Retreat Sign Up and May Meeting Recap

Don't forget! The retreat sign up takes place tomorrow at 6pm (prices, dates and other info in this post).  I will send out an email with the link to the the first come, first served sign up.  You will receive an answer back within a week letting you know if you got in and to which weekend.  At that time, all August retreat attendees will be asked to pay for the full retreat and November attendees will be asked to pay for half of the retreat cost.  If you need to make other financial plans, I'll refer you to our treasurer to make accommodations.
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Let's do the May Meeting Recap.  Last Saturday at Capitol Quilts was a good time.  The workshop with Mary Fons was really fun and we had 20 members there for the meeting after the workshop.

New member, Tanya, is showing a recent quilt top.
May meeting at Capital Quilts


Aubrie is peeking out behind her pretty blocks.
May meeting at Capital Quilts


This picture looks like Mary and Elle were playing 
peekaboo around the back of Carla's quilt.
Quilters know how to have fun.
May meeting at Capital Quilts

Business Items discussed:
  • The board has appointed Alyson Olander to join the board, help streamline communication systems and write some content for the blog.  Welcome to the team, Alyson!
  • We are moving forward with scheduling Carolyn Friedlander for workshop/s next April.
  • I sent the email out again on Saturday with the member price for the DS lecture.  Buy a ticket, tell your friends, your family, your neighbors, your mail delivery person, etc.  So far we have just over half of our costs covered.  We look forward to filling the auditorium as much as we can.
  • The DCMQG Logo Challenge is ongoing.  Deadline for submissions is June 15th.  The designs will be voted on anonymously and the winner gets a fun prize package as discussed in this post.
  • Susan is choosing swap partners for the Pouch Swap partners go out very soon.
  • Our inaugural guild bee is starting soon.  In two or three months we should see how that one is going and then we'll start getting getting more groups started.  Please consider whether you can make a four to six month commitment to make blocks for your fellow guild members and to receive some great blocks back.
  • Financial Report and New Dues: Robin, our treasurer, explained that the officers this year have been trying to build more cushion in our finances.  Early in the year we had to pay dues to the national MQG organization, we had to pay half of Denyse's fees, pay for the DS venue and then we had to prepay to reserve the retreat space.  Our budget was stretched very thin.  The guild is growing, therefore we need bigger spaces which are more expensive.  We also need to get insurance in order to use some of the bigger spaces.  For all of those reasons, the board has decided to raise dues slightly for next year to $45 for the year.  The paypal button will go up on the front page of the blog on June 8th and an email with the paypal link for your dues will go out around June 1st.
  • Discussion of raffle quilts: some members had other suggestions for building up the guild's cushion.  Meli offered to quilt a quilt top that she has already made and offer it up for the guild to raffle off.  Nancy suggested getting a raffle table at a regional quilt show, and she said that the raffle table might be free if we get people from the guild to volunteer to white glove at the show.  This idea is intriguing, but we need to have volunteers to start this up.  The board is stretched already and we won't be able to follow through without help from other people in the guild.  If you are interested in coordinating this effort, please volunteer.
Our next meeting is May 30th at the U.S. Botanic Garden just off of the National Mall.  We plan to meet outdoors under the shade sail at the amphitheater.  I think we usually do hand sewing from 10am to 1pm and then get lunch at the National Museum of the American Indian.