Ch..ch..ch..changes

I’ve got a few things for you now. But just a few – I didn’t realize how much time and energy I’d end up spending once the Guild season truly got going again – that summer time was really quite relaxing! LOL   (note: any pictures in this post are of members’ work and are not mine. They’re just to add a little color to a rather straightforward list of things going on with the website.)

One thing to be aware of is that the Board has not been able to get enough volunteers to spend the literally hours necessary each month to edit our meeting videos. So the decision has been made to just keep recording and put up the unedited videos. Still – only members going through the members only portion of the site can see them, but it’ll be a lot more like you’re there “in person” with all of the gaffes, bloopers, and giggles that are pretty much guaranteed at any meeting. The videos still have to be downloaded to my computer and then uploaded to YouTube, then I need to update the website, but you should see meeting videos within a few days of occurrence, not a few weeks. It may take me a while yet to get caught up – we kept having meetings while we were deciding how to deal with the amount of work our volunteers needed to commit to in order to created the edited versions. 

On a slightly different note, someone asked about Board meeting minutes. I don’t post those until they’ve been approved, and that’s not until the next Board meeting. So, while our secretary (currently Cynthia McDaniel) gets the minutes out to the Board within a few days of the meeting, it’s not until the Board meets again a month later that they become ‘official’. This allows for us to read carefully the draft minutes and discuss, if needed, any changes or potential misunderstandings that might occur in that first draft of the minutes. We’re trying to strike a balance between documenting what gets decided and going into all of the detail that our meetings usually entail (3 hour long meetings – sometimes longer – could make for some really boring minutes for our members!)

One thing I’m very excited to let you know about is that Daryl Lancaster has graciously allowed me to post her monograph on “Photographing your Work”. She used this as a basis for many meetings and conferences over the years, but as we all know, the technology has changed quite a bit. There’s still a lot of good information to be had, however, so I’m very pleased to be able to publicize her work more broadly. Check the front page of the website under the Education column for “Instructional Videos & Monographs” for a link to that. (THSG also has a couple of videos in that section – one of Vikki Carpenter dressing a maradai with silk, and one from a Porrey Cross meeting where Susan Love led a discussion on how to photograph your work.) The Guild works hard to provide information and educational resources to our members and the public – take advantage of it!

Check the Members Area for signup sheets for the Demonstrations next year as well as the month-long exhibit at the JCC, including a sale the weekend before Valentine’s day. I’ll get the signup sheets for the October sale up on the website a little closer to the October 2023 date. 😉

Don’t forget the twice monthly Zoom chats (one tomorrow, in fact – see the “Monthly Zoom Chats” info under the “What’s New?” column on the left of the website front page.) And there’s the Fall Soireés once a month, as well as Movie nights from both the NY/Philly Guilds and the MAFA organization (check under the “What’s New?” and “Education” columns, respectively, for more details.) No show and share at the Guild meeting on the 25th – we’re going to be busy with Deb Brunner’s presentation on creating wearable pieces of art from scraps and then searching through the silk sari scraps available for purchase. Don’t forget about the History of Navajo Weaving presentation in November, and the Stash Sale in December. Hope to see you all either in person or on camera soon!