I belong to local guild and normally most of the guild members show that they have respect when someone is speaking or the President of guild is speaking. We have quite a few members in our guild that are hard of hearing, so any type of chit-chat, other than the speaker talking, makes it really difficult to hear. I would just suggest, since U are the President, a gentle reminder right before the meeting begins, would be good. :mrgreen:

I am the parliamentarian at one guild and when people are being rude, I "rise to a point of order" to remind them that someone else has the floor. I can guarantee that you need to be blunt and no nonsense or they will spoil every meeting.

When you see how rude they are, you absolutely know why their children act the way they do at school. froggyintexas

I wish I could say it were those with hearing problems that are the talkers - it is not them. These are the first ones to ask, "What was that? I didn't hear what was said about ....". Makes me want to scream. If they would just shut up long enough they wouldn't have to ask the question. I don't think subtle hints will work since shushing them doesn't seem to do the trick. I like the tazer idea and can just picturing the reaction to the water pistol keeps me smiling. So many good ideas to try. I almost wish I was taking on the assingment earlier than July. ALmost!

our guild is quite large, and we have a bell ringer, which works very well, and no one is offended.

We've had similar problems in our WW meeting. So, finally, a few of us have started shush-ing and others pick it up and the loud chit-chat has settled down. That being said, If I had to sit thorough a 30 minute WW meeting wtihout any interaction, I wouldn't come back.

Guild meetings are different, especially when you have a 'guest' speaker. However, perhaps some of those that complain about the chit-chat start shushing the others.

Unfortunately, we are used to talking over the TV and most people forget that the guest speaker, or president, or whoever, is not on TV. One must just keep hammering about good manners. Perhaps one could draft a "Miss Manners" booklet about rules and regulations and manners when a member of a quilt guild?

Dog house moms sound like the best ideal, very tactful. Then if this doesn't work ask for a break, because everyone is on a time table now days the meetings will take longer, when complaints start and they will; just sweetly menition the reason for the extra long meetings is the excessive talking in the audience.You can remind the members that they all want to hear what the speakers are saying so we all need to listen.May work! :thumbup:

Our new president ran into this problem when she took over as well and she gently informed the group that due to the size of the chapter, we all need to be polite and considerate of others around us. When someone is speaking even if we're not interested we need to be polite and remain quiet so those interested can hear. Also we all need to exercise patients and wait our turn to address the group or speaker with questions. She asks to complete the meeting portion in a timely fashion and then opens up to the floor for questions. Members raise their hands, are called upon to address their questions. If there are too many, the group is referred to a meeting area off in a corner or to the side of the room where they can further discuss - this is for projects that only a few are participating in and the rest of us don't need our time taken up while they hash things out. It's working very well although she does periodically have to interrupt the group and remind them to be polite and courteous to others so we can have the meeting in a timely fashion and get on with our evening activities. It seems to be common with dealing with women.

I found in our guild meeting that the chit chatters were usually people who couldn't hear very well (older members). When we hooked up a mike, the problem usually stopped.

In my smaller group. I have to have a heart to heart about twice a year to remind them that they are disturbing the others and rude to the one who is doing the demo etc.

Our last guild president used a small cow bell to ring when the noise level became unbearable - and we have a small guild. Now I find as the chairperson for an event that when I hold my committee meetings, I have the same problem --- I use the bell also! Rude people are not fun!