It is 7 am and I have no idea what I am going to work on today. I guess I need to find out what the color is at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2016 and maybe pull that together
This means I have pulled together and finished my entry for the River City Secondary Pattern Challenge. The WINNER I might add.........I finished the winner and I am ready to overcome all takers on Thursday night, you have no chance! LOL
Last night, at our Modern Guild meeting we chose some things to work on during the year. It all comes back to Charity Giving. Which is one of the things that we talked about when we formed the group. All of the other guilds FOCUS on charity giving. In fact, there is one group called the Giving Quilt that does ONLY charity stuff. 
I have no problem giving to charity, we all know I have been on the board of CAAWS for 17 years and President for 3. That is my life. But there is a point at which guild goes overboard when all their activities focus on giving it away rather than strengthening the guild and the members.If you want to give so much to charity, work with the Giving Quilt or the charities directly. We sure could use you at CAAWS, I need someone to do our thank you notes data base!
Of course, it is all "voluntary". But when they take my dues money and donate it to Parker House to take kids to Disney World, I have to say it is too much. I stopped participating in any activity that raises money in the guild, like the birthday raffle table.
And then I find out that they are buying things at a local quilt shop to put on the birthday raffle table for a quarter ticket! Now does THAT make sense? If you want to give someone fabric from our guild dues money, let the members know you are doing it. I am sure we can provide our own fabric and save the guild money for some, uh, teachers............
And it is really sad. I tell people all the time DONATE LOCALLY. Don't give to the huge organizations like ASPCA, HSUS or Wounded Warriors. They have so much administrative costs that such little money actually goes to the people/pets it was intended for.For example, in the HSUS and ASPCA less than 1% of the collected money goes to the animals. At least in Wounded warriors when they are not partying in $1,000,000 parties they can get 40% to the people.
Of course we want your donations at CAAWS, but if you want to donate to another animal organization here in town, it still helps the animals. These local organizations can get about 95%of your donations or more to the animals. We all have costs to pick up the garbage or keep the lights on, but no one at CAAWS takes any money for our work.
Bottom line, go local, except in the Quilt Guilds, in which you should go for the member.
I recently read an article on Wounded Warriors and how much of the money is wasted and spent on expensive trips and hotel rooms. It is disgusting when an organization uses the downtrodden for fundraising then waste the money. I don't know how those people can live with themselves!
ReplyDeleteI have all but decided not to renew my membership at my guild because of some of their practices. I did lots of work for the guild last year and saw how some of the people in power there had managed to take the joy out of quilting for me ... and they kept asking for more. At some point most of us have an "aha" moment and realize things may not be working as we imagine them. It's always good to understand where your money or the "charity" quilts you make go, whether it's ASPCA, United Way (another historical abuser), or your local quilt guild ... and it's never a bad idea to pay attention to where your tax dollars are being spent, too, and vote accordingly.
ReplyDeleteFeeling better? Haha. And I totally agree. It's always best to help out locally and take care of our own first instead of overlooking their needs in lieu of national needs or what gets me...international! We need to fix the problems locally before expanding. If everyone did that in their own communities then we wouldn't need these national charities. So far so good with my guild. We make charity quilts but that's not the sole function of the guild. only a small part of it. We have informative programs every month that explores different techniques, fabric and everything quilty.
ReplyDeleteI have resisted membership in many organizations (including quilt guilds) for years because of politics and practices. I have recently started attending a small group of area quilt makers that meets weekly - no structure other than the usual time and place. Attendance varies from week to week and quilting projects being worked on belong to that person. So far, so good.
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