There are so many good suggestions here. Our guild has a block lottery each month. A block and colors are chosen The background solid fabrics are all the same for cohesiveness. We pay $1 for each block we enter. We raise money for our guild this way. We belong to the Modern Quilt Guild and we are helping pay our dues with the lottery. There is a lot of participation. We keep the blocks at 12.5" unfinished. You get a ticket for each block you turn in. Someone will win enough blocks for a quilt. Sometimes there are enough blocks for more than one winner.
Instead of reading minutes, we have a blog that is updated after the meeting. Pictures of show and tell, swaps, etc are posted on the blog. We also have a private facebook page which is lots of fun. Lots of chit chatting back and forth and posting pictures of our blocks or what we are working on. Our guild is awsome and friendly. You can be a modern, improv or traditional quilter. We welcome anyone. We all help each other. We have a 6 hour sew day each month. We help each other sandwich quilts, help with layouts, choosing colors and more. We have become very close friends.