How to start a guild branch in your area!
Want to meet modern quilters in your area but don’t see a link to an existing branch? Why not start your own? Here are the nuts and bolts on how to get started. This is all based on our experiences getting the L.A. branch up and running so please adapt to fit your needs!
Step 1: Contact us and let us know you’re starting a new branch. We’ll post here and help to spread the word to get people interested and involved.
Step 2: Start an online group for your branch. You can use BigTent.com, Wackwall.com or webs.com, social networking sites that allow for members to sign up, create a profile and upload photos. They also allow for easy discussions and planning with forum and events.
Step 3: Plan your first meeting. This means finding a place to meet. We would suggest you start by asking at the local modern fabric shops or quilt shops as they all like having potential customers in their store once a month. General craft shops are another great option. Also think about community centers, libraries or church meeting rooms.
At your first meeting you will:
Step 4: Determine who your officers are going to be. Chances are these will be the people who have done some of the work to get your branch started. The LAMQG has a president, vice-president, treasurer and secretary. As we grow we may add additional roles in order to spread the work load. We will elect officers once a year.
Step 5: Determine what you want out of your guild. How often do you want to meet? What do you want to do at those meetings?
As an example, here’s what the LAMQG decided to do.
Monday Meetings:
We meet one Monday evening a month at Home Ec. for two hours. At those meetings we deal with business, show & tells, people speak, we have fabric swaps and so on. Lots of fun and inspirational times, but no sewing together at these meetings.
Weekend Sews:
We also meet one weekend day a month (alternating Saturdays & Sundays) in a room that we rent from a church. At those meetings we all bring our gear – sewing machines, cutting mats, irons and ironing boards and we sew sew sew! Some of these meetings are “free sews”, some are workshops on specific topics. And at some we will sew charity quilts. The options are endless! These meetings are six hours long giving people lots of time to get some sewing done.
As our guild seems to attract younger members, we encourage meeting on week nights and weekends so that people with jobs and small children are able to attend. Also consider your location and try to be central – if you can’t be, try to be fair. Here in L.A, our Monday Meetings & Weekend Sews are on opposite sides of town so the commute alternates for members.
Step 6: Determine your dues and what they will cover. For the LAMQG they are $50 a year and they cover all meetings. For some events with speakers we might require a small fee to attend, as needed. We might also hold fundraisers as needed.
The first guild meeting for a potential new member is free. The second & third are $5.00 each. After that new members must join the guild to keep attending meetings.
Step 7: Set up a bank account for the guild. Your treasurer should head up this work. These small first expenses for the guild can be covered by having the officers pay their dues right away. Be sure you’re keeping a budget and track of all expenses.
Step 8: Consider becoming an nonprofit organization. This is an involved process and we have a write up on how to do that here. Please don’t let this step slow you down from starting with meetings and the good times, just make sure that you do get to it.
Step 9: Get started and have a blast!! These guilds are about friendships, inspiration and fun through quilting.
If you have any questions at all please feel free to leave them in the comments or email us.
January 19, 2010 at 6:10 am |
Thanks for this, it really helps.
January 19, 2010 at 2:02 pm |
Thanks a lot, Alissa. Looking forward to getting ours up and running.
January 19, 2010 at 4:30 pm |
Thank you!!! Your guidance is much appreciated!
January 20, 2010 at 3:10 am |
I’m in Australia and wondering if i could / should start one here. Would we still be part of this Guild?
January 20, 2010 at 3:14 am |
Absolutely you could start one there! We would be THRILLED to go international! I will drop you an email so that you can get me any questions you might have.
January 20, 2010 at 5:30 pm |
Ooooh. Which city are you in 25 reasons?
January 20, 2010 at 5:33 pm
She’s in Melbourne and is getting things started! I’ll post the link to her group as soon as I have it!
January 21, 2010 at 1:02 am
Hi Andi, yes, I’m in Melbourne, in the south-eastern suburbs. Here’s the link to the site:
http://mlbmodernquiltguild.ning.com
Whereabouts are you?
January 20, 2010 at 3:23 am |
Awesome! Looking forward to hearing from you soon.
January 20, 2010 at 6:07 am |
I’m in Vancouver, BC, Canada and would love to join a Modern Quilt Guild if there were one up here! I’m so excited to see the MQG idea taking off and growing so quickly!
January 20, 2010 at 6:09 am |
Hi Holly – You’re the first to contact us from there so if you’d like to get a group going I’d be happy to post a link!
January 20, 2010 at 6:39 am
Thanks! If I decide that I’m up for the challenge of starting a group, I’ll definitely be in touch!
January 21, 2010 at 3:51 am |
I’m in the Vancouver, BC area also, and would love to have a modern quilt guild here! Perhaps we should chat, Holly! I’d love to hear what part of city you are in…I’m in Pitt Meadows!
January 21, 2010 at 4:35 am
Hi Sonja! I’d love to chat about a modern quilt guild here in the Vancouver area. I’m pretty far from you (in Kits), but at least we’re in the same province!
January 25, 2010 at 9:01 pm |
Hey I’m in Richmond BC and I would be interested in joining!
January 25, 2010 at 9:53 pm
Hi artisania! Glad to hear we have another interested quilter! We may just have to start up a Vancouver branch of the Modern Quilt Guild!
January 29, 2010 at 2:26 am
I’ve started a ning group for the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild. Head over here if you’re interested! http://vancouvermodernquiltguild.ning.com/
January 23, 2010 at 5:01 am |
I love this idea. Have you had any interest from Milwaukee or Madison, WI? (I’m halfway in between.) I’d be up for starting a group, but don’t know how to recruit other members.
Thanks
Corinne
January 24, 2010 at 11:22 pm |
Thanks. This information really helps. Looking forward to having our first meeting soon.
Rene’
January 26, 2010 at 8:30 pm |
I am in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. As there is already a Australien group forming, my question: anybody from the german part of Switzerland or the Lake Constance Region, Germany/Austria interested forming a group?
January 29, 2010 at 8:20 pm |
Hi Cäcilia, you are the first one to contact us from Switzerland. A good way to find out if anyone else is interested is to start a ning.com group and then there will be a central place for you to communicate with interested quilters. We’d be happy to post the link here.
March 9, 2010 at 6:30 am |
i am seeking to start a guild in orange county, california, where i live – however i am looking to also start a block exchange with moden quilters from other countries … what do you think? would this be an acceptable endeavor for the moden quiling groups? yolanda7@cox.net
March 9, 2010 at 7:55 am
Hi Yolanda – there’s already an Orange Country branch starting – you can find them here: http://orangecountymodernquiltguild.ning.com/
And a block swap would be really fun! Absolutely something that your branch could coordinate if there’s interest!
March 9, 2010 at 10:00 pm
Hi Yolanda, I think that could be fun! We are about to have our first meeting, well in a few weeks, and I could present the idea to our members and see if there is interest in an international block exchange. I’ll let you know!
March 9, 2010 at 10:03 pm
Yolanda, I forgot to tell you that I’m in Melbourne Australia
our ning site is http://mlbmodernquiltguild.ning.com/
August 19, 2010 at 11:11 am
Our Orange County Modern Quilt Guild (OCMQG) is up at running; we have about 16 members now and have held two meetings, a few field trips and weekend sews … Do you want to start a swap? We are ready
January 28, 2010 at 7:33 pm |
I’d love to get a group started in Nebraska. Would you please send me your email addy so I can contact you (the “contact us” link wants my computer to send the email (and I don’t have it set up for that), rather than my preferred email addy)
January 28, 2010 at 7:35 pm |
BTW: I’m in Lincoln, Nebraska, home of the International Quilt Study Center. Now *that* would be a fun field trip!
January 28, 2010 at 10:06 pm |
I am in Australia in Sydney.
I WOULD LOVE to start something here, unlike Melbourne, Sydney is quite poor in quilting and patching shops and lessons..:-(
I have been tinking about it for a little while, when I saw your guild it really inspired me.
I work for an American company and have been to SFO many times.
It would be FANTASTIC to join and be part of your guild!!!
Please, help!
Sophie
January 29, 2010 at 9:40 pm |
Thank you Alissa. When I am back from the mountains, I try to set up a ning-group. No internet up there.
February 2, 2010 at 8:09 pm |
Hello, I live in Calgary Alberta Canada. Is anyone interested in starting or joining a guild in Calgary?
March 16, 2010 at 7:31 pm |
Tammy,
I also, am looking for a quilt guild in Calgary. Have you had any luck finding one. I would be interested in starting one with you.
March 22, 2010 at 12:43 pm
I have not had any luck finding a modern quilting group. Do you have any thoughts on how you would like to get things rolling? Let me know, I’m definately in.
March 22, 2010 at 6:13 pm
calgarymodernquiltguild.ning.com I just started it. so please join me.
April 19, 2010 at 1:31 pm
Hello,
I am new to quilting and I do live in Calgary. I would like to join your guild however I can not find it anywhere online.
April 20, 2010 at 10:05 am
Thanks, now I am a mebmer!
March 22, 2010 at 8:25 am |
I have just started quilting, in fact, just finished my 1st quilting course yesterday. I would like to find a quild or group to join to continue learning the art. Tammy, have you had many replies?
March 22, 2010 at 12:45 pm
Hi Sharon, I have not had many replies, but I think there are modern quilters out there in the Calgary area. Let’s keep in touch and hopefully we can get things happening in this town.
March 22, 2010 at 6:02 pm
I just started up a calgary modern quilt guild. So please, if you are feeling creative and modern join!
February 4, 2010 at 7:23 pm |
well….i THOUGHT i lived in an area of quilters. i live in charleston West Virginia. if ANYONE out there is in my area please feel free to email me if you are interested in this group. i am more than happy to start, participate, help plan or ANYTHING to get this going in our area. we have so few shops that carry the fabrics we adore. i have found no options whatsoever. speak up on my website if you are interested in beginning this or any other get together involving modern quilting, workshops, swaps, etc.
February 5, 2010 at 9:42 pm |
Hi, I was wondering if there are any modern quilters near Mt Pleasant Michigan. I would love to meet other quilters out there. Thanks
February 8, 2010 at 7:22 pm |
so cool! anyone is St. Louis/St Peters, Mo area?? I would LOVE it!
April 25, 2010 at 6:17 pm |
Hi!! I live in Farmington, MO (about an hour south of STL) and would be willing to travel once a month for guild meetings!!
April 25, 2010 at 7:02 pm
anyone else interested in stl area? it would be SO fun!!!
would you want weekday or weekend jamie??
May 18, 2010 at 12:12 pm
Hey! I’m from Cape Girardeau MO!! I don’t mind traveling once a month for meetings!! Its only like an hour and a half from here to St. Louis! Plus you guys have better shopping, so it would be a good excuse to make a day of it!! Let me know if you guys are still interested!
May 18, 2010 at 10:20 pm
whatever is fine with me! Thursdays my mother-in-law has off so that would be fun I could spend the day with her too!
August 10, 2010 at 9:43 am |
A St. Louis chapter has been started. Pls visit us on Flickr; which is our current home until things get up and moving.
The address is here http://www.flickr.com/groups/stlmqg/
We’d love to have all those in the surrounding area help put St. Louis back on the map.
February 8, 2010 at 9:23 pm |
The tiny tiny part of me still alive that was president of the art club in high school (and totally great at it although I had no real responsibility) really wants to do this. But, it seems so involved. Officers, schedules, dues and bank accounts all from the first meeting? I’m imagining like…3 people showing up, us talking about the blogs we read and what we’re working on, and then figuring out when we should get together to do it again. I guess that’s not really a guild though, is it? Do you have any advice for someone who would want to just…test the waters so to speak, in their area? I work full time as a seamstress, between that and responsibilities at home, I just don’t have the means to follow this guide alone. Thanks!
(also bummed the big-city guilds meet on week days….I’d love to make weekend trips to KC!)
February 8, 2010 at 10:26 pm |
Hi Courtney!
Completely understand your sentiments! It is a lot of work – but we do want to be an official guild, rather than a bee. We plan for the MQG to last, so it’s in this sort of formal organization that that will happen. You don’t have the whole list of tasks done by your first meeting – we in LA certainly didn’t. But you’ll be surprised at the numbers – they’ve been high everywhere! And if you’d like we could post a ning.com group for your city (easiest way to start a web site for a branch) and when others join it you can mention you need help getting things going. I’ll drop you an email too so that you can communicate about that if you’d like to. Thanks!
February 11, 2010 at 12:15 am |
Hi, I have created a ning group for Frankfurt/Germany:
http://frankfurt-mqg.ning.com/
As I am new to ning, I will need a few days to get into it and change the setup, but the first step is done.
February 16, 2010 at 4:21 pm |
Frankly, I’m with Courtney as far as the complexity of this thing. I’d much rather give it some time to gel before our local (fairly small, so far) group turns it into a business. Are we REQUIRED to collect dues? Could you please talk a bit about the tax implications for a group that collects dues? I understand if we become a non-profit group, that would have different issues.
February 16, 2010 at 6:22 pm |
Hello Sandi!
So glad you wrote – I’m sure you’re not the only one with these types of questions. We’ll leave it up to you to decide how you develop your local group. But, keep in mind that we are specifically organized as The Modern Quilt “Guild” and our goal is to support and unify the modern quilt guilds.
As for collecting dues there seem to be two questions. One, is are you required to collect dues. And the second seems to be what are the tax implications of collecting dues.
To answer your first question, operating as a guild, you should collect dues – even if they are minimal at the beginning. There will likely be some expenses incurred such as cost of meeting space, speakers, and general guild costs (name tags, so on). Dues will help to cover these and help you to run effectively.
For the second question, the IRS allows a small nonprofit organization the benefits of tax exemption without filing the Form 1023 if their annual gross revenue is normally not more than $5,000 (See Instructions for Form 1023, page 1 at http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1023.pdf). With that being said, (here’s the disclaimer
) we cannot offer legal advice and strongly recommend that you seek counsel for help with understanding the legal and tax implications not only on a federal level but, on a state level as well. One good contact for figuring this out is your local SCORE (http://www.score.org) office. They offer free online and face-to-face business counseling, mentoring, and training. The one in Los Angeles has someone that deals specifically with non-profits. Your local SCORE should be able to offer assistance or direct you to someone who can.
Starting a guild can seem daunting but, it is easily manageable if you get a key group to help you organize. This way you can spread the work out amongst the group and it wont be a burden on anyone.
We hope this helps answer your questions and hope this doesn’t deter you from diving into starting a guild! It’s so much fun!
-Latifah
March 10, 2010 at 12:43 pm |
I would love to start a guild in the new orleans area, but unfortunatly it’s just little ol’ me…i don’t know anyone else that’s into “modern quilting” in the area. is anyone out there?
March 10, 2010 at 2:31 pm |
Hi Kaelin – I’ll drop you an email about this – let’s see if we can find more interest!
March 11, 2010 at 12:28 pm
I did it! It’s just the bare bones right now, but here’s the link:
http://neworleansmodernquilts.ning.com/
March 30, 2010 at 7:53 am |
I’m so excited about the possibility of this- have you had any interest from the Des Moines Ia area? I’d be interested in starting a branch or at least finding others with the same quilting style to start off with. thanks!
April 19, 2010 at 1:39 pm |
@Ashley Ully The Calgary Modern Quilt Guild can be found at http://calgarymodernquiltguild.ning.com/. You can also see the link on the right hand side of this page (all the guilds are listed in alphabetical order).
Cheers!
Holly
Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild
April 28, 2010 at 10:15 pm |
Hi. We are attempting to start a guild in Nome, AK. We’re just now recruiting some members and getting our Ning page made.
April 29, 2010 at 6:08 pm |
I am wanting to start a branch in Tyler, Texas. Please email me with more information at lndsylou111@yahoo.com. Thanks.
Lindsey
May 7, 2010 at 4:55 pm |
I have started to set up the ning account for a Fredericksburg, VA branch!!
May 14, 2010 at 5:49 am |
http://fredmodernquiltguild.ning.com/ Here is the link to the ning website I set up. I am looking forward to meeting some like minded people!!
May 13, 2010 at 7:43 am |
Hi, I am also in Australia and would absolutely love to start up a Modern Quilt Guild. I live in Hervey Bay, Queensland. I am part of a small sewing group now, but I am the only young mum there (I am 34 with 2 children in primary school and planning to have a third baby in the next 2 years). I would dearly love to find some other young women who love fabric, colour, and quilting as much as I do.
How do I get started in setting up a group?
Karen.
May 15, 2010 at 10:47 pm |
This may seem a bit lazy since there are already guilds on the SF peninsula and the East Bay, but is there anyone in San Francisco interested in starting up a guild here? I would love to meet some other modern quilters, but I can’t get to Redwood City or Berkeley easily. Thanks!
May 20, 2010 at 2:37 pm |
I would absolutely love to participate in a Modern Quilt Guild in San Diego! Has anyone started looking into this? Would anyone be interested? I’m toying with the idea of starting one, but I don’t know if I could do it alone. I would go to the LA meetings, but I don’t get off work in time to beat the traffic.
May 26, 2010 at 6:57 pm |
Anyone in the Panhandle of Florida up for joining a guild? I’m seriously interested in one exisiting though a little nervous about being the one to start it.
May 27, 2010 at 4:03 am |
Is there anyone in the Muskoka region of Ontario up for starting and joining a quild?
May 30, 2010 at 1:10 pm |
Hi there,
I am in Eugene, Oregon. I have spoken to a local quilting store about a possible meeting space and I know that there are some MQG types in the area. What I am wondering is this (more research will follow, I am sure) How long was it between setting up an online group and the first meeting? I am going to check out other MQG site and see if I can’t figure this out. Thanks!
May 30, 2010 at 5:56 pm |
Hi jmbmommy! Good luck with getting your local MQG started! I started a ning group for the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild in January and we’re having our first meeting June 17th (five months later). However, part of the delay was because we were waiting for a new modern fabric store to open, because they are going to host us. Have fun!
May 31, 2010 at 1:10 pm |
Good luck with your chapter! I started the ning group and randomly picked 10 members as the threshold to hold a meeting, and we had that many in the first 2 weeks. We met about a month after that, for our first “get-to-know-you” organization meeting.
We now have about 30 people on ning, but still get very low numbers at meetings (6-8). It’s only been a few months, so I’m hoping that picks up. I think we started at the wrong time – there are lots of moms in our group and I think summers are hard for them. But, we’ll keep at it. Let us know how yours goes.
June 21, 2010 at 9:21 pm |
San Antonio, anyone? I can’t start it alone, but if I had a friend…
June 23, 2010 at 4:44 pm |
I have a couple of questions…I belong to a small group of fiber artists who also quilt…we are curious about your organization, but wonder if this is a place for a small grouo (13) who would prefer to not be quite as definitely organized as your group…dues, officers etc. We are interested in perhaps joining Modern Quilt Guild so we can access to other groups, pictures etc as well as share our pictures of what we do with everyone. Please advise.
July 12, 2010 at 4:54 pm |
I would love to start a Northern VA group centered in the Fairfax County, Loudoun County, and Prince William County area. I would like to set this up as The NOVA Modern Quilt Guild. There is a D.C. Modern Quilt Guild and I see that someone was interested in a Fredricksburg Modern Quilt Guild but I think this area is big enough that we could benefit from having all 3 guilds. I am hoping there are others in my area who are interested!
July 18, 2010 at 6:51 pm |
Anyone in Baltimore, Maryland or surrounding areas interested? I’d love to be a part of one!
August 8, 2010 at 6:02 pm |
Hey, Heather! I’m brand new to the area, but would be love to be a part of one. Maybe we can get one going here. You can reach me at heatherkojan@gmail.com.
July 27, 2010 at 6:01 pm |
Brighton is kind of far for me – Is there anyone near Rochester, MI interested in starting a branch?
August 12, 2010 at 1:58 pm |
Anyone in the Denver area looking to start a guild? I would love to become a member.
August 17, 2010 at 1:33 pm |
I would love to start a guild on Ottawa, Ontario (or become a member). Do you know if anyone else has shown an interest in my area? (I think the closest is Toronto which is too far away)
August 23, 2010 at 10:14 pm |
I am leaving the portland MQG sadly to move to Bakersfield, Looking for the closest one to me, is the closest LA sadly I wont have the time to start one and help run right now but maybe in the future. How do we go about finding people in that community?
Thanks for all the help
Terri-
August 30, 2010 at 7:50 am |
Hi! We are just starting a guild in the Fraser Valley in British Columbia, Canada, which is about an hour and a half drive from Vancouver. A friend and I started going in to the Vancouver meetings but the return trip drive being so far we thought it might be a great idea to start one in our area to cover the entire Valley to include more quilters out our way who couldn’t do the long trip every month.
If anyone out this way is interested, please feel free to come join us!
http://grou.ps/fraservalleymodernquiltguild/home