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RBI 5-Year Plan

July, 2026 - Dec 2031

At our leadership retreat in March of 2026, the Officers, Committee Members, Teachers, and Volunteers met to work on a plan for the guild's next 5 years.... fulfilling our mission to educate, to share, to advance artistry in rug braiding, and to have fun while doing so!

Screenshot 2026-05-26 at 9.02_edited.jpg

5-Year Plan for RBI:  

Vision Statement:

 

Rug Braiders International envisions a vibrant, inclusive, and globally connected community dedicated to preserving and advancing the art of rug braiding.

 

We strive to cultivate the next generation of braiders by expanding access to high-quality instruction and by training and supporting a diverse network of skilled teachers.

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Through active engagement with fiber arts communities, we will raise awareness of braiding as a vital and relevant art form.

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Together, we envision a future where the art of rug braiding thrives—honoring tradition, embracing innovation, and connecting people through the sharing of our craft.

Jump to:

Conference Committee

Education Committee

Exhibit Committee

Finance Committee

Fundraising/Scholarship Committee

Media Committee

Membership Committee

Nominating Committee

Program Committee

General Goals and Comments: (see also each Committee section)

  • Train more teachers for both online and in-person classes

  • Increase Diversity

  • Reach a broader range of ages

  • Have a presence in other fiber groups

  • Reduce the load on Christine who is currently our Registered Agent, Website manager, main teacher, video editor, and chair of Education, Media, and Programs Committees in addition to running the Zoom for general meetings and writing the newsletter

  • Determine areas to focus on over the next several years while still moving forward on other committee’s goals

  • Have a tech person on all Zooms to mute, monitor chat, etc.

  • Have a “Meet your Braider” page on the public side of the website with a monthly featured braider

  • Share more information on YouTube to attract new members. For example, T-Starts, splicing lacing thread, The History of Braiding

  • Have a new survey of existing members to identify member skills and members who are teaching in their community

  • Have all committees give a detailed report of their activities once a year and put information on their committee page on the website

  • Partner with local guilds and braiding groups for public demos, exhibits, and teaching

  • Change our registration period to January 1 – December 31 which will require a By-Law change

  • Schedule a future leadership retreat in 2 years

Items for future consideration:

  • How do we protect information that is in the Members Only section or part of class instructions? What can be freely shared, what needs the teacher’s permission before sharing, and what is part of class only or members only instructions.

  • We need an Archivist for the guild

  • Do we need to hire someone for TikTok to reach a younger audience?

Yearly Focus:

Year 1                   Teaching and Demonstrating in the Community

Year 2                   Reaching a Broader Age Group

Years 3-5  (order to be determined)

                              Exhibiting

                              Having a presence in other fiber groups                                                               Increasing the number of online teachers

Conf Cmte

Conference Committee

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  • Determine costs for 2027 Conference at Oneida Mansion House as alternative to Tennessee retreat location

  • Consider having a permanent location for the conference in the northeast and then a smaller retreat every 2-3 years in other parts of the country

  • Connect to local fabric stores and fiber guilds on the Conference page

  • Connect with other fiber groups during the conference

  • Consider advertising the conference with ATHA and TIGHR

  • Offer different classes at the conference than the website classes (other than beginner braiding)

  • Get more members involved in planning and hosting the conference

Ed Cmte

Education Committee

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  • Have more online teachers

  • Work on more classes and instructions for RO braiders

  • Come up with projects for kids like braiding with fleece and small projects

  • Plan a class on getting ready to exhibit your braiding (utilize existing content on website - for example Photographing your Braids)

  • Continue Teacher Forum to train more teachers for in-person and Zoom classes

  • It was decided to not consider selling past classes at this time

  • Fund teacher grants for teaching in public spaces and have volunteers make T-starts and kits for sharing

  • Generate a Teacher Training Practicum and have teachers practice together on skills like grabbing a screen shot and spotlighting

Exhibit Cmte

Exhibit Committee

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  • Have an exhibit space during conference and invite the public

  • Exhibit with aligned crafters such as weavers, hookers, punchers

  • List exhibit opportunities on exhibit committee page on website – ask for member input

  • Have a class on prepping and submitting braided items for exhibit (see Education)

  • Have a booth or table to demo at widely attended events and fairs – try to get a table for demo at Sauder and get on the banner

  • Raise reimbursement amount to 50% of mailing costs up to $100

  • Consider a travelling rug braiding exhibit

  • Kris McDermet has arranged for us to have a braiding exhibit at TIGHR in Newport, RI next fall (October 31-November 4, 2027) – ask New England braiders to staff a demo table

Finance Committee

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  • Our finances are in good shape

  • Our reserve is currently adequate and continues to slowly grow keeping up with rising costs

  • Our treasurer, Sherry Chilcutt, continues to put some of our reserve in CD’s

  • After Karen Levendusky leaves the executive board, she will continue as Assistant to the Treasurer and continue to be the second signer on our checking account to make deposits and issue checks and be the second signer on the Payment Request form

  • We need to increase our membership fee to support our goals

  • To simplify bookkeeping and avoid confusion, our dues will be payable January 1 for the calendar year

  • Dues for the 18-month period July 1,2026-Dec 31,2027 will be $50

  • Dues beginning January 2028 will be $50 by calendar year

  • Discounted dues after a certain date will be determined

  • Starting in fall 2026, teachers will no longer have PayPal fees deducted from their teaching fees

  • Unspecified donations will go to the General Fund

  • We will continue to look at donation requirements but information we currently have indicates we are not actively soliciting donations (i.e. buying mailing lists) and are under the donation dollar amount threshold for needing to file in PA

Finance Cmte
Fund/Scholarship

Fundraising/Scholarship Committee

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  • Consider grants (one or two for $300) to help cover expenses for a member to teach a youth group

  • Consider an alternate way to distribute conference scholarships

  • Consider changing “scholarship” to “grant” to encourage more applicants

  • Gather data on rejoining rates of beginner students specifically those receiving scholarships (Karen Levendusky will compile and report)

  • Consider scholarships for members taking outside classes

Media Committee

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  • Open a Public RBI Facebook page and then ask current private Facebook page members (about 1300) to migrate to the new page

  • Add moderators to approve content before posting on public Facebook page

  • Have a Tech person on all Zoom meetings to mute, monitor the chat, etc.

  • Should we hire someone for media?

  • We need help editing videos

  • Update our flyer

  • Encourage members to distribute our flyer

  • Put more “free” info on YouTube

  • Open TikTok, Threads, Pinterest accounts?

  • Optimize our SEO (search engine optimization) on social media – do we want to pay to increase visibility?

  • Have members hashtag their posts – create a list

  • Send more photos to Judy Fahnestock for Instagram

  • Place ads in newsletters of other groups/organizations such as SAFF, MAFA, Common Ground Fair, Rug Hooking Magazine, and Sauder

  • Marjorie Corrow will get more business cards printed when needed

  • Post all Braid Events and Exhibit opportunities on website

Media Cmte
Membership Cmte

Membership Committee

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  • Find ways to reach a broader age range and allocate funds to support braiders who would teach a class with a youth group or at a senior center (possibly one or two $300 grants from Fundraising/Scholarship Committee or general funds)

  • Continue to work on turning our Facebook members into RBI guild members

  • Have a membership survey to identify skills that committee chairs can utilize and identify members who are teaching in their community

  • Contact committee chairs when new members indicate ways they would be willing to contribute

  • Continue tracking enrollment counts for Zoom classes and events

  • We will be changing our registration date to January 1 and setting a discounted partial year rate on a date to be determined (possibly September 1)

Nominating Committee

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  • No needs identified at this time; functioning well with a committee chair only; may need more members in the future

Nom Cmte

Program Committee

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  • New Program Committee Chair – Rose Robertson-Smith

  • Rose Robertson-Smith and Jaime Ledford will focus on Special Events and Mary Hibbard will focus on Demos

  • Why is attendance low at Special Events? How do we get more attendees at Special Events? One idea is to talk it up after the presentation on Facebook

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    Ideas for Demos & Special Events generated at the retreat:

  • Braiding with silk

  • Butting

  • Key fob with beads

  • Going from concept to finished project

  • Steps to prepare and submit items for exhibiting

  • Working with denim

  • Pet leashes

  • Dog toys

  • Herringbone stitch on strip rug or coaster

  • What’s in your go bag?

  • Miniseries highlighting our studio spaces both large and small

  • Braiding with cotton to draw in quilters and introduce them to wool braiding

  • Special Event on Verna Cox (Marjorie Corrow has contact info)

Program Cmte

Photo of our 2026 RBI Conference held in Seabeck, Washington.

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