question about quilt guilds on social media
 

Hi there, fellow quilters -

I'm a member of a guild and we're trying to build our membership. I know many guilds use social media (aka Facebook, etc.). My question is this: how does a guild do this and still maintain some privacy/safety for their members. Specifically, no one wants to publicize their phone number, personal information, etc. So - - - how do you do it and still protect guild members' privacy???

Thanks - - -

Being a tad cynical, I'm not sure I'd feel entirely safe posting my phone # on FB no matter what...but you can make 'closed' and 'secret' groups on the service...which allows *some* privacy. Secret groups will not allow the group name to be searchable, and it will not show members' memberships to the group. Closed groups will show who is a member - visible by anyone, but the posts themselves are not visible.

Helpful link: https://www.facebook.com/help/220336...=about_content

Hope that link helps some!

Our group has a closed and private FB page, but we don't post any personal info anyway. Membership rosters with home addresses and phone numbers are distributed via paper. FB is mostly for posting pictures of our activities, quilts we've finished, reminders about meeting dates, times, and places.

We used to have a Yahoo group, but Yahoo was having so many problems with hackers and spoofers, so we moved over to Groups.io.

One of our members got hacked via Yahoo. She received an email saying that she was almost out of space for her photos. She didn't think that was correct, so she clicked the link in the email and logged into her account. Sure enough, she had plenty of space and thought she was fine, until a couple of days later when she couldn't log into her account at all.

The email was a phishing scam. She clicked a link that connected her to a website that looked like Yahoo, but wasn't. As soon as she entered her name and password, the bad guys had access to her account.

Never, never, never click a link in an email!!! If you ever have questions about anything in an email, open a new browser window, manually type in the website address or URL, and log in from there.

The 2 guilds I belong to have web pages. Most of it is available to the public. Then the section with members and their contact info requires a password.

I am opposed to putting membership information on the web, period. Even if protected by group access, even if protected by password. Hackers can still get in if they are persistent. Information that is appropriate for a website includes the guild's meeting place and time, schedule of upcoming speakers and classes, newsletters, etc. My local guild also had the names and email addresses of the key officers. The treasurer received an email from someone claiming to be the guild president, directing her to send a money order (several thousand dollars) to a "vendor." She recognized that this was a scam, and personal email addresses are no longer on our website. Who would have thought that quilt guilds would be the targets of scammers?

My guild has a website and a FB page, but no personal info is posted. It's mostly for an online presence and to show what is going on with the guild. There are no personal email addresses posted. Guild officers have a guild email that is on the website.

Our quilt club has a facebook page. I belonged for a while, but it was too full of redundancy and personal postings. I found it boring and a waste of my time.

The quilt group I belong to is small just word of mouth adds members.

Our group has a website, Facebook page and a Facebook group that is about our retreats. You said you want to build membership and I don't think social media has grown our membership. Social media helps to keep us all informed. Example we have a workshop today and I could not remember when it started. I went to our social media to find out the time. Our guild has grown over the last 10 years from 40 members to 110 members and we have maintained the 110 over the the last 7 or 8 years. I think we grew because of workshops, inviting people to join us and really working hard on making everyone feel important and welcome. We also have a wide variety of quilters who are so open to help each other. Good luck in growing your guild.

I would like to join a guild but I'm not an extrovert and even though the LQS where I shop, chat and quilt have people that belong to guilds, no one has ever ask me to join or visit. Sometimes maybe a simple verbal invite would bring in members.

When joining groups, I've found you pretty much have to be pro-active. Next time you are chatting with a member, ask her about the guild. Tell her you're interested. Then GO.

I live in a large city. A couple of years ago, an employee of a fabric store gave me a bookmark that was laminated and had a nearby quilt guild info on it. It was a surburban group that I had never thought of that was closer to me than the city group. I keep meaning to go visit, but haven't.

It was a good idea and I still have the bookmark. It has a nice photo of GFG done in orange, white and gingham to match.

bkay

All the guilds I belong to have websites. Part of it is public and the member section is private. The websites cost so much a year, a good secure one is not free. You also need someone to be webmaster. An out of date website is useless.
The best way to get new members is to be active in community events. Set up a table at all possible venues and pass out info, have a display of quilts, and be enthusiastic and happy to be there. I see so many groups sitting at their info table looking bored, sullen, and just sit there while the people walk by. Have a simple make and take item or at least the how-to written up to give away. We demo yo yos, folded coasters, self mitering blocks, have the pillowcase in each part of construction to show. We always have interest when we set up a table and have gotten quiet a few new members over the years .

I belong to two guilds that both have FB pages. One used Yahoo groups but none of us could ever get it to work right. The one Guild opted for an open page--meaning all of us can post on it. The other has a closed page and only those designated as administrators can actually new posts (but anyone can reply or comment). Both use the page to encourage new memberships, tell about events, and remind about meeting. Having just been added as an admin on the one so I could promote an upcoming show, I would say it's worth it based on the amount of re-posts so far.

One thing I would add--when you have a closed, admin only page your guild must have someone(s) that are willing to frequent post and tag people. And when that person no longer wants to be in that position, then you need to make a way for them to "hand off" the job graciously.

We do not publish any one person's identifying information.

Our guild has just grown with word of mouth and invitation to other quilters we know. They come as visitors and many then join. Ours has grown to 110-115 and as life happens some with not renew their membership, some die, some move but it has stayed at about that number. We have only a facebook page and that is to show our quilts, no names and our newsletter is emailed and snail mail to those that do not use email, (we still have some that don't).

Ours also has a closed and private FBpage. But no personal information is posted on it. It makes communications about the meetings really easy.

Having lived in many different cities, I just "show up" to a guild meeting; I do not wait to be invited. If I don't feel welcome after a meeting or two, I move on. I think one musr be pro-active.