I went to a guild meeting once. I was a beginner and was proud to show my work off because I thought I was doing good for how long I had been doing it. Looking back it was not very good but then whose first few quilts are? They treated me badly and made some nasty remarks that I will never forget. I never went back and would not show anybody my work. I dropped out of quilting.
Now I got back into it, ten years later. I decided to join another guild in another town which was a big step after the last one. They are nice and I have done show and tell with my stuff. It is not convenient to get there and I only know one or two people so I miss alot. Now they do have their cliques but they havent been rude.
I went to a binding class recently. All of us were experienced and looking for shortcuts except this one woman who was making her first quilt. She was struggling to keep up and had never used a walking foot, etc. She kept apologizing but we wouldnt hear of it. It WAS supposed to be a beginning class. She had nothing to apologize about because she was doing really well for where she was. Plus we were all there with Berninas. Pfaffs and Janomes with all the bells and whistles. She was working with a stripped down Brother and we were faster partially because we had auto-cutters and pre-programmed stitches.
Having all been there and been intimidated, we took her right under our wing. We invited her to the next class which is cording, prairie points, etc and I hope she comes because she does nice work.