Return to Normal?
So many people have asked when we will return to “normal”, having guild meetings and presentations in person. Given so many inquiries, I thought it would be good to update everyone on where we are. Below are some of the common questions:
Question: Churches are back to having services, so why aren’t we meeting in person?
Currently, the church is at a maximum capacity of 50 for Plymouth Hall (the room where we meet). Church leadership will be meeting in August to determine if they can raise the maximum capacity to 75. While this is good news, please understand that ACQ leadership has determined we will continue meeting via Zoom until the room is at full capacity because we do not want to be gate-keepers and turn members away when we reach capacity or if they don’t pre-register.
Even though our programs will be via Zoom, we will be looking for opportunities to meet in person. We have an in-person event scheduled for July 10th at the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum. We will also continue our monthly drive-through events, and will be expanding them to include tables and refreshments. And, this is your guild – so if you have ideas on how to get together in small groups, we need you to help make those ideas happen.
Question: Will virtual sewing opportunities continue, like Charity Sew Days and Friday Night Sewcials?
Plans include continuing the online sewing opportunities for the future, as they have been well received and a great way for guild members to get to know each other. Additionally, meeting from “home” allows members to have all of their tools, fabric, and snacks at their fingertips without having to pack cars and bring everything to a central location.
We did have an “in-person” opportunity to make kits for Charity quilts. The team was able to create 40+ kits for members to pick up and put together. It went so well, that we are looking to expand this to a quarterly basis and make kits for both Charity quilts and CPNLS. We will have limited capacity, and will provide more information for those who are interested in volunteering to help.
Question: What does 2022 look like?
While we can’t predict the future, we do know that the quilt industry is moving to a hybrid structure. Many teachers and lecturers do not want to travel and prefer to do their presentations and workshops on a virtual platform. As such, 2022 will be hybrid, with presenters and workshops being online. We are looking at options to “live-stream” the meeting and presentation so we can have both in-person and online options; however, that is still in the works. There will still be several guild meetings throughout the year that do not have a structured lecture where we will be meeting in person. So we will have a little bit for everyone.
Jen Dietz
