Volume 2 Issue 3 March 2007

Spring has SPRUNG!!
And so has our new board! The Executive Board met during the month of March to discuss some issues and come up with goals for the coming year. These items were discussed with the Guild at our March meeting. We appreciate all of you who were at the meeting and welcome your comments and suggestions. For those of you who were not able to attend, we certainly missed you and look forward to seeing you next month.

Attendance
We had approximately 22 members at our meeting with several new beginners. If you know of anyone who would like to learn how to knit or just interested in being with a great group of knitters, be sure and invite them to our April meeting. The more the merrier!!

************ Officer & Committee Reports ************
Charity Knitting – Kathy
* Charity Caps: Thanks for all who knitted caps for our hospital outreach. We were very low the month before, but now have a lot to give to the hospital.
* Charity Knitting Pattern Notebook: Kathy is setting up a notebook that will have copies of patterns you can take and make up for our charity. The notebook will be on the table along with the Membership book.
* Challenge of the Month: Kathy has issued a challenge to all members – knit a hat from the pattern she handed out at the meeting. Just think of all the little heads we will be protecting and keeping warm…..I’m going to give it a try!

Beginner Knitting Kits – Terri
We are so excited that Terri is going to continue as chairperson for this committee. She is doing a great job!
* Donations: We are doing pretty good with our kits right now. Donations are always welcomed.
* Beginner Classes: We discussed the idea of some beginner knitting classes in the future.
We had several new visitors at our March meeting who were interested in learning how to knit. Terri handed out at least 3 beginner kits. YIPEE! Let’s keep it up.

Finances - Keela
* Financial Report: Keela gave us a beginning and ending balance for the month.
* Membership donations: She reminded us that if we wanted to donate money into our account, we could. The cost is $5.
* Checking Account: Keela has been looking into several banks and options to open up a checking account for the Guild. At the moment, she has not established an account yet with any bank.

Newsletter/Blog – Brenda
Every effort is being made to update the blog within 2 days of the meeting. However, please keep in mind, that there are times when additional communication needs to be added and it may take a couple of days longer. We will try to add a couple of pictures from our meeting with each update starting next month.

Librarian - Carolyn
Carolyn reminded us that we have a source of knitting information in our library for anyone who is interested in checking anything out. A link is posted on our blog that will take you to a list of books we offer.

************ Old Business ************
Member Profile Sheets
If you have not filled out a member profile sheet or need to update your sheet, please do so at the next meeting. We are looking at putting together a Membership Directory in the near future.

Open Committee Positions
We did have two positions open for committee chairs. One was filled at the meeting, leaving one still open.
* Social Committee: The Guild would like to welcome and thank Terri Derrick for heading this committee. Terri & her group will be responsible for promoting and putting together any social event during our year. They will also aid us with our membership drive. If you are interested in working with Terri, please let her or any of the Board members know.
* Librarian: We are still looking for someone to head this position. If you are interested, please contact Carolyn (current committee chair) or any Board member.

************ New Business ************
By-Laws
We would like to establish some by-laws this year. The Board looked over several different ideas for creating by-laws and presented them to the members at our March meeting. Some of the options presented were:
1. To become affiliated with TKGA (The Knitting Guild of America). They already have by-laws in place and we would abide under them. Check out TKGA. If you did not get a list of the pros/cons for joining up with TKGA, email Brenda . I will be happy to email you a copy of it.
2. Create our own by-laws (similar or different from TKGA)
We ask that everyone consider both options and be ready to vote on the issue at our April meeting.

Public Knit-In (June 9th)
On Saturday, June 9th, we would like to join thousands of knitters across America in a public Knit-In event. If you have any ideas or suggestions on where we could meet and what we could do, let Terri know.

Guild Goals
During the next year, there are several things the Board would like to accomplish. We have tried to prioritize them according to their importance, but welcome any suggestions you might have to help us achieve them.
* Membership drive/Guild promotion: promoting our Guild more within the community through pamphlets, advertising, and flyers to get more people knitting
* Member Benefits: we would like to have a ‘membership’ card for all of those who have contributed to our funds. We are hoping that we can get some of our local and online vendors to give special discounts or have special promotions for those who have a Guild membership card.
* Membership Directory: showing who our members are and spotlighting their talents
* Guest Articles: possibly having various vendors/shop owners contribute articles to our newletter
* New Website: possibly going from a blog to an actual web domain.

************ Educational Program ************
Illusion Knitting - Kathy
Kathy gave us some great information regarding Illusion knitting. She shared some great resources with us (from the library and online) and showed us some examples of what Illusion knitting looks like. Thanks for all the information, Kathy!

********** UPCOMING MEETINGS & EVENTS for 2007 **********
All meetings take place on the third Sunday of each month at the Belle Isle Library. Meetings are from 3:00-5:00pm.

April 15
Meeting Agenda: Vote on Affiliation with TKGA or not
Educational Program - Knitting with Beads (Jo Ellyn Wheeler)

Future Educational Programs:
May 20 Cable Knitting
June 17 Enterlac
July 15 Duplicate Stitch