I just had to wade in on this one. When I joined our guild 15 years ago there were around 35 members with quite a high percentage attending daytime meetings. Now there are close to 85 members with about the same number attending monthly on a regular basis. But you never can tell until the meeting day. We have changed locations four times to my knowledge because we outgrew our location. We are at that point again, but don't have another place we can afford. It is really frustrating because such a small percentage actually help, run for office, show and tell and so on, but we have to plan ahead just in case they decide to come. The guild seriously discussed limiting membership to 50 a few years ago, but it was voted down by the same people who make such a small contribution. Of course those people are there with bells on for a party or free class. It is very frustrating. I've gotten to the point that I would rather get together with a small group of like-minded quilting friends and sew, visit, share and so on without all the extra work.

I belong to a large guild in Spokane that only meets 4 times a year. They have a meeting that starts at noon and a second meeting in the evening. Officers stay the same, guest speaker does a different speech for each meeting - makes those of us who don't have jobs working for others that can attend the day meeting want to stay for the evening meeting. There are around 400 at the day meeting and probably 250-300 at the night meeting. The guest speakers also give a class on Friday and Saturday - two different classes - following our Thursday meetings. Works great.

I belong to a bee group in Florida (Oh how I miss them!) - there are 7 of us who meet weekly at one member's house (she has a dedicated building for quilting with her longarm, huge cutting table her hubby made, and a table large enough for all of us to sit and sew at) every week where we sew, go out to lunch and return to sew again. Different political and religious view points, different backgrounds, levels of education, bound together in the friendship of quilting. No arguments or fighting, always willing to lend a hand in a quilting project (or anything else, for that matter), never a catty remark about another member, just a wonderful, deep friendship with other women who share the same love of quilting. They are the sisters of my heart.

I'm not sure why you think there is a limit to membership. Isn't it just as easy, and more cost effective, to have a program for 200 hundred members as 50? I can see limiting workshop numbers, but the more members, the more $$ in dues to run the organization, donate quilts, hold shows, etc. Plus, how would you divide your members? There's bound to be hurt feelings from people who are "ousted" from the original group. Is it worth it? Our guild has smaller sub groups who get together from time to time, but we all come together once a month and keep up with what we're all doing.

I was going to talk about the Salem guild, because that is the one I belong too. I go to the evening meeting because I work during the day. The evening meeting can be 30-40 or 70, it just depends if there is a good speaker. I have heard the morning meeting can get pretty crowded at those meetings. There is one joint meeting, an evening potluck in the summertime. And the whole guild works on the biennial quilt show (odd # years) and the biennial quilt college (even # years) when you have the chance to meet people from the other group. There are also a number of small groups that share projects and meet on their own schedule. A couple of years ago, the guild changed meeting places, which mandated changing meeting night (due to availiblity) but it is a larger and nicer facility. They did have a lot of trouble getting evening officers this year and said they might cancel evenings. That would be the end of my membership. I have never had a guild office, not that I wouldn't some day but I am currently committee to other organizations.

While we're discussing guilds, I have a question I would like to see discussed. Have any of you experienced problems within the guild setting? Curious to see if this is common.

This sounds exactly like the format of mine minus the sank, twice a year we have a pot luck / summer and for the holidays...

dunster,
"My avatar is a Diamond Log Cabin Star quilt." Is this your original pattern or one that can be bought?

I belong to a Guild of about 160 that has both a morning and an evening meeting. We have one set of officers, which does limit who can serve to those that can make both meetings pretty regularly, but they do cover for one another too.
Our programs usually mean a speaker needs to commit to both meetings. Which means that if the speaker is not a Guild member, that some members of the Guild need to treat to lunch, squire around to the local LQS, antique stores, etc. But we have a group that work after the morning meeting on community service projects and sometimes the speaker will stay and participate.

Most of our workshops are held at separate times than the meeting/programs. I'd say that about 60-70 members attend the mornings and 30-40 in the evening--so like all organizations, there are about 25% of the members that are not very active in participation, but still enjoy the "drop in" affiliation. I think that anytime you are a new member of any organization, you have to make an effort to get involved in order to get to know people--smaller size groups mean it can usually result in knowing everyone fairly quickly, but that doesn't mean larger groups are less friendly.

and larger guilds can muster the resources (both $$ and PEOPLE) to tackle big service projects, shows, etc. So both have advantages--it's all in how you look at it.

I actually stopped attending my guild meetings because of the negative, catty garbage that was going on. I was not the only one, a small group of us now get together once a month for a sit and sew. It's great!