Sounds nice at first, but what if you have a full time job, a family, church, and other interests and obligations? You'd be screwed. My friend Cindi tried to join a guild several years ago, but they were only active during business hours and she worked full time. In my opinion they did that on purpose - kept it very clique by refusing to have participation options for evenings and weekends.

I like the idea of opening signups to members only first. Easy enough to do. The guild in my area opens retreats and classes to members first and at reduced rates. Then if they still have availability, they open it up to the general public and charge a higher rate.

I hear what you are saying Peckish, and that is why I think that limiting points is a good idea.

The OPs issue is that these are members, on paper at least. They are registered and paid their dues but do not interact or help further the guild's interests. It takes work and effort to put on successful events, it can be a joy but you can also feel like you are taken advantage of. Those non-active guild people could put together a retreat themselves but it is easier to let someone else do the work.

Life isn't fair. For me as a working single mom with no family support and limited finances, I could barely go to monthly meetings and couldn't ever go on retreats or take classes or whatever special events for the most part. When I was able to do a day trip to Portland or whatever, it was special, and it was more for the fun than my limited financial purchasing power. Simply couldn't afford the time away from my child or the financial costs. Now that I am no longer working, I can do day things, but because of my vision issues I can't do night things. So it goes. I'm lucky I found a daytime weekly sewing group for company. It isn't a guild, it doesn't fit all my needs but I am grateful that they welcomed me in.

Most guilds have to decide between meeting during the day or evening. If they meet during the day, they are not available to quilters who work, and those are often younger members. I suspect though that there are far more older quilters who can't drive at night, so there's no one right answer. One of the guilds I belonged to in Oregon, the Midvalley Quilt Guild that met in Salem, had both night and morning meetings. The morning meeting attendance was by far the largest, probably 7 or 8 times greater than the evening attendance. But that was a very large guild with enough members to have leadership positions for both morning and night.

The guilds around here do have requirements for members (pay dues, sell or buy raffle tickets, help with guild activities like the quilt show, etc.) but the only one that seems to be actively monitored is paying dues. I think it's fair to give first dibs on retreat spots to the people who show up and help out. I'm not sure how well points would work, not having seen it in action, but it's something to think about.

Hmmm. Makes me wonder WHY they don't participate more. Has anyone asked them?

same reason only 10% of people on fourms ever post. There are lurkers and there are actives :)
When we lived in Portland Oregon their guild had a day meeting and a night meeting, it was wonderful.
Here, only nights 7 PM, and they aren't interested in anything else whatsoever. I know, I've asked a number of times.

The points system feels like Hall Monitor to me. On the other hand who decides what is active and what isn't. Someone warming a chair every meeting who never speaks, never volunteers, are they more valuable than someone who pays their dues to support the guild even though they know they can't attend meetings? Might be a bit judgemental to say they only join to go to retreats. Retreats and classes are usually weekends. Something to think about.

The quilt group at my church has started to do a day session and also an evening session on quilt day. Of course it the oldsters that come to the morning and younger folk who go to the evening session. I used to attend the guild meetings in person but because of health issues during covid I could only attend via zoom. Unfortunately, the zoom meeting is no longer available, but the health issues persist, So I just pay my dues and try and keep up with the news. However, I did participate by donating fabric for mask making and sure would be willing to donate more fabric. When I was working, my work interfered with the scheduled meetings so I had to miss meetings and really could not volunteer for some things.

I wonder if the guild is missing an opportunity here! You could definitely hold a larger retreat at a bigger venue. If your regulars want to gather at the old venue for a private retreat (not one held though the guild) I would do that.

Not only will the larger retreat generate a bigger profit, but it will go a long way to integrating new members, even if they are not meeting-goers, into the guild and build relationships. Once they make friends in the guild, they are far more likely to attend meetings, volunteer and just generally lend a hand.

One of the enduring problems in one guild I attend has been exclusivity and cliques. Some members have been "more equal" than others and it has turned off many quilters, who find the guild cold and unwelcoming. If you limit access to guild events, you will accidentally, and perhaps for the best reasons, create an atmosphere of exclusivity and clique-i-ness.

Others have made excellent points about day vs. night meetings, and the limitations many of us face in terms of attending weekend events, events during business hours, events that are not in some way accessible. Guilds need to think about events that appeal to particular demographics, and come up with a suite of events that has "something for everyone".

Our guild mission now is to welcome people in and make events as inclusive as we possibly can. A bigger tent! And a far more positive energy.

We stopped the join just to go to class or retreat . Classes and retreats are open to members of at least three month membership to get first choice of registering and all registrations for any event are in person at meetings.

THIS.

This is what I was trying to get across, only Kalama is much more eloquent than I.

I've held every office and position in our guild over the years. Now I am vice president for the fourth time. The same members do all the work, their job titles change but they seem to be the ones who volunteer to fill a needed office. Many volunteer to help but never show up or make a big mess of their responsibility. We know which members not to rely on when they volunteer to do anything. It takes a lot of work and planning to have an interesting guild program, class, workshop or event. It's fine to not come to meetings or participate but pay the dues and send money for this and that sometimes but that does not keep the guild going. Then have complaints that the guild does not support all the members from those that don't contribute anything not even a show and tell is disheartening.