Saturday, February 9, 2013

Planning for the Guild's Exhibition and Sale.

Today I went downtown to attend the planning meeting for this year's Ottawa Valley Weavers and Spinners Guild Exhibition and Sale (The Sale). Following last night's 20 cm snowfall, I decided to drive to the Park and Ride and take the bus. Overall it was more than an hour each way, but a safe and serene ride.

The meeting was for all potential participants in The Sale. That Sale is held in the beautiful Glebe Community Centre where there is room for 26 booths. Invitations for this meeting were sent to all possible participants, but only 13 attended. So what was planned by these is what will be. As is the norm, I was the lonely member of the male sex, and the lonely basket-maker among all the weavers and spinners.

Today's meeting was held at Heartwood House off Rideau Street in downtown Ottawa. Heartwood House is the home of the Guild as well as perhaps two dozen or more charitable organizations. Heartwood House has been sold to a developer and there are rumours of a multi-story condominium replacing it. This may well be the last meeting I attend there since March is the planned moving date to a new centre.

As with most of the meetings of the Guild, consensus building was the technique used in going through the agenda. Everyone had her say. I was very patient as I prefer a more structured approach to meetings. By the end of the meeting all had volunteered for one task or another. Mine is to collect from all booth-holders, on the first day of the sale, donations from each participant to the retail value of $50.00 or more. As I do this, I will make a list of the donors, what their donation is, and the assigned value. I will then keep a running total of the value, and place the donations that reach a particular total in a basket where they will be on view as one of the lottery prizes. Any excess donations will be put on one side.

My task is not time consuming, but it is valuable.There are twenty-six booths planned for at the Glebe Centre so z minimum of around $1300 of hand crafted donations will be collected.

As is usual. the 33rd (?) Sale will be held on the first weekend in November, Friday night, Saturday and Sunday.

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