Mkotch

At the beginning of the guild year (Sept.), we are all divided into "teams" that each plan a monthly program, provide refreshments, design a block of the month, etc. The teams are pretty much chosen at random so we get to know each other. At that first meeting, teams sit together and then communicate via email and short meetings when needed after guild meetings. The larger the group, the harder it is to meet people, and some people do tend to be cliqueish.

grannie cheechee

I want to join Jan in VA., but I live in FL.. I belong to a day guild and an evening guild. The day guild is more open to new people than the evening group, and now the evening group has been losing members. We use to have greeters when a new person came (took turns), and that really helped, but now its someone else will do it. I try to talk to a visitor at refreshment break which gives them a chance to ask questions.

QuiltnNan

I love this idea!

toverly

I have always thought of joining any new groups, even Guilds, like going to church. As long as you just go to the meetings, sit there, then go home. You will never meet anyone. Slowly you will look familiar and it will get friendlier but, no one knocks on you door and asks you to come out to play like neighborhood children used to do. It takes getting involved. I have never been in a Guild that doesn't ask for help in something. Whether it's Community Quilts or a new President. If a newcomer gets involved. Friends will come. Quilters are a friendly group on the whole, but each Guild is different. If getting involved doesn't open new doors, move to a different group.

tranum

I’ve belonged 2 years. Membership is about 175. I’m outgoing and tried to get to know others the first few meetings but I didn’t get a warm and cozy return feeling. One in particular was cool to me until she manned a table to set up workers for the quilt show held every 2 years. Then she could see me & waved me over to talk to her. ( I still belong & eventually found good friends. ).

Jordan

Good for you to try and get new members to feel comfortable around current members. I have attended 2 different guilds and as a new member I felt so out of place and shunned to no end. I never went back to either guild. There must be a solution to this problem and it sounds like it is a common one. Hope you get some good results and kudos to you for noticing.

juliasb

About 6 months ago I joined a new quilt guild. Like you, I didn't know where to begin. The first meeting was awkward but the second meeting I jumped right in and ask if I could sit with a group that I had noticed to be very comfortable with each other. The following month I sat with another group and so on I am still 'invading' a different group each month. I have alway been welcomed and am making many new quilting buddies and friends. We have had a couple new people join since I did and I wasted no time to insure she sat with one or another group. To take the lead and place a newbie with a group it a great welcoming activity. You can just take the lead and go for it.

nativetexan

I left one group because while it was fun when sitting at the table playing a game or looking at the table with things everyone brought to give away or trade and any quilts brought, when that was done the ladies always split into two groups chatting. I've not been good at trying to get into a chat going on. hate being ignored.(even at work) so after three times of that, i quit going back.
more politeness is a good thing. who knows what friend you may make by just recognizing they are actually there. good luck and have fun!

Dina

I don't know if this might help any, but we wanted our new members and old members to interact more, and one thing we did was start a Free Table. The idea is to bring scraps from quilts, like orphan blocks, and offer them free. We thought it might encourage folks to interact over the table, sharing ideas and searching for something they might like. I think it has worked pretty well. At least it has folks speaking to more than just their favorite friends. If no one takes what you brought to give away, you are supposed to take it home with you. That works most of the time...

Dina

Iceblossom

One of the guilds I belonged to was good at the mentoring and "outreach" sort of things. We all have different talents and skills, I'm easy going with both beginning quilters and people I don't know so if they needed to find someone at the last minute, it was often me. And from there, I could lead people to someone else so if your main interest is in heirloom sewing, maybe my friend Lynnae over here would be someone for you to meet. The guild also required that you work the show, and one meeting a year (we were large). Working the meeting could be setting it up and starting the coffee, or the take down, or the front door which was a greeting position. We were also required to wear our name badges to meetings, that did help and while we had a standard pattern for the badge, the fabrics were our own and people also added in some techniques and that helps say something.

We had one guild leader who was just a lot of fun, she was also an early childhood specialist and I think used some of her same techniques on both her unruly children and unruly guild. More than once (and it was to mix up people) she had variations on "seat bingo" where we took a button from a jar, and had small group activities based on the color of button we picked. So say there were 4 stations demonstrating something, yellow over here, red, over here, and blue over there. I was always just fine, but yes, some of the people didn't want to break up their visiting.

I found it really hard to get into small group for group projects, part of that is I do prefer to press my seams open but I would do the other way if I had to. Getting into a small group that meets your personal needs is hard, and back then I was a working single mother and really all I had available was the weekends or evenings. What I found was almost all of the people who came to the guild monthly sewalongs/free workshops/donation things were like me and didn't have a small group to belong to for whatever reasons plus those amazing regulars who do everything and anything and are a marvel to behold!

Some of us due to schedules or life situations or whatever can't always attend things at particular points. When I was a working single mother and my son was old enough, I could do evenings after work but I didn't want to do that too often. Otherwise I only had weekends. Now that I'm not working but my vision is going bad, I can't drive at night so I can do days but not nights.

That's the long way of suggesting having some activity with a common purpose, like a donation project, on a weekend if your usual time is weekdays, or evening if you are usually days and see who comes.

Once people meet a bit, they mix a bit more. We as guild members need to do our part in terms of part of being good members. If there is someone you really to love to visit with but only see them at guild, go ahead and see if maybe there is another time the two (or however many) of you can get together. Some people though, they want to belong to a club and to them that means "exclusive". I'm the inclusive type, quilters come in all styles of art and life and are typically some pretty wonderful people.