Meeting of Nancy Kirk and volunteers

Now this was an interesting event, which has lots of people stirred up!

Nancy Kirk, who started the Crazy Quilt Society in the late 90's and has continued to run it as a non-profit organziation, invited "serious" volunteers to attend a lunch meeting to talk about the future of the CQ Society.

She explained that she no longer wishes to be involved in the running of the Society, and she introduced Karen Snyder Downs as her chosen replacement. This was quite a surprise because Karen is unknown in the CQS, at least to many of the people at the meeting.

Nancy explained to the group that the CQS is operated as a 501 c 3 non-profit organization. If you want to learn more about 501 c 3's, you can read about them on Wikipedia. She recommended that the group not start a new organization, but leave the CQS as is, under the umbrella of the Quilt Heritage Foundation. Nancy also reported to the group that the organization owes her about $11,000 due to years when there were losses.

Several people expressed a desire to volunteer to see that the Society continues, but no plans were made at the meeting for further collaboration.

After the meeting, various questions began to rear their heads, and those will have to be addressed before much forward movement can begin.

• Is there a paper trail supporting the Society's indebtedness to Nancy? Most of the people that I heard from want to do the right thing and compensate her for at least part of her loss, but no one has ever seen the Society's books.
• What do the Society's by-laws say about the board of directors? Right now Nancy is the only person on the board.
• What do the Society's by-laws say about election of officers? Does a board of one have the authority to appoint a new director, or does an election have to occur?
• What happens to the scholarship money? Is it held in an escrow account from year to year or is it used for the Society's operating expenses?
• These are just some of the areas that need to be cleared up.
  

This is a tough time for the CQS. I like and respect Nancy, and I am grateful to her for keeping the CQS going for at least 12 years. Some of these questions and actions that might arise from the answers may not be everyone's liking. I hope we can have good will towards each other and toward the Society, keeping in mind that we all have the same goal: to keep the Society alive and growing!