August 2015 Board Meeting Minutes

EUGENE MODERN QUILT GUILD

August 2, 2015

Present: Madyson John, Pat Johnston, Daisy Schrock, Anne Robertson, Nelda Copsey

1. Elections for next year’s officers are coming up on October 14. The 2015 officers will help the 2016 officers get started. Current positions up for election: President, Secretary. Discussion was held about re-organizing some of the positions to more evenly distribute the workload. It is recommended to combine the Swap and Bee Block positions into one, add a Vice President position, and delete the Presenter position. The Vice President position would be to assist the President and step in when the President is unavailable for meetings, not to be the President- elect for the next year. The President or Vice-President will lead the meetings, rather than a Presenter. These are changes to the by-laws and they will be voted on at a meeting. The election and available positions will be discussed at the August meeting and, at the September meeting, members will announce their nominations.

2. Communications have continued to be a problem this year, and members have complained to board members. During meetings, talking in the back of the room is making it very hard for others to hear. Daisy is willing to learn how to do the blog to help improve general communications. Another suggestion was to provide paper copies of a membership email/phone list, perhaps asking members for permission first, to make it easier to contact other members. Daisy also suggested holding a brief training session during a meeting break (e.g. in the kitchen) with a few members at a time showing a Power Point tutorial of how to access the EMQG group on the Modern Quilt Guild web site. The Swap list on the blog needs to be up-to-date if changes are made and it was suggested to have paper lists available at the meetings. The blog should have a current list of upcoming quilting events (not just EMQG events), quilt show entry application information, and volunteer opportunities.

3. Treasurer’s Report needs to be given at the meetings and be kept current on the MQG group web site.

4. Retreat – Pat went to the retreat center a week ago and talked to Tina. She is sending out an email to all those who are registered for the retreat with the details. Daisy will be working out the menus with the retreat center.

5. Program suggestions for meetings were given to Pat and included the owner of Eugene Textile Center and demonstrations of tools/notions by local quilt shops. Also the suggestion of a field trip to the Eugene Textile Center to use the facilities for member demonstrations/classes of hand-dying or stamping fabrics – they charge a very reasonable fee which would be shared by those attending.

6. Nelda asked for a good definition of “modern quilt” for the Lane County Fair textile division. She was directed to MQG site and the EMQG blog.

7. Picnic for the August meeting will again be held at Friendly Park. Madyson will send out a reminder email.

8. Since Madyson has changed employment, she may not be able to get to meetings/Sew Nights until 7 pm or so. She gave the key to McNail-Riley House to Pat for the August Sew Night.

9. Board Meeting scheduled for October 11 has been cancelled. The next board meeting will be a potluck in early November at Daisy’s house and will include 2015 and 2016 members. After the September meeting, Madyson will send an email to pick a date.

10. Raffle Quilt – The raffle will be held at the September meeting with tickets available at the August meeting. The donation quilt was also displayed at the Coburg booth and drew lots of interest. We will be donating it to Womenspace, and they may raffle it as a fundraiser.

11. Ideas for 2016 were suggested and included a mystery quilt/wall hanging class including a variety of techniques and purchasing a display rack for EMQG to display quilts during meetings and events. The Raffle and Donation quilts for 2016 need to be organized early in the year with a general member to lead each of them, not board members.

12. Coburg leftovers – Madyson will bring them to the August meeting and the donors can have their donations back. Anything leftover will be donated.

13. Donation to EMQG - Bonnie Glass, a member and the owner of Euphoria Chocolate, has donated a $50 Euphoria Chocolate gift card to the guild. We will raffle it at a couple of meetings this fall. Daisy suggested a Chocolate Challenge to make wall hangings based on chocolate and to be displayed at Euphoria.