All crafters are happily welcome at our weekly virtual meetup!
PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ZOOM MEETING NORMS!
If you’re a regular at our meetings, this is the new invitation with the group norms and the new, new, new link. If you’re new, we’re looking forward to meeting you. What took you so long?
Before the world turned upside down, we met weekly in a local coffee shop in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Then we moved to virtual meetings to get us through until the world started opening again. Now we’ve realized that we’d be sad without all our friends from other places, so we’re going to keep the virtual meeting going.
Back in the day, we were all about knitting and crochet, but then one started chainmaille, another started cross-stitch, and one illustrious member crafted by reading the New York Times.
Throughout all our phases, meeting spaces, and crafts, the constant has been our easy-going, welcoming vibe. The group truly welcomes all sorts of humans who practice all sorts of art and/or engineering. We’re as happy to meet seasoned knitters as we are to meet embroiderers who are picking up a needle for the first time. We joyfully welcome people from the whole spectrum of humanity when it comes to gender, race, ethnicity, background, and any other way we artificially divide our species.
We enjoy each other’s company, and we’re pretty sure we’ll enjoy yours. So join us to craft and chat. Stakes are low, so pop in and say hi if you’re not sure this is the right group for you. Hang out with us once and then make up your mind. There’s no fee, and you were going to get on the interwebs Sunday morning anyway.
ZOOM MEETING NORMS
We’ve grown a great deal, so we’re now asking people to agree to some basic norms before entering. If we all follow these norms, everyone in the group will feel safe, happy, and welcome. That’s our goal here.
CAMERA ON WHEN YOU JOIN, PLEASE. Not everyone loves having their camera on, and we’re not asking people to be uncomfy. You don’t have to keep it on the whole time, but we’d like to see you at the very beginning so we can make sure you’re you and say hi.
MUTE WHEN NOT TALKING. There are times when feedback and background noise can distract us and make participation annoying. It’s not always easy to know if we’re the ones making the noise, because we can’t hear our own microphones. The easiest way to combat this is to leave our microphones on mute until we’re ready to jump in and speak. This little act of kindness makes the experience much better for everyone. We do want everyone to participate! This just helps us hear everyone well.
LISTEN TWICE, SPEAK ONCE. Our Zooms are getting big, so we want to make sure that everyone has a chance to contribute fully. There may be times when each of us talk a little more, and that’s fabulous. We just ask that there’s room for the shy folks in the group to have ample opportunity to jump in. (If you want to do a deep dive with a small group, you can always ask the host to open a breakout room for you!)
BE KIND. Many of us grew up with a rule to keep money, politics, and religion out of dinner table conversation. We don’t go nearly that far. We’re just asking all of our friends to remember that our crafting buddies come from all sorts of backgrounds and have all sorts of ideas. They may have different perspectives to ours, and we hope you’ll celebrate our differences as much as we do. Please contribute in a way that makes the most sensitive among us feel safe and comfy. That’s what we’re all about.
