Getting the Most Out of Your Guild
by Steffani McChesney
As a member of Cotton Patch Quilters you receive a lot of benefits. These include:
- Entertaining and informative meetings, demonstrations, and workshops
- Monthly newsletter and membership directory
- Biannual guild-sponsored quilt show
- Extensive lending library
- Ten percent discount at participating quilt and fabric shops
- Show-and-Tell so you can share your masterpieces
- Bus trips to major quilt shows
- Nationally known speakers
I’m sure there are lots of other things I have forgotten to mention, but you get the idea. Being a guild member is definitely good for you, a real bargain for $25 per year.
In Cotton Patch Quilters joining is pretty much all that is required of you. Compared to other guilds we have it easy. To illustrate this I want to share a story that was related to me by Sharon Ihde. Sharon visited the Tulare guild recently and heard this story related by the president:
“I was at the local quilt store. I could hear voices but couldn’t see their faces. Someone, obviously from our guild, was trying to convince a non-member to join. After outlining all the fun things the guild does, she used her clincher, ‘What a bargain, and you don’t have to do a thing.'”
She sent this to me in an e-mail to use in an article about guild participation. I was rather appalled but not surprised. I was a member of the American Women’s Association of Indonesia for several years. The AWA had a little over 1,000 members. Out of the entire membership only about 100 ever volunteered to hold a position on the board, work at our several charity events every year, or work on the committees that published the books, calendars, greeting cards, and stationary that paid for all our charitable endeavors.
One year we worked on a joint calendar project with the Canadian Women’s Association. There were not that many Canadians living in Jakarta so their membership was very small, about 100 women. I asked one of the Canadians I was working with if they had the same problem with getting the membership to volunteer to assist their association as we did. She laughed and said, “See these ten women at this meeting? This is it. Only about ten percent of any given group will ever step forward and help out.”
I know more than ten percent of our members do step up to help but it would be nice if more did. Believe it or not, participation is one of the benefits too. When I moved to Bakersfield four years ago, I didn’t know anyone. I joined the guild a year later and got involved. Now I know almost everyone in the guild, at least to say hello to. Definitely a benefit of belonging to the guild.
Other guilds are known to require something from you to be a member. The Asheville Quilt Guild (I think they are in North Carolina) posts their duties and responsibilities of members right on its website. They begin the list with this statement: “This is not a rigidly structured organization, but minimal participation from ALL members is needed and expected.”
Hmm, pretty specific, I’d say. Here’s the list of what is expected:
- Payment of dues (Yeah, we do that.)
- Once a year contribution of food for refreshments at monthly meetings. (Ditto.)
- Participation in at least one committee. (I wish. Seems like the same names keep showing up on the committee chairman list year after year.)
- Participation at the Asheville Quilt Competition and Exhibit. Minimum two hours service at the quilt show and sale of at least ten tickets for the opportunity quilt.
- Service on at least one quilt show committee.
They end with this statement:
“There are many opportunities to participate in the work of the Guild through committees and projects. New members are encouraged to become involved.”
We don’t require people to participate in the guild. This isn’t the Army or a dictatorship. It’s a democracy. But a democracy needs the participation of all its citizens to function properly. CPQ is no different. And unlike the Army or a dictatorship, participation in the guild is fun. Try it you’ll like it.
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