Number Of People In Club:
This seems to vary by club. Most seem to have a minimum of 4 or 5 people up to however many can fit comfortably in the available space.
How Often Are Meetings?
Most meet once a month or every 6 weeks. This can be decided during the first meeting of the club, or members can decide before leaving the meeting when the next one will be.
How Long Are Meetings:
All of us work outside the home and Sundays seem to work best for us - we normally meet from 9:00 a. m. until 6:00 p. m. ; there's so much gabbing and sharing that we really do need a full day! :-)
The meeting starts at 7:00 p. m. and doesn't really have an ending. By about 11:00 everyone starts wrapping it up and some leave, some stay and visit.
Where Do You Meet?
Usually at the home of one of the members. Some of the clubs meet at the home of a different member each time, and some meet at the some person's home each time. A few clubs meet at rubber stamp stores.
What Does The Hostess Provide?
It really depends on the hostess. Most will provide coffee, tea and soft drinks, and usually a small snack of some. For all day meetings/stamping days, the hostess will usually provide snack for everyone, then either order food delivered (with everyone pitching in for the food. Some hostesses like to cook for big groups and will just ask everyone to bring something to share.
Are Their Dues? - What Are They Used For?
We also collect *dues* ($10 - and payable only if you attend). This money is used to purchase group supplies, that way no one's personal supplies are depleted! All the group supplies are kept in a box and brought out only for meetings!
Ideas On What To Do At Meetings:
1. Have everyone show/teach their favorite technique. You can do a demo only, bring supplies for everyone to try the technique, or remind everyone to bring their stamping supplies to the meeting.
2. Watch a Stamping video to learn a new technique, then sit down and play with that technique. You will be surprised at the different ways everyone will play with the technique.
3. If people have cards they have received from swaps outside the group, have a different person each meeting bring in the cards for everyone to look at and learn from.
4. If one or more of your members has a product that most of the other members hasn't used, see if that person is willing to bring in supplies to let everyone else play with the product. For example: Pearl X, Interference Paint, Making Paste Paper, etc.
5. Each month, have at least one person bring sheets of cardstock stamped with an image that she would like ideas on what to do with it. Bring enough sheets of cardstock so each member can have a sheet with at least 3 or 4 copies of the image on it. The idea is for each person to bring in cards that she made with the image back to the next meeting, giving one to the person who brought in the image, and the rest can be used for trading, etc. Some clubs donate the extra cards to local senior homes, hospitals, or to organizations like Cards for Kids
Other Information:
1. Try to have some sort of agenda for the meeting if you want to accomplish things. If you are just having a stamping and visiting type meeting, then this isn't important. But if your group wants a more structured approach, make sure to have an agenda.
2. Take a survey of your members to see what everyone wants to learn, wants to do, how structured they want the meetings, if they want to pay dues, etc. This way you will have votes from everyone involved. The person setting up the group can start with a list of how she would like it run, but then either take a votes or a survey to find out what everyone else would like.
3. Use the results of the survey to have demos/classes at your meetings.
4. Let anyone who wants to can volunteer to demo or teach at a future meeting.
5. Have a sign up sheet at every meeting with space for everyone to sign up to either bring snacks, desserts, drinks or stay late and help clean up at the next meeting. Each member is responsible for making sure the hostess has their email addy or a supply of SASEs so she can send them reminders about the next meeting. The reminder lists the date, time, supplies needed for whatever project is being done, and lists those who signed up to bring snacks so no one can say "I forgot".
6. By having everyone bring their own materials and chip in with the other responsibilities, it can prevent you from having to charge any kind of dues.
7. See if anyone in your club likes to write and is willing to put together a little newsletter that can be handed out at each meeting with information about what's coming up at future meetings plus some tips and techniques.
8. Some fun projects/activities to do could be: goodie baskets, scavenger hunts, Christmas gift swaps, a cookbook, guest teachers and vendors, card swaps, a white elephant gift exchange, a used stamp swap, a stamping slumber party, a group trip to a rubber stamp convention, a group caravan to all the local stamp and paper stores, etc.
9. Plan on having a recipe book - each member writes up her favorite recipe, decorates the page with stamped images, and brings enough copies for everyone to the meeting along with the dish itself. This way everyone will start a rubber stamp cookbook and have some wonderful food to taste.
10. Have a Show and Tell session. Everyone participates by talking about a new catalog, a new product they just got, something they made, a report on a new store, a report on a class they took, etc. This is a good way to for everyone to participate in the group.
Some Problems That Seem To Crop Up:
Some people seem to end up doing all the demos.
Some meetings end up being more of a social hour rather than stamping time. If this is a problem with this within your group you will need to make sure you have an agenda for each meeting.
