Help please: Getting quilt members to mix w/newbies
 

I am interested in learning new ways of getting quilt group members to mix more during meetings and projects. As a former new member it was hard for me to meet long-time members who preferred to stay in their comfortable social groups.

Our quilt group has recently grown and I would like to find techniques (other than games) to help the new members and long-time members to mix more easily without it seeming forced.

Thanks so much for your suggestions.

when/if you have demos, instead of letting members go with their friends, have them count off to the number of demo stations and they will be able to make comments on the demo.... starting conversations. btw, does everyone wear a name tag? that really helps. in one of my past guilds, members had to put a quarter in the jar if they were not wearing their name tags.

Common problem in group settings, not sure I have any answer....

If, at any point in the meeting you have to split into groups, give out numbers with 1, 2 ,3 or 4 on them (depending on the size of the group)as people are seated, and then when the groups form the members go to the group for which they have the number. This keeps friends from going to the same group everytime together and hopefully allows new people to meet.

Watson

We have this problem, too, and want all members to enjoy the experience. Fortunately we are a small group and it's easier to do. Some good suggestions here.

It is that way in our guild also and I try to sit in a different area to try to get to meet new people. We have about 108 members.

Our guild has a meeting ambassador who introduces new members to other members before the meeting and during the break. It's a large guild, so new members can go unnoticed otherwise.

I agree that it's important to make new members (and visitors) feel welcome and to involve them in guild activities. However I also understand that many people go to the meeting specifically to see their friends and catch up with them. Trying to break up these groups of friends during the meetings can backfire and make everyone unhappy.

our's is a guild that encompasses a mostly rural area although over 150 in guild (but average about 100 actively involved) Our greeter tries to introduce visitors and new members to a regular member. We also have a large, fluid group that goes out to lunch afterward and always try to include visitors. Most of our new members join via our free(for the price of membership) beginner quilt classes and we have veteran members mentor them in the classes--that way they get to know about a dozen well.

Our guild has Mentors.
Each new member is given a mentor who will be sure they know all the meeting dates and topics, answer questions, go to lunch with them after meetings, keep them informed about any quilty things they are interested in, etc.. They also teach or tutor on occasion. The Mentee then always has someone in the guild who knows them, can sit with them, introduce them, inform and encourage them, for the whole first year of their membership. During the spring of each year, Mentors hold a Mentor/Mentee luncheon where they introduce each mentee to other Mentees by giving a bit of that person's history in quilting and how they found the guild.
I think this is the best guild program I've come across in 35 years of guild memberships all across the country.