Member News: January 2015 - Crochet Fun Ahead!

2014 has been an exciting year for Crochet Twin Cities and 2015 promises even more fun!

Just think about all the fun things we did in 2014 to fulfill our chapter mission of  encouraging "excellence in all facets of crochet through an active program of practice, education, and community outreach."

We definitely got in more opportunities and time for crochet practice! We added 4th Saturday meetups to our schedule to give Twin City crocheters a chance to crochet and chat and visit informally.

Crochet education continued to be the focus of our 2nd Saturday monthly meeting at the Textile Center. Many members had asked for more classes about garment construction so in 2014 our topics concentrated in that area with an opportunity for members to participate in a sweater CAL (Crochet-a-long). 

And speaking of the Textile Center, thanks in large part to our partnership with that organization, we had many opportunities to reach out to the community to let people know about crochet and our group. A big thank you to everyone in the group who pitched in and helped make these events possible!

• We had our first exhibit at the Textile Center - Start Seeing Crochet. The exhibit ran for over two months with more than 50 items. 
• We participated in the American Craft Council show at the Textile Center booth. The ACC show was an opportunity to showcase crochet in a setting that attracts people who appreciate all types of contemporary arts and crafts.
• We demonstrated crochet at the Hennepin County Fair - a chance to introduce crochet to the general public and let other crocheters know about our group.
• We assisted at the Art at St. Kate's event by running the Textile Center booth - displaying crochet items and answering questions about the Textile Center and our crochet group.

Wow, that's quite a list! With all that activity and with our membership list continuing to grow, members approved a bylaws change in November to add more people to the board of directors and at the December meeting, members elected the new board of directors. Last Saturday (January 3), we held the first board meeting of the year and elected officers.

• President: Julie. Vice-President: Carol. Secretary: Theresa. Treasurer: Maxine.
• Board members at large: Joan, Joy, Lisa, Rosemary.

We want to continue the momentum, so we hope many of you will get involved in activities throughout the year. Here's a list of the committees and contact persons:

• Publicity (aka Social Media Divas) - leads are Theresa, Rosemary, & Maxine. This group's focus is on getting the word out about our group through electronic media: daily Facebook postings, weekly blog posting, and biweekly announcements in Textile Center's biweekly newsletter.
•  Education / Programming - leads are Rosemary & Maxine. This group's focus is on turning the list of topics for 2015 into reality. In addition to the leads, other board members contribute to education but we're actively recruiting additional members to assist in teaching and preparing for each month's topic - preparing samples, previewing materials, and other fun tasks.
• Membership - leads are Lisa & Joy. This group's focus is on welcoming new members and getting them acquainted with the group and on retaining existing members. This focus is new territory for us and we'll be reaching out soon at all members for your ideas and suggestions!
• Community Outreach - leads are Julie, Joan, & Rosemary. This group's focus is community events like we participated in last year and we'll be asking for volunteers. FYI, lots of these events offer free tickets to people who participate - so it's a nice way to help the group plus get a little perk.

We hope this gives everyone an idea of some of the activities and events in store. The more you get involved with the group activities, the more you'll get out of your CTC membership - so please let any board member know how you'd like to get involved!