Thread: What are your quilt guild meetings like?

we have 2 meetings a month. 1st one is business meeting..with show and tell at the end. 2nd meeting is a demonstration by a member. This rotates between members-some like to do it and others are not interested. (and thats ok). If we have a 5th Wed in the month, they have a work night. They layer small kids quilts for our local shelter project. We take those home , stitch the edges, 'birth' them, top stitch and tie or tack (or in my case, quilt...). We are a small chapter -about 20-25.

Have you tried having guest speakers, challenges, one of your members running an "in-house" course or having a professional coming in and run a course. That obviously depends on finances of the members and the guilt.

I am not sure what time of the day you meet - my guilt meets on the second Sat afternoon of each month and we have an afternoon tea roster with two ladies providing afternoon tea each month. Have your "show and tell" followed by afternoon tea then the meeting - that way you have the fun part first and then the business part. That will keep all members present longer.

Thank you for starting this post! Perfect timing as my guilds starts to prepare for next year!

Since my guild meets twice a month we have a business meeting the second Tuesday and a program meeting the fourth Tuesday. To add interest to business meeting night it really helps to have a ten minute tip presented by a member after the business but before show and tell. Members don't feel so intimated if they are asked to share a neat technique as compared to doing the entire program. Some ten minutes tips have include showing a new ruler, how to make a flange border, glue basting, a French braid table runner. Other ideas could be ways to label a quilt (in fact you could ask five different members to do this together!), your favorite quilting magazine and why, how to use pounce, the numbers are endless!

I was one of the librarians for the guild I attended back home. Each meeting we had some tables set up for magazines and for books. We had an annual budget for purchasing new books. Members were always donating magazines. We set aside time half way through the meeting for people to 'visit' the library. It was a lot of work but manageable with several people sharing the load. Very popular with the guild members.

A fun thing we do is a monthly "block lotto." There's someone in charge of determining which block (and providing a tutorial if needed) and what color palette to use. There's a drawing to see who wins all the blocks. The winner needs to use all the blocks in a project before they can win again. Since this is for the Modern Guild, I've been able to add a bunch of negative space to finish something when I've won. I only mention it because last month I only won 4 blocks!

also, we've had members (free!) demonstrate various techniques like paper piecing or how to organize fabric.

A very large guild that I belonged to in Oregon had a "free table" before the meeting. People brought sewing things that they didn't want, and everyone could pick up whatever they wanted. There were usually 3-4 long tables just covered with fabric scraps, magazines, books, patterns, etc. (but mostly fabric scraps). It was a great place to socialize before the meeting. Someone would say that she was looking for green, or for daisies, or for kid's fabric, and everyone else would help her look. It was interesting how one person would pass over a fabric, while someone else would love it.

Any kind of meeting where a member shows a technique seems to be a winner. But I agree that show and tell is the best part of any meeting.

If it's a smaller guild, you might also consider going somewhere together, whether to a fabric shop, a quilt show, or just out to lunch. Having fun brings all the members closer together.

The normal meetings include committee reports, door prices, and show and tell. Then there is a 10 minute break followed by a guest speaker. One meeting is dedicated strictly to community service (in the summer with an ice-cream social); one meeting dedicated to mentor night where various stations are set up and members have short tutorials going, one meeting is the "yard sale" where members sell and buy their "stuff," and one is the holiday meeting in December (which I categorically do not attend).

We also have Community Service present at the meetings as well as a free table, library, block of the month, treasure's raffle, a visiting guild with their opportunity quilt, workshops by the guest speaker on the following day (generally) and time to visit.

My guild has gone down hill in the last few years. We have lost a lot of the younger quilters because of the older members not wanting to change or spend money in the budget. They are all not physically capable of doing any bus trips, shop hops, retreats, or day trips. Everything the younger members want to do, so they vote down the guild sponsoring the activities. A guild has to stay interesting and have many activities to choose to do. Sadly my guild is the old biddy guild. Show and Tell is the only reason I still go.