dottiemae

I know I am new here and I do not belong to a guild. Cashs_mom makes a good point. If you limit the age to 18 and over and I understand some conversation may be more on the adult side, however, what happens to the serious 13 -18 yr old boys and girls who love quilting and or want to learn? I do not know if there is a way to do a child based class while the adults are doing there lectures and quilting together. If the goal is to come together to share and learn, then shouldn't serious teenagers be welcomed? I understand the 5 yr old who runs around and just gets into everyones stuff and is a complete disturbance as 5 yrs get bored way to quickly. Like I said, I am new to all of this.

Jan in VA

What a conundrum!
It seems to me the best way to handle the issue, or expected issue, is to address all noise and disruptions at meetings....talking, ringing cell phones, moving about, disruptive children, etc. We use a bell to draw attention when things get annoying, for example.
We had a very few young children at some meetings a few years ago, but a close friend of the mother's mentioned that she thought other members were disturbed by the moving around and talking to mom. The mom "got it" and only came to meetings after that when she had made arrangements for the kids.

Jan in VA

Tartan

We have a paid membership. Any other people are guests and there is a charge which can be put towards paying your membership if you decide to join. I doubt the mothers would pay to have their children as guests. If they do, at least the money can go to smooth some ruffled feathers as door prizes.

Pennyhal

I would make a change in memberhip rules. While it would ruffle some feathers at first, it would solve any future problems. While I understand why women bring their young children to a meeting, but men would never think of bring their young children to a golf course to teach them how to play golf.

I would set the minium age for membership to 10. I taught school for many years and often taught the kids to make quilts. That included using a sewing machine and iron. Ten years old were great at this. No one sewed over their fingers or burned their hands. There mothers need to be teaching them and not expect other members to do it for them.

To make the change, whoever the people are who "run" the meetings need to get together and decide how to change the membership rules to fix this problem. They can do it by sending a letter to everyone by mail explaining why the membership rules need to be changed. Include a written ballot and an addressed envelope (no stamps) that can be mailed back or delived at the next meeting. At the next meeting, count the ballots and announce the results. No late ballots accepted. That way it can be a secret ballot, no one will feel uncomfortable with open voting at a meeting, and the "offenders" can not get into a verbal debate about it. First, make sure the membership rules do not restrict voting by mail.

quiltingshorttimer

Guess I'm in a bit of a different camp on this issue--or should I say issues? Ours is a very large guild with monthly meetings that draw about 60 people. We have an expectation that the monthly meeting --both the business portion and the program, be easily heard by all members. Since some of our members have difficulty hearing, we have no problem of reminding about no cell phones going off (if you need to take that call, then please step out of the meeting room) no loud side conversations or other disruptions--including children. We don't say no children because as someone else said, during the summer we often have g-mas or moms that have to bring a child or forget about quilting. As long as the child is quiet, it's not a problem and everyone is respectful of that.

We do have a paid membership and we WANT children to become quilters--so we have a reduced fee membership for them. We also have a 1 day workshop in the summer to make a kid-friendly project (potholders, tote bag, pillow, etc); have had a kids' corner at the annual show (usually with the child making a take-home project and also a charitable project) and jr. category at the show; and have several jr. members--as young as about 9. In our beginner classes we've had several 4-8th graders--they do fine.

I guess what I'm saying is that you seem to have 2 issues--noise/disruption vs children being involved. Our workdays are for members only--so if you enforce that with paid memberships, doubt those moms will pay for their child in order to drag them along! if your officer board is in agreement about it being a problem, perhaps the first step would be to have an officer speak privately with the guilty parties and explain the concerns.

toverly

Our Guild doesn't limit the age but we do have a few young mothers that occasionally bring disruptive children like age 3 or 4. We grin and bear it those young mothers have a lot of energy and contribute to the group. Sometimes young girls attend with their grandmothers. I would hate to think that they would not be able to come because of a "rule".

patski

I doubt that you can legally do that. It would be discrimination. I just think if a child is present the parent needs to keep the kid with them at ALL times.

nativetexan

it can be an insurance thing too. not covered to deal with children around all the machines, scissors, etc. and just plain running around not being supervised.

lovelyl

Thank you all for your thoughtful suggestions. Yes, the board thinks it is a problem and asked the bylaws committed to come up with changes to address the issue. I think some members are afraid parents will just drop off their children and not stay with them. So maybe something should be added to the bylaws that states "all members below the age of ____ must be accompanied and supervised by an adult paid member...
Just trying to figure out a solution that doesn't exclude or offend anyone.

mjpEncinitas

When the average age of the quilting community is in their 70s you are VERY lucky to have this problem. I would consider trying to do anything the guild can to make it possible for these younger quilters to attend.