I was under the impression from what I was told was that the reason the Circle
failed was a bit of both - lack of members and lack of members willing to
serve on their Committee.
Jane Partridge
I would like to comment on Jane's comment. I believe that membership of
many Lace Guilds is down and that there are fewer members willing to
take on the role of 'running' things. The question of subscriptions is
also a major problem for many groups, printed magazines cost, they cost
to produce and they cost to mail These costs are rising further as
members age and few new members come to take their place membership
drops leading to a rise in subscriptions leading to a further drop in
numbers.
Sounds like a chicken and egg situation. But let us look at the
sociological changes that have occurred in the last 40 years. In the
1970's when most guilds were established, many women did not work
outside the home, many young women were at home with children and
importantly had the time to learn crafts and serve on committees. Today
young ones have to work to afford their first child, most return to work
within a year of that child's birth and try to juggle work, home
children. These women do not have time for guilds in the traditional
sense. However, from my own family experience these women do access the
web to learn their crafts! They form themselves into stitching groups
outside the guild structures.
So as we age and fail to attract the young we have to rethink the whole
notion of the future of guilds and organisations. We also have to look
at us, many of us are aging, I laugh when I consider that 30 years ago I
was one of the youngest in the local guild and I still am.
Those of us post retirement age have a heap of issues to deal with
starting with our own health, family members health and need for our
assistance and in general spreading ourselves amongst all the community
groups many of us are involved with.
Sadly I have no solutions BUT I think that we collectively can come up
with local solutions and it will be these that will inspired others.
Anna in a sunny Sydney where Autumn is trying hard to arrive.
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