I've been thinking a little about Julia's question, and I'm not necessarily sure that you can use membership numbers to Guilds as an indication of a trend, alone. There maybe a variety of factors as to why membership numbers of Guilds are changing - a decline might not in itself mean less lacemakers - it just might mean less lacemakers are joining a Guild - maybe they were once members and finances have caused them to drop out, maybe they've moved from one locale to another, there's a certain amount of natural attrition due to death, and maybe some just got "unenrolled" by the direction their Guild was taking, and resigned their membership.
I myself was a member of more Guilds than I currently am. Finances were a major factor in why I dropped a membership, and a smaller influence on my choice was that I didn't feel that I benefited from the membership, as I might from a different group. I am a member of the Australian Lace Guild - even thought I live half a world away - and I am a member of the Rocky Mountain Lace Guild, which is my local group. For where I am at this point in time in my life, I feel I'm where I need to be. Our RMLG numbers have been fairly constant over the years (but we've seen a small growth in the past year or so), but we know from the tatting and knitted lace entries at our Colorado State Fair, that there are a lot of lacemakers in the State - they just either don't know about us or don't want to join. Cheers, Helen, Aussie living in Denver - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
