Re: [lace] Lace 117 - Or a small group of friends?

[Aurelia Loveman]

Well, dear Devon, let me disagree with you a little bit. We have 
three different lace groups that have been meeting here for some 
years now, and seem very stable and permanent. Nobody has died, 
nobody has moved, and I can't imagine that anything else could take 
the place of lace and lacemaking in their lives. We don't advertise; 
but we don't need to advertise. Several of our regulars have found us 
by going online! So far we have all loved each other and the hostess 
(me) has been affectionate and accommodating, which is to say, I 
provide chairs, space, a window-wall which gives excellent light; and 
-- sometimes --  the occasional cup of tea. One of our regulars is a 
terrific bread-maker (yes, the arrival of the bread does often but 
not always extract the hostess from her lace and her pillow and steer 
her into the kitchen to make the tea); another of our regulars is a 
whiz with machine embroidery and has given us all a brand-new idea of 
what can be done with machines; yet another is a colonial historian 
who does period re-enactments, a thing some of us never heard of 
before she joined us; and yet another is a computer whiz; so you see, 
we aren't all that homogeneous. I think it has added a new and 
wonderful dimension to our lives, and not just to our lace lives!  -- 
Aurelia

Jeri has been kind enough to describe what we in the US do in order to  enjoy
lacemaking. I have spent many pleasurable hours in just such groups.
However, I feel a profound sense of sadness that people in the UK 
are losing the
support of the adult schools because it is a very significant loss.
I belonged to a class that met at a local historical society. It advertised
the classes and held them in its facility. When a new secretary was hired, she
 became very delinquent about getting out the sign-up materials and they
typically arrived after the first week of class. The result was that from the
moment she became secretary we never had a new person in the class. Only those
people who were already aware of the class signed up and they all called each
other in advance to warn that the class was about to start. This lack of
advertising was the death knell of the class because eventually all the old
class members died, moved or became interested in other hobbies. The 
advertising
keeps new people coming in.
The holding of the class or group meeting in a private home also has a  very
significant impact. For one thing, you can't advertise! When it is held in  a
private home there is a lot of timidity about giving out the phone number of
the person holding the meeting or class. There is a lot of timidity about
bringing someone. You may like them, but will the hostess? And then if the
hostess doesn't like them and doesn't want them in her home it is a 
big problem.
Because the hostess is being kind enough to host, it seems impolite to include
anyone she doesn't like and force her to have them in her home. Also, she
will  cease to provide hospitality if there is anything that is 
displeasing about
 the arrangement. Thus the group becomes a group of the hostess' friends.
This  tends to result in a real homogeneity of the members of the group. Of
course,  one can have really deep friendships when everyone is very 
much the same,
but  sometimes a little heterogeneity can make for a more vibrant, and larger
group.
Devon

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