Volume 2 Issue 3 April 2007

A Note from the President....
I am so honored that you have given me the opportunity to serve as your President this year! I appreciate your confidence in me and I will do my best to serve the Guild well. Thanks to each of you for your attendance and vote at the April Meeting. I am excited about the upcoming year and our efforts to "Build the Guild" and increase membership.

We really appreciate those of you who have contributed items for the NICU at Baptist Hospital. The Charity Table has been FULL of precious hats, booties, sweaters, buntings and blankets the past two months. Thank you, thank you...you are all awesome!!

I also want to thank the Executive Committee and the Committee Chairs for stepping up and spending your time and talents to make our Guild the best that it can be. I couldn't do it without you!
Knit On!
Carolyn Faircloth

********************** REPORTS **********************

Charity Knitting (Kathy Knox)
* Kathy took her first trip to Baptist hospital to present them with the many items you have knitted for them. They were very excited and so appreciative.
* Pattern Notebook: A notebook is now on display at each meeting containing patterns for hats, booties, and layettes/buntings. Each member is encouraged to take copies of the different patterns to use for our Charity knitting. Thank you Kathy for coming up with this great idea and getting it started!

Beginner Kits (Terri Derrick)
* We could use more of the small cosmetic bags to place in the beginner kits. These bags are used to hold various knitting tools (scissors, counters, place holders, etc.) that knitters use. They do not have to expensive ones either. Terri suggested getting them from someplace like The Dollar Tree or similar store.

PR - Promoting the Guild (Terri Derrick)
* Saturday, June 9th marks the next date for the US Public Knit In. Terri has lined up the atrium at the Oklahoma City Public Library located in downtown OKC. We will meet that Saturday at 11am and knit in the atrium until 1pm. Fliers, posters, etc. will be used to tell interested people more about the Knit Guild. The address is 300 Park Ave (between Park and Hudson) and parking is free on the weekend.

Financial Report (Keela Mostek)
* Keela gave a report on what we currently have in our Guild account.
* She is still researching possibilities for establishing a Knit Guild bank account.

********************** OLD BUSINESS **********************
TKGA Affiliated
We are now affiliated with The Knit Guild of America!!! The vote was put before the members at our Sunday meeting as to whether we wanted to become affiliated with TKGA or not. The vote was 16-0 in favor of TKGA. Carolyn will be filling out the paperwork and getting the necessary information together in the next few weeks to send in to them. Thank you for all the questions and discussion prior to our voting. If you have any other questions, please let any of the board members know and we will be happy to try and answer them.

Profile Sheets
The board is encouraging that all members fill out a Profile sheet. The information on it will help us as a Guild to know each other better. The information listed on the profile sheets will be used at a later date in our membership directory. If you do not want any of your information to be listed in the membership directory, please make a note of it on your profile sheet.

New Librarian
A big THANKS to Bethany Mickel for volunteering to be the Knit Guild Librarian. We are excited to have her oversee this for us.

Membership Packets
Linda Pahdoco has been talking with several of the knit shops in Oklahoma City about some special incentives for members of the OKC Knit Guild. At this time, nothing has been decided yet and it may take a few more months to determine if this is something we will be able to do. Thank you Linda, for taking the time to work on this!

New Website
The Executive Board is currently looking into the possibility of setting up our own website. Our web blog has been a wonderful tool for getting information out to everyone, but limits us to the amount of space we have. In addition, we would like to expand the services and information available to our Guild Members. More on this later.....

********************** NEW BUSINESS **********************
Knit Guild Meeting Sign In
The Library has asked that each member come by the registration desk up in the Library and sign in for the meeting. This is for their records. The Library has been gracious enough to underwrite the cost of our meeting room for us. To show our support and to document that we are presenting educational programs, please take the time to stop by and sign in each month. Don't forget to sign our Guild book too down in the meeting room!

PR - Promoting the Guild
The Marketing Department for the Metro Library system has graciously agreed to meet with Carolyn Faircloth to help us design and set up brochures for our Guild. Carolyn is hoping to meet with them within in the next few weeks. The brochures will be used through the different libraries to advertise our Guild and meeting times. We will also get to use them as a public tool to reach out into the community and promote interest in the Guild.

Beginner Knitting Classes
The group discussed the idea of having a special time set aside to teach people the beginning steps to knitting. Several suggestions were discussed - having a special Sunday meeting day set aside devoted to beginner knitters only; having a beginner's knitting class separate from Guild meetings (i.e. on a Tues night). No dates or times were set by the group at this time. We will need to discuss it at future meetings. We will be advertising at our Public Knit In on June 9th that we are willing to show people how to knit.

****************** EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM ******************
Knitting With Beads ---- Jo Ellyn Wheeler
WOW....what an exciting program! Jo Ellyn showed us the various techniques for knitting with beads. She had some wonderful sample cards showing the different ways and types of beads you could use. In addition, she had samples ready for everyone to work with so they could experience knitting with beads. Thank you Jo Ellyn for taking the time to share your knowledge and talent with us!