President's Message of Hope

In September, all three chapters will be meeting in person.
It is a very exciting time and something we have been working very hard to make happen.
 
We got thrown a bit of a curve ball a couple of weeks ago in that the church for our day chapter location advised that the church is no longer available.  However, the good news is we have one definite location and another possible location.
 
In 2020, we had members who chose not to renew their memberships until the Guild again was meeting in person.  We are looking forward to those members rejoining the Guild.  However, during 2020, we also had new members join our Guild from all over the United States and from over the world.  We don’t plan to abandon those members who renewed or joined and supported us during the tough times.
 
If there are members of whom you are aware that haven’t renewed, maybe you could give them a call and let them know that exciting things are happening and we don’t want them to miss out!
 
We will be having in-person workshops as soon as we are able.  However, Zoom workshops will continue even when in-person workshops start.  During the pandemic, we were able to get speakers that we would never have been able to afford to come to us in person -- for example, Kaffe.
 
What also comes into the mix is that since the pandemic, some speakers who would usually have come to our Guild in person now have decided to only do Zoom.  There is no magic where we can snap our collective fingers and go back to what it was before the pandemic.
 
Our members are figuring into the mix as well.  Some of our members are “aging out.”  That means they are not driving at night or not driving any more at all.  Zoom allows those members to continue to be a part of our Guild.  These members are our friends and we want them to have access.
 
We have heard grumblings from some of the members about not having in-person meetings soon enough, about Zoom meetings in general, et cetera.  I am hopeful that those grumblings soon will turn to positive sounds.
 
The process of moving back into in-person meetings requires planning and will require patience, and cooperation.  I am confident that we will receive that from our membership.
 
There are some open slots for volunteers for the chapters.  Many hands make light work.  Consider contacting the chapter coordinators and offer your services.
 
Happy quilting!!
 
Linda