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Scrapbooking Club Basics Why form a scrapbooking club? Money- The number one reason that scrapbookers want to form a scrapbooking club is to save money. Tired of paying for table space to work on their scrapbookers, scrapbookers all over the US are forming scrapbooking clubs to enable them to get together for free and scrapbook with others. Scrapbooking clubs can share resources and even babysitters. Friendship- High on the list of reasons to start a club is friendship. Getting together with others to scrapbook is a great way to make new friends in your area. Most scrapbookers share many common traits including creativity, love of their family and the desire to preserve their family history. Scrapbooking workshops have been referred to as the "Quilting Bee of the 90's" providing a social and creative outlet for scrapbookers. Quilting Bees were not an event that was paid for and scrapbooking shouldn't have to be either. Moms Night Out- Scrapbooking clubs provide a night out with the girls, whether or not you have little ones at home, a night out with the gals is always a welcome break. Learning New Techniques- Many groups hire a guest speaker to provide instruction. A local group I know of has the same D.O.T.S. representative come monthly to provide instruction and materials for a 2 page seasonal layout participants pay a $5 fee. The scrapbookers feel that it is well worth the $5 fee to learn a new stamping technique and use the materials provided by the instructor. Some Clubs distribute handouts or have a member of the group speak on a new technique. How to build your membership Announce your club online- The local scrapbookers area of The Scrapbooking Idea Network is an excellent place to start. Your free listing can tell potential members where you meet, who to contact and how much, if any, fee there is to join. Bulletin Boards and Listservers can also serve as a way to get the word out. Friends- Invite your scrapbooking friends to join you to scrapbook. This is how most of the existing clubs got started. MOMS Groups- Be sure to let your children's playmates parents know that you are forming a scrapbooking club. Everyone has photos and joining a scrapbooking club may be just what they need to get started on that backlog of family photos. Local Scrapbooking Stores- Talk to your local scrapbooking stores. They may be willing to let you leave flyers at the store and they may even be willing to host the club meetings. Administrative issues How many members do you want in your club? When you are starting
the club you may want to think about your goals for the club. Do you want to invest a
minimum of time in the club? Then maybe keeping the number of members to a minimum and
meeting in members houses is the best plan for you. Are you willing to invest some time
and effort into organizing the club, meeting places, speakers, etc.? Then
maybe a large group that can pay for a meeting place and speakers should be your goal.
Each group will have different dynamics depending on its member base. Potential
club members seem to fall into two groups: No matter how small your club is, be sure to delegate to the members equally. Tasks can be assigned on a volunteer basis, by drawing names or simply by drawing on the members strengths. Delegating the tasks helps keep the club a pleasure for all involved. Where to meet? Homes, scrapbooking/ craft stores, churches, community centers and even the workplace are all popular locations. Every meeting location choice has pro and cons to be considered. When choosing a location think about lighting, room and table space, safety at night after the meeting, availability of a kitchen, parking, distance for the members to drive, availability of a child care area (if needed) and cost. Another consideration is mixing business with pleasure. While it is convenient for members to be able to purchase items during the meeting, if there are several consultants or retailers in the club it may not work out well. Think through the commercial aspects carefully before committing to meet at a scrapbooking or crafts store. How to schedule/ announce meetings? Will your club meet regularly? My club meets every other Friday in my home. This makes it easy for everyone to remember what night it is and eliminates the need for any formal newsletter or notification system. A email reminder is sent the week of the meeting with pertinent information. Many clubs would rather not be this structured choosing rather to decide the next meeting date at each meeting. Many rubber stamping clubs have newsletters or send postcards to announce meetings. How much should the dues be? This will depend greatly on the group dynamics mentioned above. If your group wants to have guest speakers, rent a room to meet, send newsletters, etc. then dues will be necessary in order to fund these things. Many scrapbooking groups have decided to be "fee free" as getting away from fees was the primary motivation for starting the scrapbooking club. Meeting Activities and Structure It has been fascinating to learn about the different activities that scrapbooking clubs provide for their members. Demonstrations, classes, sharing, working on scrapbooks and eating and/or drinking (away from the albums, of course) are all popular activities. Some clubs provide handouts or do swaps in addition to their other activities. The structure or agenda of the club meeting will depend on the size and dynamics of your club. What your club wants and needs will depend on how your club operates. Small clubs that simply want to work on albums will not need much of an agenda. Larger clubs and clubs that provide speakers will want to have an agenda so that the speaker will have enough time to convey their information to the group. Many rubber stamping clubs are quite formal and even participate in community projects and fundraisers. If your club decides to go this route, a formal structure will be necessary to keep the members up to date on the progress of the projects or fundraising.
Ready to get started? Drop me a note and let me know where your club meets. I'll add it to the Local Scrapbooking Section so that you can find other scrapbookers in your area.
Footnote: This article was based on information from Vamp Stamp News and scrapbooking clubs that have contacted me. I wish to extend my thanks to the Vamp Stamp News. Their yearly feature article on Rubber Stamping Clubs provided the majority of the information in this article. If you liked this article, but would like more detailed information on the ins and outs of (rubber stamping) clubs, please order the July 1995, July 1996 and July 1997 editions of Vamp Stamp News and look for the July of 1998 issue, too! If you are interested in ordering the back issues of Vamp Stamp News to read the articles in their entirety please contact Nancy Waterman (fax 410-760-1495) for current pricing on back issues. I highly recommend the Vamp Stamp News as a great resource for scrapbookers who are interested in learning new techniques. |
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