Guild Future

Last Sunday Jan 22 a large group (30+) of fools gathered at Cal and
Rover’s Green Man Lodge to discuss the future of the Fools Guild as we
arrive at a crossroad. “I was always told that when you come to a fork
in the road,” said one ex-king, “TAKE IT.”

As usual “bring a snack to share” meant that the table was laden with a
massive potluck feast. Well fed, we settled into the Great Room,
filling it to the rafters, and embarked on a heartfelt
two-and-a-quarter-hours of impassioned debate, gathering a consensus to
plan our future. Here are the headlines. For details, read further below.

THE FOOLS GUILD IS NOT CLOSING UP SHOP
RECRUITING NEW FOOLS IS CHALLENGING
WE ARE MORPHING MOOSEWARD
OUR EVENT SCHEDULE SHOULD BE FLEXIBLE
WE LIKE HAVING A NEW KING EVERY YEAR
WE LOVE THE JOKER NEWSLETTER
PARADE OF FOOLS AT FAIRE WILL CONTINUE
LET’S IMPROVE OUR WEBSITE

THE FOOLS GUILD IS NOT CLOSING UP SHOP. The FG is an extended
family as much as it is a social club, and no one wants to see it disappear.
Dianne Longdo quoted Nathaniel Hawthorne: “Every true and happy family
is a soul-system that outshines all the solar-systems in space and time.”
The FG family will exist, in some form or other, as long as we all exist.

RECRUITMENT is challenging. Most younger folk would prefer to develop
their own social groups rather than join ours. Many people have come to
our parties and complained that we ignore newcomers. So the Fools Guild
family doesn’t have much opportunity to expand – but we can attract
other social communities to “overlap” with us: read on.

MORPHING MOOSEWARD. For the past quarter-century, since losing our
Guildhall, we’ve maintained a structure of electing a new King
annually, throwing 3 large themed parties every year plus assorted
smaller events, maintaining a storage facility, publishing a
newsletter, etc. – a structure that places an undue burden of work on a
small crew of doers and an unprepared king. Since this model has
recently grown unsustainable from burnout, attrition, and a lack of a
younger generation of joiners, we have initiated a movement of becoming
members and officers of the Glendale Moose Lodge, in order to establish
residency in a much-needed clubhouse.

Having a clubhouse eliminates the need for much of the structure we
have struggled to maintain: we can throw more casual and frequent
social gatherings, store our stuff, and host ‘activity groups’ like the
Fools Guild and other local gangs of like-minded people who need a
gathering space, to create a Variety Arts Club.

There are some issues with assimilating Moose Culture. We are
inheriting a Lodge that needs repair and redecorating and is in debt.
The Old Guard was less welcoming than we’d hoped. And there is a
perception that the Moose organization is antiquated and unappealing to
the people we want to encourage to join – plus there are annual dues.
But many (not all, but most) feel that there is a Golden Opportunity
here to take advantage of. The huge Glendale Lodge has amazing
potential; we are rapidly gaining majority control of the Board; we
have the support of Regional Moose governance; our new treasurer
(pro-tem) is personally able to help finance the Lodge’s recovery; we
may be able to reinstate our Women of the Moose chapter and indeed
become the beta-test Lodge for welcoming women as full members. So:
many of us have joined and committed much time and effort towards
becoming the leaders and doers of this re-invented Moose chapter –
essentially helping reshape it from within – a challenging process, but
seemingly worth the effort.

We do have to be mindful that the Moose has to follow strict bylaws to
maintain its tax-free status: it’s a Private Membership Club and events
there are for Members and their Guests, etc. But we are quickly
wrapping our heads around these issues. The good news is that many
events will be free of a cover charge, making them affordable to more
Fools – as our recent New Year’s Eve party proved.

We know that not all Fools want to join the Moose Lodge, and that our
plan may fail despite our best efforts, but we’re giving it our best
shot. If we indeed fail, our Plan B would be to have a much less active
Fools Guild, with only such events that are easily planned and produced.

WE LIKE ELECTING A NEW KING EVERY YEAR. There is still strong
support for this tradition. A king gives our scattered, diverse membership a
central rallying point, fresh inspiration, and a different flavor that
reflects the new king’s unique style. There are still many worthy
candidates. Having a clubhouse will put less pressure on new Kings to
be stressed-out super-producers. This will be further debated by the
ex-kings-and-mothers-folly at their upcoming annual meeting.

THERE IS NO NEED TO CONTINUE OUR PARTY SCHEDULE TRADITION.
There are now so many themed parties on Halloween and NYE that we should
feel free to emphasize our Feast of Fools and to exploit other holidays (Mardi Gras!
Groundhog Day! Purim!) instead. Let’s not compete with all the other
great parties in town. Fools are encouraged to submit their own ideas
for celebrations, on the condition that they become that party’s
producer – it’s like being King for a Day!

WE LOVE THE JOKER NEWSLETTER. Heidi remains a willing publisher.
There is a strong desire for it to continue being printed on paper, as long
as there are enough donations from the people who receive it to sustain
its cost. Many would also like to see it published online here *,
with a “print it yourself” option.

(* The Joker is close to 8MB)

OUR WEBSITE SHOULD BE BETTER EMPLOYED with more updated
content to foster better communication and more traffic. We will also continue
to use the Foolander (email announcements, thanks to Michael Kember), the
Fools ListServe (to share ongoing conversations and humor), and
FaceBook (Kent Elofson has volunteered to update this).

FOOLS PARADE at the Renaissance Faire will continue to be planned.

SO: Remember that if you want the Fools Guild to continue, please
participate. Do what you can: join the Moose Lodge, contribute to the
Joker (content and/or money), volunteer to help. As William Barrett
pointed out, the Fools Guild won’t die as long as we’re still alive and
kicking. – Rover