By THLaird Colyne Stewart
July 2014 (AS 49)
Recently a friend asked my advice on starting a guild, so I
thought I’d share my thoughts on the subject. This article is based on my
experiences founding two guilds in the Kingdom of Ealdormere
Gauging Interest
One of the first things you should do is see if there is
interest in the guild you are proposing. (It’s also a good idea to make sure a
similar guild does not already exist in your area.) I suggest posting to
A&S and kingdom-related email lists and Facebook groups in your area. Ask
people if they’d be interested in joining such a guild.
If people respond positively, you can go ahead and start
planning your guild. However, even if no one is initially interested, you can
still found a guild with yourself as the sole member. Who knows, as you promote
the guild you may dredge up interest where there was none before. When I
started the Games Guild there were only three members, but now there are almost
100 members and sister-guilds have sprung up in other kingdoms (most recently
in the Principality of Avacal in An Tir).
Communication, Pages
and Email Lists
Upon deciding that founding your guild is a good and proper
idea, you can then again post to the appropriate A&S and kingdom related
email lists and Facebook groups to announce its formation.
Before doing so, you may want to set up a webpage, email
list and Facebook group first. That way you can include those links in your
announcement, and prospective members can easily find the guild and sign up.
(You’ll notice I mention Facebook a lot; and that s because a lot of SCAdians
seem to use it, but you can set up groups or pages for your guild on any social
medium platforms you desire.)
I believe an email list (I use Yahoo Groups) is essential,
since not everyone is comfortable using social media (especially Facebook). You
should have a few options for potential guild members to receive information
regarding the guild. Whenever I have anything official to say about my guilds,
or pose a question to the guilds, I post to the guild website, and the email
list and the Facebook group.
Royal Patronage
Since the Royal Consort is traditionally the patron of the Arts
and Sciences, it is a politeness to contact them and ask for their support in
your endeavour. I did this for both the Games Guild and the Cartographers
Guild. If you are planning to have a charter, royal patronage is necessary as
the Royals should sign said charter.
Charters
Your guild does not need to have a charter, but you’d be
missing out on an opportunity to have some fun doing research on and writing a
period document. If you do want a charter, it can be as elaborate or as simple
as you want. The charter for the Games Guild is extremely simple:
We, Their Most Royal Majesties of
Ealdormere, do hereby grant a charter to the Games Guild of Ealdormere to
facilitate the spreading of their love of medieval games throughout the land.
Signed this, the 3rd day of November, AS XXXVII, in Our Canton of
der Welfengau. Aaron Rex. Rustique Regina.
In contrast, the charter for the Cartographers Guild is 529
words long, and is based on PATENT 37th Edward III, dated 15th July 1363, for
the Vintners' Company of London. (I have included the full wording at the
end of this article as an appendix.)
If you have a charter, you should get it signed by your
current King and Queen. The charter for the Games Guild was not read during a
court, per my request (as I was still new and shy and didn’t want to be the
centre of attention). For the Cartographers Guild I left it up to the King and
Queen whether they wanted the charter read out in a court or not (they did).
Taxes
Some guilds in the SCA pay taxes, while other do not. The
Games Guild does not pay taxes, as its charter was so short. While the
Cartographers Guild’s charter was longer and therefore could have referred to
taxes, the period document I used as my source did not mention taxes, so I did
not include information on taxes in the guild’s completed charter.
However, just because your charter does not mention taxes,
does not mean your guild cannot pay them if you so choose. This can be done in
Court, and is a good way to contribute gifts to your kingdom and raise awareness
of your guild. The Royal Horticultural and Herbalism Guild of Ealdormere
regularly pays taxes to the crown.
Guild Structure
Your guild can have as much or as little structure as you
want. In period guilds were very structured with different levels of mastery
and several appointments and positions. If your guild is going to include some
kind of structure you (and the other founding members) can set it up any way
that you like, but it should be set out in exact detail in your charter to
ensure there are no arguments about how things are supposed to work later on.
For the Games Guild, we did not include any structure at
all. The only position was the Head of the Guild (we avoided calling it the
Guild Master since Master is a restricted title within the SCA). We did not
include any provisions on how the leadership of the guild could change.
Leadership has changed in the Games Guild twice, and thankfully everyone in the
guild was accepting of how it was handled. In both cases, the current Head of
the Guild selected their successor. (I was the original Head of the Guild, and
when I had to step back for a while, I asked THL Raffe Scholemastre to take
over. When I was able to participate more regularly once again, Raffe handed
leadership back to me.)
Recognizing that we could have had a problem if other people
in the Games Guild had not supported these changes in leadership, when I set up
the Cartographers Guild I included clear instructions in our charter on how the
guild’s Head would be selected and how it would change:
[The] mistery of Cartographers
shall chuse every year a person most sufficient, most expert and most knowing
in the same mistery and present them to us or our heirs, or to the baron and
baroness of any barony where such mistery of Cartographers is used, and that
the said person be sworn in the presence of us, our heirs, or our barons and
baronesses, to survey that all manner of maps whatsoever drawn within the realm
be accurate and true, and likewise that the same person do correct and amend all
defaults found in the exercise of the said mistery, and that they will act as
the kingdom’s cartographer, and the head of the Ealdormerean Guild of
Cartographers, for no more than one year, unless they be chosen again to be
sworn in before us, our heirs, or our barons and baronesses to continue in
their task. This choosing shall be done by the members of the said mistery of
cartography at the turning of the society year to match the founding of the
Guild, and the choosing shall be done by a simple majority vote.
I nominated a member of the guild to be the first Head, but
she declined due to time constraints. She in turn nominated me. No one else was
nominated and I ended up as the Head of a second guild.
Projects
Now, your guild may only be concerned with being a place for
people with a common interest to meet and exchange ideas and resources, and
there is nothing wrong with that! Alternatively though, your guild can engage
in various projects.
For instance, during the course of the current reign in Ealdormere,
the Games Guild is hosting Royal Games Tourneys at as many events as possible
on behalf of His Majesty Siegfried (who is a member of said guild). Meanwhile
the Cartographers Guild is busy drawing new maps for the kingdom website.
When considering projects for your guild, it is a very good
idea to run them by the guild as a whole to see if enough people have the time
and energy to complete them. You need to be careful not to take on more than
you (and your guild-mates) can handle. Also remember, that the longer the
deadline the better. It gives people more time to complete their part of the
project.
Meetings
A great way to get face time with other members of your
guild is to have a meeting at one of the kingdom’s larger events, or at A&S
themed events. Events you might want to consider having a guild meeting at
could include Practicum, Fruits of our Labours, Spring A&S, Fall A&S,
Forward into the Past, War of the Trillium and Murder Melee. Of course there
are lots of other excellent events you could also meet at, but these tend to be
events that draw a lot of people from across the kingdom and therefore have a
good chance of having your guild-mates in attendance. I know that the BookBinders Guild of Ealdormere had a lovely meet at FOOL this year (complete with
tea and biscuits) and the Cartographers Guild had a very productive meeting at
Trillium.
Other options for meetings is to do them online via a
service like Skype, or by hosting a themed event. Your guild could coordinate with
a local group to host an event dedicated to your art or science. For instance,
there was an event in the Barony of Skraeling Althing a year or two ago called
Scribal Althing that was dedicated to the scribal arts and drew attendees from
across the kingdom as well as from beyond its borders.
Conclusion
I hope this simple article helps anyone interested in
starting a guild within the SCA, and I look forward to seeing more guilds grow
and prosper in my kingdom and across the knowne world.
Appendix
Siegfried, by the Grace of Lady Ealdormere, King of Ealdormere,
and Ragni, Queen by inspiration, to all to whom these presents shall come
greeting.
Know ye that amongst other things ordained in the last
Parliament it was for certain causes and purposes in the same Parliament ordained
that in Ealdormere it would be good and just for there to exist a righteous
company of mapmakers within the kingdom, known as the Ealdormerean Guild of
Cartographers, and now it is shown unto us and to our council that the demand
for maps of various kinds is extreme and for that the people of the kingdom
will be enriched by such a company of the mistery of cartography, we,
understanding the aforesaid things, have, by the assent of the Commons and
others our council towards maintaining and preserving the said ordinances,
ordained the Cartographers who will be enfranchised to draft maps of the
baronies, cantons, shires, cities, boroughs and towns of the kingdom, being as
accurate to their boundaries and borders as it is possible to be.
We likewise will that no strangers and foreigners shall
bring into Ealdormere their own maps of our realm, unless they be a friend of
our kingdom and of the Guild Cartographers and that the said artisans of the
said mistery of Cartographers shall chuse every year a person most sufficient,
most expert and most knowing in the same mistery and present them to us or our
heirs, or to the baron and baroness of any barony where such mistery of
Cartographers is used, and that the said person be sworn in the presence of us,
our heirs, or our barons and baronesses, to survey that all manner of maps
whatsoever drawn within the realm be accurate and true, and likewise that the
same person do correct and amend all defaults found in the exercise of the said
mistery, and that they will act as the kingdom’s cartographer, and the head of
the Ealdormerean Guild of Cartographers, for no more than one year, unless they
be chosen again to be sworn in before us, our heirs, or our barons and
baronesses to continue in their task. This choosing shall be done by the
members of the said mistery of cartography at the turning of the society year
to match the founding of the Guild, and the choosing shall be done by a simple
majority vote.
We will and give licence to the said Artisan Cartographers
of Ealdormere that they may buy vellum and parchment, and inks and quills, and
travel our lands without let or hindrance in the pursuit of their duty, art and
mistry so long as they not impede any subjects of this our kingdom in their own
duties.
And we will that the ordinances and subsidies of maps and
mapping supplies of all kinds, in all cities, boroughs and towns enfranchised
within this realm be firmly kept and preserved in all points to the said Cartographers
and their successors always in the form.
In witness whereof we have caused these our Letters to be
made Patents. Given at der Welfengau, the twenty-fourth day of May in the forty-ninth
year of our society.
Wording by THLaird
Colyne Stewart, founder of the Ealdormerean Cartographers Guild, based on PATENT
37th Edward III, dated 15th July 1363, for the Vintners' Company of London
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