Beverley Hilton, President
American Sewing Guild
Ocala Chapter

Benefits of Membership

Benefits of membership in ASG are so much greater in value than the cost of membership. You may not be in a position to take full advantage of all of them, but don’t miss out for lack of knowing about them.

For many of us, just the JoAnn’s discount card used religiously would pay for our annual membership. Many of our advertisers and local retailers offer an ASG discount – if in doubt, ask about it. You can help expand local special offers by following the example of our retail liaisons Jackie and Celeste – introduce yourself as a member of ASG. We keep popping up, they will take notice.

Have you checked out the Special Offers link in the Members’ section of the national website lately? Kathy, our webmaster, has listed some of them on our chapter’s website, but there are so many more. Discounts and special offers on fabric, notions and patterns, of course. But there are travel offers, classes, festivals, hard-to-find hardware, software, publications, home dec supplies, videos, and much, much more. Many of these offers will be found ONLY there.

Notions Magazine blows me away. The quality of the content, art and writing are on a par with any national publication. Use that info. Expand your horizons.

A bit closer to home, what a fantastic job Marge has been doing job with workshops and events. Did you join the bus to the Tampa Sewing Expo in March? Saved a bunch of bucks and had a great day of camaraderie with ASG sisters. Margaret’s tour de thrift shops was a spectacular and invigorating event. Who knew you could do all those amazing things with mere thrift shop finds. What about the fitting workshops with Jackie? Or the upcoming wrap pants workshops with Sue? Our chapter brings you so many opportunities to grow in skill while sharing in the good times.

It’s often said that it all comes down to the neighborhood group, and we have some of the greatest neighborhood groups in existence. You’d expect that our NGs would have excellent programs, which they do. You might not expect a NG to produce a community quilt show, which High Springs Sewing Society did. You might not expect a NG to turn a local activity into a successful chapter-wide fund-raiser, which Ocala’s Sew Exciting did. You might not expect a NG to adopt a hospital and provide for its needs as Belleview’s Sew Biz has done. Each of us claims a neighborhood group as “ours,” and our neighborhood groups are just the best.

There is still time to take advantage of one of the most spectacular of all benefits – the ASG Annual Conference, being held this year in Albuquerque. Rub elbows and take classes with dozens of the finest sewing innovators, instructors and authors; meet ASG members from all over the US and learn what they’re doing in other parts of the country that you might bring back to your chapter and neighborhood group. It is such fun, so inspiring, and mind expanding.
Now, you know I haven’t listed everything here. For more, explore our chapter’s website, this newsletter, Notions, and the national website. There is so much you can do and learn, so many benefits of membership in the American Sewing Guild.

Thanks to our CAB

I must take a bit of space here to say a deep and profound THANK YOU to all the members of our chapter advisory board, your CAB, and to the neighborhood group leaders. Each of these women donates her time, energy and talent to making our chapter go. And because each of them has a job, knows her job, and does her job, it makes being your president a pleasure. I treasure your friendship and camaraderie, as much as I do your competence and dedication.

Every neighborhood group is represented on the CAB – that was an important consideration when we pulled this group together. That means at least one of our CAB members hangs out with you at your meeting each month. Please take a moment to acknowledge these women’s contributions. Without them, there would be no ASG Ocala Chapter. The list of these special people will be found in the newsletter and on the website.

And while you’re at it, take a moment to acknowledge your neighborhood group leaders. Without them, there would be no ASG Ocala Chapter either. They’re the ones in the trenches, who ensure members have a worthwhile program or project each month, who stay in communication with members and ensure all’s well. NGLs, you are valued and appreciated.

Finally, very special thanks must go to Marge. She has been the Poncho to my Cisco, the Thelma to my Louise, the Laurel to my Hardy, the Abbot to my Costello. This chapter would NOT run as well as it does without her, and we all owe her a really HUGE THANK YOU.

When / if you are called upon by the nomination committee to run for office, asked to take a post on the CAB, or serve as a NGL, do consider it. You’ll be signing on to work with a truly exceptional group of women. With everyone doing a little, no one must shoulder a burden.

Sharing

From the day we’re old enough to take a toy away from a sibling, our mothers drilled into our heads that sharing is good. From kindergarten on, our teachers reinforced sharing as positive behavior. It’s pretty generally accepted that sharing is a good thing.

But not always.

With the advent of digital media and especially the internet, sharing has taken on a whole new meaning. In its new guise, sharing is not a good thing. Sharing, in this context, means theft. Yes, THEFT. We see it around us in the sewing community, and no matter how it’s phrased or disguised, it’s still theft. I was asked by some of our chapter members to address this issue.
Any time a person makes any kind of copy, or shares the original work or another – embroidery design, written instructions, pattern – without that person’s permission, it is theft. Sending a copy of an embroidery design, making and distributing copies of an article from a book or magazine, or sharing a pattern – all of these fall into the category of intellectual property theft or copyright infringement. This can and has resulted in serious law suits and heavy penalties. The price (and embarrassment) of violating a copyright is just not worth the minor cost of honoring it.

In such thefts, the creator of the intellectual property has been deprived of income from the sale of the item, or of some other benefit. If we keep taking money out of the pockets of those creative souls whose efforts feed our passion, if we keep taking away the incentive to create, they will simply quit creating for us. Think of it as enlightened self-interest, if that makes it easier to part with a buck to buy rather than share.

Recently our neighborhood group decided to make Amy Butler’s Birdie Sling tote as a project. (GREAT project, by the way.) Each member of the NG who was going to do the project purchased her own copy of the pattern. To share a single copy of that pattern among a half-dozen or more people would have been theft. Our NGLs knew that, and they did the right thing, having each member purchase her own pattern.

I attended a meeting once where a really neat project was presented during show-and-tell, and the member proceeded to pass out copies of the pattern and instructions which had been published in a current magazine. THAT WAS THEFT. Showing the project and then directing the members to the magazine where the instructions were to be found would have been fine. But making and distributing copies from the magazine was NOT OK.

Another variation is freebies from websites. Same rule applies. Make and show the project, then direct people to the website where the freebie is found. The objective is that each person goes to the website, sees all that’s offered, and gets her free pattern, instructions, design or whatever. She visited the website, the copyright holder derived that benefit.

There is some very shining good news, too. In many cases, all you have to do is contact the copyright holder and ask permission to use the material. I’ve done this many times, and I have NEVER been turned down. The copyright owners have always been gracious, generous, and very happy to have been asked their permission.

Get permission in writing – an e-mail response will suffice – and keep it with your original materials so that if there is ever a question you’ll have your documentation. Then you can present your program with a clear conscience, knowing you are not taking something that does not belong to you. You have the owner’s permission. And ALWAYS acknowledge the creator, author, or copyright holder(s).

ASG has drafted guidelines regarding copyright infringement and intellectual property theft. We’ve installed a link on our chapter’s website on the president’s message page that will take you to them. If in doubt, check out the policy. Ignorance will not prevent a law suit.