I belong to a large guild, and it's true you get what you give. There are the usual cliques but there are also plenty of us who couldn't care less who was with who.
We have a quilt show every other year, we get fantastic speakers to come in, we have a HUGE library of books and magazines, we hold workshops often - usually the day after a speaker is in to speak - we have her do a day long workshop.
We have 2 mini retreats/year - Quilt 'till you Wilt, where we go to a lovely hotel and are wined and dined as we quilt from dawn until way past dark. We have a charity program where those who run it hold quilting days when ladies get together to 'power sew' quilt tops for children. Then they package them up with backing, batting and binding and bring them to our meetings. We are free to pick up a few to take home and quilt and return the next month. They go to the Children's Aid. It's a great way to practise your quilting without the cost! This group meets monthly. Every meeting has a door prize draw - you get tickets for wearing your nametag, chatelaine, bringing the 'notion of the month' , wearing your guild pin, etc. We also have a fat quarter draw. You can buy tickets 3/$1 and they give 4-5 away at each meeting. Once a year we have bingo night - you make your own bingo card from fabric and the color scheme is pre arranged . "Floral print under yellow = BINGO!" Once in a while we'll have a fat quarter toss - like musical chairs. The fat quarters are rolled up and tied. Then you have to keep tossing them around until the music stops. It's also a blast.
I also go to another quilting group that is as different as night is to day. It's a seniors group of about 15 ladies who meet once a week and it's to sew. We do projects together so that we can help each other through a new process, we make a quilt together to raffle off in the local fair every year, we make charity kids quilts and we do a "cancer sew" once a month were we sew bed pads for cancer patients at home to use.
This group is there to laugh and cry and have a good time. If you have a problem with a project - bring it along and together we'll solve it. If you have an entire quilt to frog - bring it along and with many hands, it will get done. We get drop in visitors at the center who just 'want to see what the ladies are up to.' It's a blast. I'm their junior member , I'm 51 but they let me come anyway. Maybe because I drive a van - and that's good for shop hops! LOL