I did a lot of thinking on this last night and tried to put myself in a potential volunteer's spot and this is how you might get me to consider taking on the position if I were in your guild. Pass out a sheet of paper with request for help. If you don' t criticize me for not volunteering, you've got my attention. If you have some light hearted humor in your message, I'm wavering. (humor gets me every time). If you list EVERYTHING that is required of me ( and don't keep out the yucky or time consuming stuff if you ever want me to volunteer again.)
Are the responsibilities carved in stone or can I be a little creative?) Is there anyone I'll be able to ask if I have questions?
Yes, in answer to your silent question, I Have volunteered in my extensive life for many things which has prompted the above thoughts. My experience has always been, no matter what the gamut of things I've volunteered for, that when people ask for help and I oblige, I end up seeing them only through the rear view mirror as they pedal quickly out of sight.

You are not unique, it happens in every organisation that I know of here in the UK, the reason I am n it in a guild at the moment is the stranglehold a few people have on t he committee! But also the lack of others who will come forward to make a change. Good luck with what you are doing, I'm with Patrice too!

Great idea Patrice! It would be a great way to bring life and change into any organization. Organizations and groups need to be flexible and meet the needs of the group by having the masses participate, there will be new ideas and growth.

Oh gosh. Our guild is small and very casual. We dont require much out of the members and every year they exceed in their generosity of producing charity quilts and participating in the challenges that they have an interest in. It is really not a big deal to run a meeting. The agenda is pretty much routine and we have an annual planning meeting for new ideas, etc. We welcome new ideas and input.

Sandy

In most guilds the by laws would have to be changed to have a name drawing to go around elected officers. By laws seem to be sacred to many long time guild members. I wanted to toss my guild's by laws in the trash half way in being guild president. They were outdated and rigid.

We don't have bylaws. We are an informal gathering.
Sandy

Good luck Sandy.

Why not go down the rows of chairs and tape a red or blue or green piece of tape on each one.
At the beginning of the meeting ask all the "red seaters" to move to the right wall of the room; the blue could go to the back wall; the yellows to the left wall.

Tell each of the groups to put their heads together and come up with the name of a person from their group who will serve in a needed position for the next term. They have, oh, say, 10 minutes to accomplish this task.

Meanwhile you can sit back down and fail to start he meeting until there have been people "nominated" (army style!) to carry on. If you only need 2 people and get three names, you can have a vote of the membership to see who serves.

Jan in VA