Originally Posted by Tiffany
Originally Posted by Ripped on Scotch
I am a member of the local guild, last count we had 250 members. Our dues are $35/year. That $ goes towards rental of the church, paying for speakers, books for the library, sewing days for anyone to go to, insurance, post office box, and other things that are used by all the members of the guild. We actually had over 300 at one point so it's now 2 meetings for the 1 guild. We also have a 50/50 draw at the meetings, all the proceeds go to Charity quilts that we make for the community. We also have a dinner at the end of the year where we pay $5 and the guild pays the rest.
I'm actually the VP next year so it should be an interesting time. Our guild asks for volunteers or all the different groups (program, library, show & tell, and Executive) if more then one person volunteers for an Exec position then it goes to a vote but in 5 years it hasn't happened yet. We go through the bylaws every year, present them to the guild and ask for any changes that they want then we take it to an open discussion and have everyone vote a month later so all views can be heard.
Program has to be the hardest because you are choosing who is the speaker every month but I think we do a good job of getting a good mix of things in there. But it's a great way to meet other quilters and learn new techniques!
I love the idea of Program! Right now that job belongs to the guild presidents in my area. You are right, I remember that being the hardest part of my job. Other than that it sounds like our guilds are remarkably alike, except we pay for our building rental fee through the raffle ticket sales. Various shops and members donate plenty of gifts to raffle off and it almost always covers the rental fee. And every other year we raffle off a quilt, part of which goes to charity and part of which goes to fund our educational program, which is how we can afford to get such amazing national teachers in and only charge members $35 a class. 8-)
We have a silent auction at the June meeting because we break for the summer but that money is used for the travel expenses so we can bring in some out of town speakers. We also have 2 other guilds fairly close so if the meetings are in the same week we can split travel costs.