Planning a Virtual Quilt Retreat: a how-to and recap


After a full year of no DCMQG retreats, we decided it was time to give a virtual retreat a try. What IS a virtual retreat anyway, some of us wondered. Does that mean more time spent on Zoom? Who would want that?

Apparently, 63 DCMQG members did! We felt the large number of attendees showed just how eager our members are to get together, to spend more time sewing, and to get a break from everyday life -- even if it means more time spent on screens in their own homes. By popular request, this post will be something of a how-to for other guilds interested in organizing a virtual retreat.

We tried as best as we could to model our virtual retreat after Mid-Atlantic Mod, an annual gathering involving several MQG chapters in the region, and the smaller DCMQG retreats we usually hold twice a year at a nearby retreat center. We were also very inspired by the virtual retreat hosted by our neighbors, the Baltimore MQG (BMQG). Phyliss Jaffe, who has coordinated our in-person retreats for the last several years and proposed going virtual, attended BMQG's virtual retreat and had great things to say about it. BMQG's virtual retreat informed many of our ideas about scheduling activities, such as games and open sewing, and also gave us some ideas of potential sponsors to contact. We shamelessly copied their scavenger hunt, postcard swap, and Friday night make-and-take opener, but as they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery! Thank you, Baltimore, for leading the way! 


Planning
How to start? Pick a date. We started a bit later than we would have liked, but we wanted to have the retreat before spring got into full bloom. The basic info went out about 6-8 weeks before the retreat, first in our weekly email newsletter and then in a separate email to the membership.

Registration
As the other retreats we have been to had a cap on the number of participants, we decided that it would be open to as many as wanted to join in. However, we had a date when we closed registration as it makes it much easier to plan when you have a set number of participants. We thought that we might get 20 or 30 participants to sign up out of the 130 plus people in our guild. In the end, we had 63!

We kept registration simple; members signed up via a Google form and sent us their $20 fee via Paypal. Why just $20? A couple reasons: if we had priced it higher, expectations may have been higher and we weren't sure how things would go, given our short time frame and the fact it was our first virtual retreat. Second, we weren't paying for space, meals, etc. In fact, the only things we did pay for were swag bag items, including materials for make and take projects; some door prizes; and the cost of shipping. The $20 per person was enough to cover all those things and it was perfect: we didn't go over budget or have a surplus.

Keeping Track of It All
Spreadsheets are your friends. Speaking of friends, find someone or two someones to team up with you. Although we started with a few separate spreadsheets, we wound up with one with many pages. It helped to keep all of the information organized while the planners continued to update it. Some sheets we referred to a lot within the Google spreadsheet were lists of attendees and their contact info, costs, door prize items, sponsors to contact (with their contact info), and a draft schedule.

 
To theme or not to theme
Initially we were going to have a theme, spring break or travel, but as we got deeper into planning the theme seemed less important and a bit restrictive (since we were constantly trying to brainstorm travel-themed swag and activities). Our guild just wanted to socialize and sew together....so I guess that ended up being our theme!

Make and Take Projects
Someone who had been to another virtual retreat loved the sew-alongs, and the sew-alongs at Mod were always fun. How many sew-along projects for us? We decided to do three: one hand sewing project and two with machines. The handsewing would be the first night as it might be more conducive to chatting and meeting new people. We wanted to be sure that there were no barriers for people joining into the sewalongs, so we chose ones that we could kit up and include all materials in the goodie bags. The three we chose were a felt hummingbird, a fabric tray, and a notebook cover (a graph paper notebook was one of the swag bag items). It turns out the Make and Take projects were extremely popular, and many of the people who participated said those were their favorite part. The folks who wanted to work on their own projects could sew together in a different Zoom room.

Swap
Our in-person retreats often involve a swap, and we decided to do the same for the virtual retreat. Quilt postcards are popular right now, and for good reason: they are quick and everyone loves receiving snail mail, especially when pandemic life can get so monotonous! If not too floppy, they can go straight in the mail with a stamp or two -- no envelope necessary. In order for them to be mail-able, they need a stiff interfacing. We gave each attendee who was participating in the swap a piece of Fast2Fuse fusible in their swag bag so they could use it in their postcard. Of course, this meant that swag bags had to be picked up at least a week in advance of the retreat, so that required a bit of extra coordination.  Check out #dcmqgpostcardswap for more photos of the fabulous postcards.

Sponsors
Our in-person retreats do not usually have much in the way of sponsorships, since the real treat is sewing with friends in a beautiful location. However, MidMod is famed for having amazing door prizes from sponsors, so we decided we'd give it a try. The Baltimore MQG also had an impressive list of sponsors for their virtual retreat. We reached out to over 50 potential sponsors and were amazed at the generosity of so many companies in the quilting industry. Maybe half of them responded, but we thought that was still pretty good! We also reached out to our guild's business members and offered to buy some prizes. Some generously donated prizes as well, something we did not expect or ask for since we know it's tough to make it as a small business! A few others also offered coupons that we could use in our digital goody bags (yes, we ended up with enough coupons and other digital items that we could email participants a digital goody bag). Thanks to our generous sponsors, we had enough door prizes for every attendee.

Goody Bags
Understandably, it was easier for sponsors to donate a door prize or two than goody bag items for 63 people! For this reason we ended up buying most of the items in the goody bags. Each bag contained the materials for the three make and take projects (including 1.5 yards of fabric that could be used in the projects) and a variety of other items, like patterns, a graph paper notebook, washi tape, binding clips, snacks, and sunglasses (in keeping with the original vacation theme!).

The logistics of getting goody bags to 63 people all over the DC area (and beyond!) were a little tricky. We asked five members who were attending the retreat and live in different regions to be pick-up locations and then assigned each attendee to the pick-up location closest to them. We also mailed bags to a few members who live outside the area.

The Retreat Itself
We used Zoom, since that's the videoconferencing service our guild has been using for the past year. Most of our members are at least somewhat familiar with it at this point since we've used it for most of our meetings. Of course, we had never hosted that many people for such an extended time so there was certainly some learning that happened along the way!

One function that's really useful on Zoom is Breakout Rooms. This was important for Make and Take projects, since only about half the group at a time participated. Learning how to open breakout rooms and assign participants takes some practice, so if you're planning one of these we recommend a practice run with a few volunteers.

The Make and Take projects were very popular. A few other members tested the patterns ahead of time and we asked some to lead or co-lead the projects. It seemed that the people who did any of the sew-alongs did all of the sew-alongs. And most of the people that started the sew-along stayed online to finish the project. Although we expected that the handsewing of the felt bird would not be finished in one sitting, those that started, finished. There are now a bunch of felt hummingbirds flitting around the DC area! 


Thanks to Dolores, Phyliss and Linda for the photos of what they made.

We also had a few games. The first one we did on Friday, and it doubled as an icebreaker. We assigned groups of 7 people to different breakout rooms, then each had to go down a list of questions. Each group would get a point for each person who could answer a question, e.g., "owns a Featherweight," "has had a quilt in QuiltCon," etc. Also on Friday night we emailed everyone a list of things to find for a Scavenger Hunt, an activity Phyliss enjoyed at BMQG's virtual retreat. On Saturday morning, participants had to email us the number of items they had in their homes and a photo for backup. On Saturday we played Quilt Bingo (just look this up -- lots of samples on the internet). Bingo cards were printed and included in goody bags. Naturally, all the games were another opportunity to give out prizes!

Some things we'd like to do better or differently next time
  • Do a better job of sticking to a schedule so folks know what to expect when. We did email everyone a schedule but occasionally deviated for various reasons.
  • Assign a leader to each breakout room (especially when half the group is doing a Make and Take project). Folks didn't seem to mind too much, but there were times when no one was talking. It would be good to have a volunteer to have a list of conversation topics to keep the chitchat going.
  • Set a deadline for the swap so everyone will (hopefully) make theirs and send before the retreat!
  • Have a better idea of what volunteer helpers will do. We made a Sign-Up Genius for "jobs," most of which were shifts to be a Zoom Assistant or Door Prize Coordinator. We appreciate everyone who signed up and apologize that we didn't have much for you to do! The Door Prize coordinators were not really needed, it turned out. And some of the shifts for Zoom Assistants were at times when no assistant was necessary (see: do a better job of sticking to a schedule).

Wrapping Up
Two things that were still left for us to do after the retreat were send written thank-you notes to sponsors and get door prizes to their winners. The thank-you notes we divided up and were fairly simple. The door prizes involved more coordination. We printed out a label for each prize that stated the sponsor's name with a note to thank the sponsor on social media. (This is something we learned at MidMod, and sponsors are more willing to donate again when we are gracious!) We lucked out with an in-person, outdoor guild meeting in April, so most of our attendees were able to pick up prizes then. Some picked them up from our houses, and the smaller items were mailed. With the number of prizes we had, we could not have afforded to mail everything.

Will there be a next time for us? Maybe! We are eager to get back to meeting in person, but the virtual retreat allowed more people to participate since there was no restriction on numbers, and was easier for some to schedule around their other responsibilities. Perhaps January, when weather is iffy.

If you're interested in organizing a virtual retreat and have questions we didn't answer, feel free to reach out to us at dcmodquilts AT gmail DOT com and check out #dcmqgvirtualretreat for more photos.  Thank you again to all our sponsors, volunteers, and attendees! 

Above photo by Dolores Goodson.