Westerville Quilt Guild History and Organizational Background
In the fall of 2004 a handful of women met and made a plan to launch a quilt guild for the Westerville area.
After much talk and planning the meeting was set for January 10, 2005 at the Westerville Library. We agreed it would be considered a successful meeting if we had 20-25 attendees. We were quite surprised with a standing room only group! We had to move the meeting from the library to a larger facility to accommodate the interest in this new guild.
We had not set down a charter or bylaws at that time and didn't really see a good reason to do it later. We did agree on the following:
- We wanted the group to be informal and friendly. We
wanted the members to know each other on a 'first name' basis. We wanted
this to be a Club for the members, run by the members, doing what the
members wanted to do - in other words; we didn't want it to develop into
cliques.
- The monthly meeting and program responsibilities would rotate
on a volunteer basis - i.e., 'President of the Month'. A meeting
agenda outline evolved and was posted on the WQG web site, so we could
rotate President of the month with a consistent meeting format. Volunteering
to chair a meeting provided a member the opportunity to step up into
a role that might be a stretch or new experience. This also allowed
for members to be involved in selecting topics of interest for the meeting
presentation and provide variety.
- We needed a full time Treasurer, Membership Chair and Newsletter Editor. We were lucky and got these volunteers at our first meeting.
- We realized there would need to be a steering committee,
to attend to the needs of the Guild as they arose. This committee would
also meet annually to set the budget; as well as arranging for the monthly
Presidents, and other committee members. This committee was made of
6 members plus the Treasurer. The Treasurer would be a voting member
of the committee. These members would rotate out on a different schedule
in order to keep some continuity. This committee was called the Executive
Committee. This committee was to meet on an as needed basis and would
bring items to the membership, as they saw fit, for votes or discussion.
- As committees were formed and the group grew, job descriptions
for these committees were established and are available to members.
Again, most committees were to have multiple members, so there would
be a variety of ideas and the responsibility would not be burdensome.
- We have no formal annual election for the offices of Treasurer, Membership Chair, Newsletter Editor and Exec. Committee members, but simply ask for volunteers. To date this simple system seems to be working.