I was just recently elected to the Board of Directors of our local Quilt Guild. We are looking to freshen up our meetings with some fun and exciting things to keep members interested. Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions you would like to share? I would appreciate any help you could give us.....Thanks sew much!!

encourage show and tell---the good the bad +the ugly---our guild tried to theme our monthly s+t --- star quilts meallion quilts etc---it failed people want to show what they are working on just finished or just found-----presidents encouragement award [a gift of threads/fabric]---have a suggestion box---many heads work better
a question box---we then all learn from /or input into an answer

Never thought of a suggestion box....thanks! We just discussed trying the show and tell themes..I guess we'll see if it works with this group. We did fashion shows but they don't want that anymore...this is a tough group. Thanks for your ideas...we are ready to try just about anything at this point :thumbup:

CONGRATULATIONS!

We have fat quarter draws. You bring a fq & get a ticket then if there are more then 15 we spilt it into 2 draws the winners get the stack of fq's. It goes over well. We give them themes as well. We gave members a questionnaire to see what they wanted.

The guild I used to belong to did the FQ draw too. It was a popular one. They also did a book raffle. The guild would buy a nice book or someone in the guild would donate one. They sold tickets on the book for 50 cents each or 3 for $1. They drew a ticket for the winner. BOM are also popular. You pick a pattern and color scheme. Then they get 1 ticket for each block. If they had more than 20 blocks they split the blocks. We also made name tags that were mini quilts like the size of a coaster. The guild put together a kit to make them and sold the kits for I think $3. If you didn't wear your name tag to the meeting you got fined..I think the fine was a quarter. We also did an "ugly" quilt contest. They gave a FQ packet to the winner.
Good luck and have fun. crafty_linda_b

Our show & share is a huge part of our guild meetings - for the last 2 years our S&S convenor has organized this so the guild donates $1 and she donates a matching $1 for each person showing an item (she doubles her donation for all new members sharing). This convenor also has a sewing/embroidery/thread shop. The donations go to 'Operation Eyesight'.

One of the very fun things we are doing this year - organizing a 'Sewing Room Tour'. Like house tours at Christmas, but member sewing rooms! Everything from studios to closets.

Enjoy your new posting!

Showcase the talent within. So often we think we have to have a guest speaker from quite a distance to have a good program and it just isn't so. We have incredibly talented members within our guilds. Have a member's night and invite 2 or 3 members to present a mini trunk show. You will be amazed at what some of your own members have accomplished and haven't shared with the guild. It's even more interesting if they can show quilts right from the beginning of their quilting up to the current time. Our guild has enjoyed these nights more than bringing in another speaker. Quite often these evenings lead to requests for a workshop led by one of our own presenters to share some of these skills.

Thank you!!

Love it!! Thanks for the idea!