There's going to be a fair bit of duplication by adding membership of many lace groups. Many of my friends belong to more than one "local" group, because that gives them access to more teachers/workshops/lace days or because they like the newsletter, and many belong to groups (local or national) outside their own country because they like the newsletter/magazine. For example, I've been a member of my local group, New England Lace Guild, Chesapeake Regional Lace Guild, Rocky Mountain Lace Guild, IOLI, and Canadian Lacemaker Gazette in North America; and The Hollies, Lacemaker's Circle, and OIDFA in Europe (not all at the same time!). All while living in Pittsburgh. I know US members of Danish, French, and Australian guilds, and I'm sure there are many Europeans who join guilds of other regions and nations.
This means there are several sources of inaccuracy: - many lacemakers in a country do not belong to any guild - many belong to more than one guild, so adding memberships means duplication - many belong to other countries' guilds, so a national guild's membership includes foreigners I realize there may be no better index for determining the number of lacemakers in a country, but your report will have to acknowledge these sources of error. Perhaps the third point helps to balance the first? I also wonder if membership has truly fallen off. There seem to be many more guilds nowadays than 20 years ago (although some of that is surely my increased awareness). If people are distributed across more "pots", there are fewer in any one "pot". Add in the increasing costs of membership and the decreasing amount of pocketmoney, and fewer people may be joining as many multiple guilds as they used to. That doesn't mean there are fewer people in ANY guild, just fewer in any particular guild. Robin P. [EMAIL PROTECTED] Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA http://www.pittsburghlace.8m.com -----Original Message----- From: julia wallace [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] I quite agree that Guild membership isn't an ideal way of estimating the number of lace-makers in the UK but other than trekking around every individual lace group in the country - of which there appear to be a great many - I'm not really sure how else to go about it. Any better suggestions will be welcomed with open arms! - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
