thoughts on the guild...

Hi there quilty friends.  I've been thinking about the state of our guild for awhile, particularly after Saturday's meeting and Katie's post.  I wanted to just share some thoughts and solicit some feedback.  A few months ago, Katie put out a call to the group to see if anyone was interested in helping to write by-laws.  A few weeks later, Katie, Natalie, Heather, and I got together to review some other guild's blogs and do some writing.  I think it was Heather's husband who said something along the lines of "this seems like a lot of work for people who just want to get together to sew".  At the time, we all sort of laughed  it off, but now I can't help but wonder if he was right.


Using some of the really successful guilds as models, we worked to write by-laws.  We planned to do elections.  Katie did a survey awhile back.  We tried to respond to the survey results (events in DC, MD, and VA, learning type events, social events).  We talked about collecting dues so that we could have speakers.

And still, little has changed.  I would say a well attended event has 10 people.  I think there have been a few exceptions where lots of people came, but honestly, most events have 5-7 people (5-7 awesome, fun people).  I think we can all agree that it would be silly to have by-laws, elections, and dues for a guild of 10-ish people.

Now, don't get me wrong.  I love sewing with you guys.  I enjoy having coffee and talking about fabric, I like sitting on the Lincoln Memorial doing hand sewing, and I love sewing in a room surrounded by each and every one of you.  And here's the thing: that stuff is easy to plan.  I won't even pretend to take credit for it.  Katie and Natalie have done the heroic bulk of planning (I've helped a tad along the way), and I think they'll also admit, those things are easy to plan.  And I think we plan to do those types of things in perpetuity.


It really is hard to imagine that two years ago (give or take because I can't actually remember when we started) none of us had met and I imagine most of us were sewing in isolation and the only sewing "friends" that we had were on the internet.  Now, I like to think that we've made friends and generally enjoy each other's company.  So, I guess the question is: is that enough?


I am starting to think that maybe Heather's husband was right.  It is a lot of work for people who just want to get together to sew.  I mean, I love the learning.  I love the idea of speakers.  I love the idea of swaps.  But what I think I would be really really sad to lose, is the social aspect.  I mean, I can follow tutorials online and do swaps on flickr.  What I can't do online is sit in a room with a bunch of ladies and talk fabric and listen to our machines make some awesome quilts.  I want to grow old doing that.

So what do you think?  Is the social sewing enough?  Will you keep coming if we just hang out and sew?  What do you need from this group?  Seriously, we want to know.