Monday, March 21, 2011

Call for H...E..L...P!

Hi Everyone-   *Warning - get your cup of coffee before you sit down to read this - it's a long one - but very important!**

Well, I think the Columbus Modern Quilt Guild is off to a great start!  After four meetings, it seems like we have a nice regular group of about 25-30 and I hope the Mug Rug Swap helped us get to know each other a little better. Now that we are not so brand-spanking new and have gotten our feet wet a little, I hope you will consider volunteering to help out in planning some fun activities for the guild.  After all, I simply cannot do this by myself forever!

I hope to still keep things casual and would like to try to avoid electing "officers" and other rigid no-fun sounding positions.  These volunteer spots do not consume a huge amount of time independently.  If we divide up all the responsibilities, we can have many fun things going on at once.

So, that being said, let me tell you that both Cristin and Beth have been helping out behind the scenes.

Cristin has taken on organizing the Sew-ins - she informs the group about the activity via blog posts, keeps track of who is attending, and communicates necessary info to attendees.

Beth, in addition, to giving a sweet paper piecing demo, has been working with me doing graphic design work to create a logo/header for the group, which will then translate into membership cards.

Barb came up with the great idea for the Book Club reading the Artist's Way.

At the March meeting, Beverly volunteered to help with copies and Paul volunteered to collect/mail out the Just One Star blocks for the group.  All these things will help keep this group running smoothly.

So here are some things I think we need:

Swap Boss(es):  Overall, I think we can only have 3-4 swaps per year.  One swap per quarter sounds like a lot?  The Mug Rug Swap was one idea... we potentially saw another cool idea in Jaclyn's On-the-go sewing organizer....  don't forget fabric swaps...  I think the ideas for these will just naturally flow out at meetings.  One to two people in charge of organizing swaps will be responsible for planning what is being swapped, the timing of the swaps (kickoff at which meeting, bringing back finished projects, etc.), finding a "free" pattern for us all to use if needed, and writing up a little sheet for people to reference to hand out at meetings.

Challenge Boss(es):  Again, very similar to the swaps.  3-4 per year if we can.  So far, we have had the Xmas Fat Quarter Challenge, and now we are doing the Kona Charm Pack Challenge.  Often, Challenge activities are passed down from the national group to each branch.  One to two people in charge of organizing challenges will be responsible for planning what the challenge is, the timing (kickoff at which meeting, bringing back finished projects, etc.), finding a "free" pattern for us all to use if needed, and writing up a little sheet for people to reference to hand out at meetings.

Charity Bee Mama(s):  I am starting to organize now our first charity quilting project - Japan Relief quilts with the remaining Kona Charm Packs.  In general, bees require a certain number of people to volunteer to make blocks to be assembled in a charity quilt, someone to assemble the blocks, quilt, and bind.  Finding charities to donate to is very easy.  The Bee Mama(s) will need to determine all the basics (who, what, when, where the fabric comes from (donated from quilt shops, people provide their own, etc).

Demo Speakers for Monthly Meetings:  This one is easy!  Share your knowledge and skills with the group.  We can all learn something from even basic topics.  The goal would be about a 10-15 minute demonstration on whatever topic you feel comfortable speaking about.

**That being said, I didn't realize at the meeting that I had volunteered myself to not only give the demo on blogging, but also to organize the Japan Charity effort.  Yikes.  That's WAY too much.  Would someone else like the demo for the April meeting??**

Thanks to everyone who has volunteered thus far, it is greatly appreciated!  I hope you are as excited as I am about all the things I see in the future for this group - we have a really nice and talented group of quilters in our MQG.  I hope you look forward to the meetings as I do!

Please click over to the CMQG website and leave a comment at the end of the post to discuss these items so the group can see the conversation.  Thank you!

8 comments:

  1. I would love to help out with the swaps and be a "Swap Boss". I have a few free tutorials I can turn into our own for the "on the go sewing organizer" and have a few other fun ideas. - Jaclyn Davis

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  2. Vicki Laroche and I would love to help with swap boss job also....if Jaclyn needs help.

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  3. Ok ,great! I really only think you need 2 people for swaps, but 3 will definitely be fine. Then each of you only has to plan 1 swap per year. Easy peasy.

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  4. I think 3 swaps a year (if we're making something) would be plenty and I wonder if we might be able to have a little more time for the projects. I am quite new to quilting and have been having trouble with the turn around times.

    Additionally, would it be possible to email or post the rules for our Kona Charm Pack challenge? I've not used blogspot before but I would assume you can create pages like in wordpress and we could create a reference page to list out rules/guidelines for challenges and swaps? Possibly a page for each type. I'd be willing to help with this if needed.

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  5. I would be happy to help out as a charity bee mama. Hopefully someone else will be willing to work with me in this role.

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  6. I am willing to work on the charity projects.

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  7. LitleWit,
    At the top of the CMQG page is a link for the Kona Charm Challenge, not sure if you saw that :-) Hope it helps!
    http://columbusmodernquiltguild.blogspot.com/p/kona-charm-challenge.html

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  8. I would like to be the Challenge Coordinator. Sounds like fun.
    Marilyn

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