Exploring Your Member Benefits, Part 3:

You Have a Voice

What do you want out of the Guild to further your glass-artistry growth? Speak up.

There’s reciprocity in any organization: the more energy you contribute, the more you get out of it.

“I’ve been a member for almost 2 years. But these have been Covid years. I joined because there was a discount for members in the on-line contest. Then I started attending the Guild’s General Meetings via Zoom and volunteered to help with the new website and newsletter. Then I started going to Board meetings to see how the decisions were being made.

Instead of feeling isolated by Covid restrictions, I have lots of new glass friends: I know who to call if I want help exploring new areas like dichro or cane pulling or lots of other things. Someday I’ll even get to meet these inspiring new friends in person.” (Karen Seymour, Seattle)

Karen Seymour masked

Things YOU can do to get more out of your membership:

1) You don’t even need to be a member to attend the General Meetings. “Studio tips” (members showing how they solved their organizing and other studio issues) is coming up January 23rd. Since meetings are Zoom you don’t even have to leave home. This year they will be from 3:30pm to 5pm on the 4th Sunday of most months.

These are NOT business meetings, they are discussions of various topics of interest to glass artists. Sometimes it’s a very narrow topic like “How Fusing Temperature Affects Texture”, sometimes of much wider interest like “Pricing Your Work” or “Lighting”. Meeting videos are posted in Glass>Education on the website for logged in members to view if they missed a meeting or want to review a topic.

2) Send meeting ideas or volunteer to share your insights to our VP Rachel Dollar. She’s currently looking for “Studio Tips” for January 23rd and “What I learned From My Students” (tips on teaching glass classes) for February 27th. Watch some of the meeting videos and you’ll see it’s not scary, just talking for a few minutes to a group of friends.

3) Share any ideas with our President, Terry Thomas by email or just by typing them in the survey form.

4) Go a step further and attend a Board meeting to participate in the discussion of how we implement your idea. The next Board meeting is Monday Feb. 7th at 7pm via Zoom. Members can go to email prefs in their account settings to sign up for the “Guild Business” emails to get the agenda and Zoom links for Board meetings

5) Volunteer: you can start small by helping with or hosting a Play Day or helping Rachel with a General Meeting. If you’re in the Portland area Gathering Of the Guilds in May will need lots of volunteers. Or join one of the teams with on-going projects.

6) Host an event: The Guild has an established presence in the Portland OR area for historic reasons but wants to help glass events throughout the Pacific NW. Doing so in your city requires a member in your city to lead the effort. If not you, then who?

When you ask the Guild to sponsor your event you’ll get website, newsletter, email, and Facebook publicity plus you can usually find a member who has done a similar event to give you some tips and answer questions.

Guild Picnic in Seattle, August 2021

You have a voice: use it and you’ll get much more value from your membership.