Nominations are now open for the Board of Directors of the Toronto Knitters Guild. Looking to expand your job resume? Like working in a collegial group? Want to meet other guild members? Then, by all means, put your name forward!
Reach out to Sara Joyce, President, at president@torontoknittersguild.ca or Cathy Briant, Past President, at pastpresident@torontoknittersguild.ca before April 25th to learn more about serving on the Guild Board next year.
Nominations will be put forward at the Guild’s virtual Annual General Meeting on May 12th, 2025.
What’s in it for you? Lots.
Board membership offers opportunities to expand your resume by gaining business experience and skills in new areas. Whatever your area of interest, we can create a match to help you enhance your professional credentials. Learn or improve your ability to do a variety of things, including how to:
- negotiate contract terms with service providers
- review and work with corporate by-laws
- connect with knitwear designers, teachers, and authors for our monthly meetings
- do basic bookkeeping and financial statement interpretation
- plan and run Zoom webinars, in-person meetings and special events
- create PowerPoint presentations
- use Intuit Quickbooks accounting software
- network with local yarn store sponsors and others in the fibre arts community
- write newsletter copy
- manage website and social media accounts
- coordinate and work with teams
- prepare minutes of meetings
Board membership is also a way to expand your circle of friends. The TKG Board is a welcoming and supportive team with a positive working environment. We have a surprising amount of fun while creating and delivering high quality programming to guild members.
So why you and why now?
In order to sustain the current level of programming and member services next year, we urgently need more direct involvement and support from our members. The Guild is not only a volunteer-run organisation, it runs on volunteers. If you enjoy your Guild membership, value our programming, and are willing to donate a couple of hours of your time to the Guild each month, we’d love to have you join us on the Board.
At the Guild‘s annual general meeting last May, the Board added four new members, expanding our complement to nine. And we’ve confirmed that our mothers were right: many hands do make light work! The guild benefits from fresh ideas and new and diverse perspectives—your perspectives—that will be reflected in programming, event planning and outreach to our members.
The Board executive meets by Zoom for only 60 to 90 minutes one evening a month from September to June, in addition to attending and supporting the monthly member meetings. We’ve made use of technology to lighten administrative burdens, such as eliminating cash sales, moving to automated accounting software, and transitioning to Google Workspace for data storage and document sharing. Key decisions are taken by functional committees responsible for communications, operations, community engagement and programming, with Board members providing input and guidance as needed.
Our bylaws require that officers and directors transition off the Board after reaching their term limits, and so we must add new directors every year to ensure continuity. Nominees are generally expected to serve for at least two years.
