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Old 08-04-2009, 05:59 AM
  #13  
mpspeedy
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Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: rural Maryland
Posts: 1,564
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Congratulations Madame President. I belong to two guilds. Both now have 100 to 100+ members. One meets in the daytime and always has a covered dish luncheon. The other meets at night and usually only has light refreshments. Both have, hopefully a short business meeting, some kind of program either with a formal speaker or demonstrator and then show and tell of members work since the last meeting.

Both guilds have a block of the month, an annual Tea Party and a fund raising Quilt Bingo. Only one still has a semiannual quilt show.
The one without the show has a monthly raffle basket full of goodies that members buy chances on at the meeting. Members donate quilt related items, fabric and notions they no longer want. I actually won the first raffle basket when we started it at least 5 years ago. It even included a bottle of wine. The guild usually makes between 50 and 80 dollars each time they have the raffle basket. One of my guilds has a Secret Sister program. I don't participate but some members really enjoy that program.
As for programs. Both guilds have a special budget for speakers etc. They have done the round robin demo tables with success. Both guilds try and have an outside speaker at least every other month. I have been program chair for both quilds. There are a lot of quilt teachers and or designers out there who will do trunk shows or demos for your group. Most are at least several hundred dollars plus mileage and lodging if necessary. We always encourage them to bring patterns, gadgets or even fabric if they have some to sell. They usually give the guild members a discount. I belonged to a professional group the Mason Dixion Professional Quilt Network. They have a website and most of the members do trunk shows, classes or demos. I also found the names of quilt pros in quilting magazines. With the internet it is not hard to find contact information for them. There are probably lots of them within an hour drive or so of your group.
My more local quild has two meetings a month. The first is the formal meeting and the second two weeks later is a more informal one where members demostrate a project and teach it to anyone who is interested. Several times they have actually run a year long class that produced a quilt for those participating. They are just starting a year long class that will result in a quilt made from Civil War Fabrics for those who participate.
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