I am a member of a brand new quilting guild. Some how I managed to be put in charge of programs. Mind you, I have only
been to two meeting of any guild! Hopefully you gals can give me some ideas of programs.

Any help will be greatly appreciated!

get members to demo what they are currently doing, have members bring first and last made quilts in for a quilt show at the meeting. Ask local quilt stores about doing demo's. Have a sew in and make charity quilts

This happened to me!! I asked for help and got it. We did many of thequiltersink's suggestions. We also did a "demo day" where people signed up to demo some part of quilting and the rest of the members went around and sampled what we had to teach - that was a fun day.

thequilterslink had great suggestions and we have done that at our guild.

If it is a new guild you probably do not have the funds to bring in a "professional" speaker. But you may cut costs by checking with other guilds in the area and share a speaker's travel or workshop. But check in your local area there may be someone you don't have to pay travel. Is it taught at a local university or community college. Maybe one of the teachers there would do a trunk show or speak on a topic.

Our guild's main money maker is an opportunity quilt. You may have a sewing to make one for your guild to sell raffle tickets.

Out guild did a slide show where everyone sent in pictures of their sewing spaces....That was very entertaining.

Maybe one of the local sewing shops would do a presentation on machine maintenance.

Just thoughts. Good luck.

Our little guild does a variety of things
We do a mystery quilt every year or so. One of our members gives "clues" every month (usually for four months) as to what our homework will be. We cut and sew according to the "clues" and at the final meeting, we put our homework parts together to see what the quilt will look like. We don't know till that last day just exactly what we have created.

Sometimes we have a guest speaker or a trunk show. For one months' presentation, we asked a sewing machine repairman to talk about trouble shooting and machine maintenance and give us tips about how to clean and oil our machines.

We also schedule "sew in" days to just get caught up.

we whowed Georgia Boneteels "Greate American Quilt" at one meeting.
Do a musical Chairs demo night. Set up several tables with someone demonstrating a technique. Allow a certain number of minutes and blow the whistle and let the participants move to the next table.
Somewhere on the internet there is a site for Quilt Games. Play Left Right Center for fat quarters.
Look into the Hoffam Challenge clothing for a fashion show.
I don't know what the cost is now but might be within your budget.

We have a small guild here in town - we also have a huge one as well that I felt was too impersonal so I started a small guild.

It is less than a year old but we are starting to get pretty active.

We are having Sewing Saturdays where you can bring a project and sew. Right now it is held at our clubhouse in my neighborhood but we're moving so the Sewing Saturday is going to have to move too. We might move it to one of our local fabric stores that will rent out the room and we'll split the cost of it to attend.

We are also going to start having a workshop every other month or so. We're all going to work on the same project together and see how everyone's look when we are all done. It should be really fun. Our first one will be in September.

At every meeting one of us will demo a tool, ruler, shortcut to a quilt block, etc. It has been very popular so far... although last month my Lazy and Lovin' it demo went sour lol. I had no problems making my block at home but in person I just floundered! It's okay. It was my first flop. I'll try to redeem myself with the square in a square ruler demo for September or October. Sadly right now I'm about the only one who does demos but on occasion someone else does.

Find a prolific quilter in your area and ask her to do a "trunk show". This would mainly be just the quilter showing off her many quilts and telling the story of each, sort of like a mini quilt show.

My guild holds a yearly challenge, the finish of which is the program at one of our monthly meetings. The challenge can be to use a certain focus fabric, or to use specific shapes, or to use certain colors. The quilter follows the guidelines, which are announced at the beginning of the year, and makes a quilted item. At the end of the challenge (October or November), all the projects are displayed in our meeting room and the members vote for their favorites. The three top winners are given prizes, and usually every participant gets some little token. It's really a lot of fun.