The guilds that I have enjoyed belonging to the most have had great outside speakers. Unfortunately I think a lot of guilds have cut back on that due to the economy and the hassle of dealing with airlines, etc. Also, I prefer a guild that allows everyone the chance to volunteer. I was given the opportunity to volunteer a lot with my 1st guild and enjoyed every minute of it. I not only got to know a lot of the other members by doing that, I learned a lot about how to run an organization. Unfortunately a lot of guilds have at least 1 person who tries to control everything and if you don't do things her way, forget it! With my 1st guild we also had bees & there are no words that can describe how much I miss the bee I belonged to then.