I joined a guild and love it, very friendly, lots of knowledge to draw from, everyone very willing to help a newbie. 200+ members we have retreats, classes taught by guild members and guest,work on donation quilts for several organizations, we have a quilt show in the fall, we all work on that, (its almost here!) The only drawback for me, it is a 2+hr drive for the meetings, on the good side it is once a month and they keep in touch by e-mail