We've had this happen at a knitting guild I used to belong to. One of the problems there was that there wasn't enough time for knitting, talking and sharing between members on our own.
This guild only met once a month and you couldn't get to know anyone between the president talking and the guest speaker.
The speakers often went over their time and a lot of talking would happen to try to get the speaker to wrap up. Some crazy person booked a speaker on how to protect your identity. At that meeting half the members walked out before the presentation started and sat in another room to knit together. It was a knitting group, they didn't want to hear a non-knitting topic.
They did a survey to ask the guild members what they wanted and a overwhelming majority wanted less programs and more knitting. Maybe it would be best to ask the group what they want out of the guild? It could be they just want less programs.
Well guess what happened this year to that guild? 1/2 the members quit this year including me and now we just get together to knit and chat one evening a week, which has lead to great friendships, road trips, KAL's., etc.
I have been leery to check out the local quilt guild, but it seems like they have a lot more opportunities for folks to get together to quilt together and build friendships, so when an actual talking program takes place they are more likely to listen.
~ Rose