posted by dunster

The very large guild (in Salem) has a morning meeting and an evening meeting. Most people come to the morning meeting, so it can be very crowded. Each meeting has the same speaker, but there is a different set of officers for each meeting (a morning president, an evening president, etc.) They meet together for board meetings. I never thought about the challenges, but I think they are the same for both groups.

I was going to talk about the Salem guild, because that is the one I belong too. I go to the evening meeting because I work during the day. The evening meeting can be 30-40 or 70, it just depends if there is a good speaker. I have heard the morning meeting can get pretty crowded at those meetings. There is one joint meeting, an evening potluck in the summertime. And the whole guild works on the biennial quilt show (odd # years) and the biennial quilt college (even # years) when you have the chance to meet people from the other group. There are also a number of small groups that share projects and meet on their own schedule. A couple of years ago, the guild changed meeting places, which mandated changing meeting night (due to availiblity) but it is a larger and nicer facility. They did have a lot of trouble getting evening officers this year and said they might cancel evenings. That would be the end of my membership. I have never had a guild office, not that I wouldn't some day but I am currently committee to other organizations.

I belong to a guild in a neighboring town and in January 2011 there were 22 members and this year so far we have 42 members, almost double what it was last year and it keeps growing.

We have always had two meetings, one in the morning and one at night to accomodate everyone. At the beginning of the meeting we take care of buisness, old and new, praying for those who are sick and/or need prayers for other things, share about our families and then we have someone teach us something, and then show and tell of our projects we are working on or have completed. At the morning meeting when all is said and done we decide where we want to go to lunch. :-)

I must say, after having been a member of at least 8 or 9 quilds over the years, I have never met a happy or understanding want-to-be guild member who didn't 'make it' because some guild limited its membership. To a person they have all had hurt feelings and a bad taste in their mouths for a group of fellow quilters who could be so exclusive as to reject another quilter. No matter the reason.

I have also been in two guilds that have made the serious and sometimes painful decision to move the meeting location to accommodate growth. And that quickly appeared to benefit everyone!

Wouldn't it be awkward if Quilters Newsletter Magazine or McCall's Quilting magazine printed only, say, 50,000 copies because that's how many rolled off the presses in one 24 hour day and they just didn't want to bother to run them a second day?

Jan in VA