Guild member retention during covid
 

Our guild is looking for ways to encourage interaction other than through internet means. I'd love to hear what other groups are doing to maintain the personal interaction while socially distancing. After a summer break we will resume regular meetings through Zoom.

Looking forward to your responses.

We're still doing a block swap and a block of the month. There is a twist to the BOM in that anyone who wants to can join a lottery and mail a block to the month's winner. We're also doing a mystery quilt. Few people seem interested in Zooming.

We meet in an open area, a covered table area in the park. It's big and enough tables we can spread out. Some bring chairs and set where they want. It has worked great as our meeting are now mostly show and tell. No classes, demos, free table, etc.


My guild has 127 members with about 60 active members. So far not one has tested positive or have had any family members test positive. We had one member pass away since the shut down but it was another health matter. Several have had major surgeries, many are keeping their grandkids, and some still are working. We have sew groups in our guild that meet in smaller groups to have lunch and catch up with each other. It's not the same as is was but we aren't isolated.

The guild most of the members of my small group belong to is still meeting, formerly they met at a large senior center but that has been closed to them. Think they are out side in a church parking lot currently.

We are discussing what to do with the small group when the rain and cold start, we are currently meeting outside. In the old days we were shoulder to shoulder around a large dining room table. I don't know if one of the ladies will ever feel comfortable in that sort of environment again, even masked. Our hostess also needs to take extra precautions due to her husband's health. From my understanding, our group size would be allowed at the library when and if the meeting rooms open again, but that regular groups are discouraged and you can't reserve the room for more than 3 times at a time, with a limit on how far in advance they take the reservations.

We do have a local park with covered shelters and parking semi-nearby, that might help but it would be pretty miserable on a windy day, not to mention one of the ladies really isn't too walking stable over rough ground.

Last year/early this year I was thinking of renting the party room at the local bowling alley on a weekly basis, opening it up for craft night on my husband's league night. That's not allowed to us at the current time either and currently restaurants aren't allowed to sit people from different households at the same table so maybe we could get 6 in the room each at a table...

We meet in a church on the third Monday of the month. With respect to the church's requirements during this time, meeting are limited to 40-45 members, plus the essential board. To attend meetings, we must rsvp. There are no tables and chairs are arranged to meet social distancing. While there is a kitchen, we are not bringing in coffee or refreshments. For the time being, we have postponed block exchanges, fat quarter drawing and in house raffles. Show and tell is also different, limited to 4 or less quilts, wall hangings or runners. We submit a short description of the item and our activity director reads it, while the quilter hold up the quilt. Everyone must wear a mask and can bring their own beverage. If one needs to breathe some fresh air, they leave the room. The fun part is you never know what you will find on your chair. It could be a fat quarter, some charms, as in jewelry, or charm squares.

I don't belong to a guild but have a small group of about 6-7 ladies that used to meet in my house and now we have met in a park with social distancing. Everyone brings a lawn chair and mostly show and tell. At least it is a way to visit and get to see each other again.

Our regular meeting room will be available next month for groups of no more then 50. We decided to have a day and evening meeting. Half come during the day and half come at night so there will be less then 25 or so at each meeting on average. No classes or sew days planned. I doubt few of the elderly members will come to the meetings as most relied on car service to come before.

We've been doing Zoom since May and get about 30-45 of the normally active 90 in a guild of 160. While it does help keep us connected, it's not perfect. We do have many that won't Zoom but do spend time on FB so meeting is recorded an others watch that later. We did have a bring your own lawn chair/snack and join in the park in July. August was way too hot around here, but our President is trying to plan an Oct. Meeting outside too. We'll see how that goes--in the Midwest weather can be a big determiner. Our program chair has come up with some ideas that our guild-based as many presenters opted out due to Covid concerns (although our Nov presenter is willing to Zoom). She has also organized smaller groups in round robins for quilts that will be sold at our 2021 show (we are optimistic for vaccines!). Our regular meeting space is still limited to a # that can be at least 6' distanced from each other--which means less than 20. Question for OnebyOne--with your group limiting the # at each meeting are you assigning meeting times to some or turning #26 away at door or ?? We've talked about that but stuck on how to actually limit the meeting size.

At the last executive meeting, it was decided to suspend guild meetings until the New Year. Annual fees will be just over half the regular fee. Newsletters and BOM's will continue on a monthly basis. There are several reasons for not having actual meetings--only 50 people allowed in the whole complex, which would cause great uncertainty to the number of members allowed to attend. The necessity to hire a cleaner at the Guild's expense--as much as $50 for a single meeting. And many many of our members are seniors. We are erring on the side of caution.

Suggestions for keeping the 'flame alive' were more QBA classes--small groups learning a technique from a fellow guild member, people with similar interests meeting in smaller groups, a rather convoluted way of dropping off and picking up bags for our Bag Ladies round robin that has been on hold since last March. Many of the older members do not even have a computer so Zoom is hit and miss. We did have some speakers who offered video trunk shows. We'll see how that goes.