Barbara Hillery Van Elsen, Founder of the New York City chapter of CGOA

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Interview with Barbara Hillery Van Elsen

Barbara is the founder of one of the largest and most active local crochet guilds, the New York City chapter of the CGOA.  She is also a gifted crocheter. Because the New York City Crochet Guild has been such a success, I interviewed Barbara to make the story of its founding available to anyone with a desire to start a local chapter.  

DORA: What was your impetus for starting the New York Guild?

BARBARA: I got the idea in 2000.  It was partly for personal reasons. I'm a lifelong crocheter, but I took a break when my kids were small. After this break, when I came back to crochet, there was the internet.  It was a whole different ball game.  I got very excited and I wanted to take a class.  I looked everywhere, but I couldn't find a crochet class.  Someone from CGOA was keeping a list of names in case someone wanted to start a local chapter.  I bumped into Tatiana Mirer at the Knit Out. She was teaching a crochet shawl class for Big Apple Knitters.  But I didn't want just one class, I wanted techniques.  I felt I was a good intermediate crocheter and wanted to improve.  So I started thinking about starting a guild.  My daughter had just moved to the west coast.  There was a little space in my life.  I knew it would be a years long commitment.  I thought long and hard and I decided that if I could find a partner I would do it.  I posted to Crochet Partners and said "Am I crazy?  I'm thinking about doing this.” Right away I got a dozen messages. Some were from people on the west coast saying good luck.  Some people from other guilds saying we can share our meeting notes or anything else you might find useful. There were several really generous offers like that. One of them was Gwen Blakeley Kinsler, who said, I'm forwarding your email to a friend; one was from Melissa Leapman.  Enough people responded that I started putting out the call for a co-founder.  There was a small guild in Nyack, and through them I met Alma Stoller --  she's not in the guild anymore.  She now does a lot of quilting, an extremely creative and busy woman. Alma was invaluable. Whenever one of our energies seemed to flag, the other was there. She had been in the quilters and embroiderers’ guilds and the beaders guild, so she had a lot of experience.  I had had experience with other groups, and between the two of us we had the skills that were needed.  

The difficult part was finding a place to meet.  I had sung at Good Shepherd Church, where I was the alto soloist section leader for years, though I wasn't there at the time. It was a church that was always really welcoming-- a magic place, always very friendly to the arts.  I thought they could appreciate a contribution once a month.  They were happy to have us, and we're still there.  I wanted the space to be near Penn Station, Port Authority and Grand Central, so people could come from all over easily, and this fits the bill.

D:  There was a lot of work involved in setting up the guild?

B:  Tremendous!  I thought very carefully about the philosophy and the set up.  Alma and I had ideas for meeting content, activities outside of meetings, and just to get the word out was a big project.  There weren't as many lists and places to go on line in those days, nor as many people on line. I can write a little and that helped tremendously. We had three basic lists: one from a woman who'd been collecting names at the Knit Out, a second one from a previous Knit Out. CGOA had a xeroxed book that they sent all their members, and I went through that list one by one and pulled out any name and address that was vaguely in the NY area.  We did three big mailings, hard copy snail mail.  We held our first meeting in March 2001, and twenty people came -- it suprised me we had that many. Of those 20, many are still members and have served on the board: Willena Nanton and Jo Ann Preston, for instance. They were not people who were afraid of work. That's how a group rises or falls, on the quality of its volunteers.  In the beginning I did mostly everything, for 20-40 people you can do it.  The volume doesn't make you crazy. At that first meeting I said, "This is your guild." I don't identify myself through the guild, I don't want to be in charge forever. I'm thrilled I started it but I feel I was only a catalyst.  People had wanted this guild for a long time.  That’s why they had those lists.  

DORA:  But no one previously had the initiative to get it going.  I'm curious, what are some of the other tasks involved?

BARBARA:  Getting a number from the IRS to collect dues.  Getting a PO box - we needed a mailing address. A bank account set up so finances could be open and available.  Keeping lists, contact information. The single central thought that I had through the whole process was communication and education, from the inside out and the outside in. The newsletter was vital for outside in: to let our members know what was available to them. I scoured the web to find anything available to anyone, it was not guild-centered, it was crochet-centered.  I was enthused and wanted to share that.  That and workshops, which I felt were important for our members.  We had CIT  -- Certified Instructor Training-- in February 2003 and we had 30 people in the class. Most of those people are teaching today and now they're experienced teachers.

DORA:  So the guild grew from 20 people - quickly or slowly?

BARBARA: Pretty quickly we went up to 40 people.  I put out a call saying we need to start organizing, anyone who is interested meet me in Grand Central.  It's free and open and easy.  We called ourselves "the small group."  Anyone who wanted to be on what was the equivalent of the board was more than welcome.  People took jobs - one women woman did minutes, Alma and I did the newsletter, but we asked for articles and patterns from everyone.  That core group evolved into the executive board.  They wrote the by-laws, which we adapted from the CGOA, and they took care of all the nitty -gritty.  

DORA:  Does the NY Guild have a 501 (c) (3) tax designation (nonprofit)?

BARBARA: It's our goal but we haven't done it yet - it's a lot of work. We need an accountant.

DORA: I've been through that with a few different arts groups.  You can call Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts or Columbia Law School, and they will do this for free.  

BARBARA: That's good to know.  

DORA:  It's good to have, because it makes it easier for people to donate.

BARBARA:  Yes, and we are outgrowing Good Shepherd.  When we call new spaces, the first question they ask is "Are you a nonprofit?"  We are incorporated as a nonprofit in the State of New York, but that's not IRS good.

DORA:  Was there a certain point when things leaped for the guild, or has it been a steady build

BARBARA: They made a jump whenever a well-known teacher joined us.  Melissa Leapman taught one of our first workshops and Lily Chin came on board about a year later and has always been a huge NYC Guild cheerleader.  They leaped again when Prudence Mapstone came.  The minute I saw her stuff on the web I absolutely fell in love.  My feeling was, even if people weren't actually into doing what she does, to have a workshop like that would be very freeing and mind-expanding for everyone.  I bumped into her on a list -- a yahoo group.  I said "You wouldn't happen to want to come to NY would you?"  At the time she hadn't travelled that much, but someone in Texas made a  similar offer.  She decided to come to the U.S.  When people saw her magnificent work, they were bowled over! Her reputation even then -- this was early 2002 -- people in the yarn community, people in fiber arts publishing knew about her.  People who signed for that workshop with Prudence, today I recognize their names but I didn't then -- it was quite a roster.  We gained quite a few new members through those workshops.That was the first time Arlene Mintzer came to any of our workshops.  

DORA:  And people who came stayed with the guild?

BARBARA:  Yes, many did.

DORA:  And of course Prudence has gone on to do so much

BARBARA:  She's a rock star! 

When I started the Guild, one of the first things I did was contact the CYCA, because of the Knit Out, and they immediately invited us to organizational meetings.  As soon as we were formed we were part of planning for Knit Out.  The first one that was planned in 2001 was cancelled.  But it was a good way to get our feet wet.  Being involved with that made us very visible in the city.

DORA:  I can't believe they stopped doing that.

BARBARA:  They still do it, just not here.

DORA: Will it ever come back?

BARBARA: I don’t think so.

DORA:  Why?

BARBARA:  Well, it's indoors now, they don't have to worry about the weather.  Those tents were tricky!  It's easier for them now, and cheaper.  The city kept raising the cost of using the park and that became a huge factor.

DORA:  What is your membership now?

BARBARA: At meetings we have 60 to 80 and occasionally more.  On the books we have over 150, maybe closer to 200.

DORA:  Is it still growing?

BARBARA:  I'm not as involved anymore so it's hard to know.

DORA:  You clearly have one of the most active guilds.  So what's the secret?

BARBARA:  The secret is New York City.  If you look at the population, its size.  We may be a huge crochet group but look at the pool we have to draw from.  The people who live here are amazing.  Our volunteers are amazing.  I'm a little bit worried, because the term of Mary DuBois, our current president, is about to end. I hope there's someone courageous enough to take it on.  It's a coordinational job. There are few specific duties of the president. The president keeps track of everyone else.  So it's not as daunting as it once was.

DORA:  What are people looking for when they join a guild?

B:  They're looking to be able to say "double crochet chain space" and have someone else know exactly what they mean.  The want to talk about their yarn stash and not be looked at as if they are crazy. They want companionship and stitching at the same time.  Some of them want to learn.

D:  But not all?

B: No, not all. Some are very happy making single crochet blankets.  And there's a place for that, there really definitely is.

D:  Absolutely.  Have you found some who want to advance their skills?

B: Fewer than I thought it there would be. But it's fluid. People come and don't realize they wanted to learn more until they see what they can learn. You hit a ceiling at a certain point, because you've taken a class with all the teachers.

D: Don't you think there's always more to learn?

BARBARA:  Yes, but it's harder to find the class that will teach you something exciting.

DORA:  What are most people making who are in the guild?

BARBARA:  It varies. People have their own specialites. One woman makes mostly blankets.  Willena makes these fantastic garments that no one can duplicate.  Mary Dubois, the current president -- you never know what she's going to make next, you only know it's going to be gorgeous. There's another woman who makes amazing doll clothes out of thread. People have their niches.

DORA:  It's interesting that most people are like that rather than a little bit of everything.

BARBARA:  That's my observation.  

DORA: You have a big socioeconomic range in the guild.

BARBARA: That's always fascinated me. The cultural differences, the age differences, the financial differences.  Totally soup to nuts - and plenty of us nuts! Industry professionals, rank beginners who just like the look and want to learn.

DORA:  What activities are most popular?

BARBARA:  I always focused on the workshops. I thought that's what NY needed at that time and they were pretty popular. We've backed off on that.  We're more focused on charity work, which is equally popular with a different group. I didn't focus as hard on that because I felt that education was more important.

DORA: And going to the Chain Link conference together - that's informally done?

BARBARA: We don't charter a bus or anything -- there's too much variation in when people want to come and go.

DORA:  Was it hard to turn the organization over?

BARBARA:  Not a bit.  Willena was the Vice President and I was the President, and I asked her to finish my term because I had had it!really needed a break.

DORA:  I think I remember when that was.  

BARBARA:  Willena finished my term and did a term of her own, then I retuned and did another term.  When Barbara Williams became president it changed to a two year term.  Now that the guild is so big and active, the president is learning for the first year.

DORA: What would you advise others who want to start a local guild?

BARBARA:  I think my watchwords worked very well:  communication and education.  Including communicating with other guilds.  Unless you are total neat freak and keep everything organized perfectly, and there are such people, you need a partner.  Don't do it alone. You need to see what other guilds are doing and what will work in your area.  

DORA:  Yours is an urban model.

BARBARA:  Yes.  

DORA: How do you see what you're doing contributing to the crochet world in general?

B:  Our guild is so active in every way: we design, we teach, two of our members have formed other guilds. Our secretary Irene Iannelli started a guild in Connecticut where she now lives, and Melanie Mays, who's still a long distance members, started the a Florida guild based on what we do.

D: You've proliferated.  It's become a model for success that others can follow.

B:  Any time I'm at a conference and hear that someone wants to start a new guild I run over and say can I help.  No one has taken me up on it.  They've been very enthused when I talk to them and I give them my contact info, but they never get back to me.  It's a little dissappointing.

D: Do you check the CGOA members list? Stuff pops up their all the time.  People post questions.

B: I try to check there.  Dee Stanziano is very active there and, as founder of the first Connecticut guild, she’s certainly a good person to get this sort of information from, too.

D:  And the national guild is improving on sending things out.  Do you have anything to say about the national guild, what you'd like to see improved?

B: They use to have a chapter development chair and that helped me a lot.  I've had this pet project that no one else seems interested in but me.-- I'd like CGOA to have a Founders Circle, for people who put in the hard work to start a chapter, to have their names some place. That becomes a resource for new chapters, they the founders could be mentors for them. I mentioned it to Rita who said she loved the idea, but. . .

D:  Perhaps things are in transition at the guild.  

B: Whenever you have a group that's large and diverse, you have problems.  People who are not interested in some things and extremely interested in others, they're not always going to match. It will go through phases. People need to volunteer and be active. I could have started the Founders Circlee but didn't have the time. They need to be willing to do something or be patient.  We need new faces too.  I'd like to see more.

DORA: Is crochet important in your own life?

BARBARA: Yes, I have artistic ADD.  One month I focus on cooking, one on singing, one on crocheting.  But crocheting is always a subtext, I'm always thinking of colors and textures.  It has the same attributes as music.  They go hand in hand.  

DORA: You make very artistic pieces of crochet.

BARBARA:  Thank you.  I make jewelry,; I even sold a piece out of a gallery once.  I haven't put lots of pieces in galleries to know if I could do it again. My life has a slower pace these days, and I like it that way.  That's where my interest lies, making art with yarn and things that act like yarn.

DORA: What about art to wear?

BARBARA: Not as much.  If a piece doesn't have to be functional it gives you more freedom.  My favorite class was scultupural crochet with Tracy Krumm - she's a sculptor , but she uses wire crochet.  She became a blacksmith so she could mount her stuff the way she wanted.  

DORA: Would you be interested in curating a gallery for CI?

BARBARA: I'll think about that. We find different things. I think your galleries are marvelous.

DORA:  Well, thank you!

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