The Guilds
==========
These are the guilds (or rather, guilds and trade associations, as not
all of these are formally chartered) that have agreed to send
representatives to the 2008 Discworld Convention:

* Small Gods and Anthropomorphic Personifications
* The Guild of Alchemists
* The Guild of Assassins
* The Guild of Conjurors, Thespians and Associated Trades
* The Guild of Seamstresses
* The Non-Hierarchial Association of Witches
* Unseen Universtity Faculty and Alumni
* Wandering Teachers, Explorers and Librarians

They should be able to offer something of interest to everybody, we
hope.

Guild membership
================
Participation in a guild is completely voluntary, and if you don't want
to join in, you won't have to do anything.  On previous occasions,
though, people in guilds had a lot of fun and made new friends when
plotting and scheming, so we heartily recommend it.

What guild you are assigned to will be determined by applying a highly
advanced automated process that utilises a holistically analytical
algorithm designed to find the most suitable Karmic match between member
and guild. Or, as we like to call it: pulling names out of a hat. In
other words, allocation of guild memberships will be entirely random.
Once this is done, later this spring, you'll be informed, in case you
want to prepare a costume, a Bananana Surprise recipe or something else.

While we hope everybody will be happy with the guild they are assigned
to, we will allow transfers, once the Convention has started.  For
instance, we would like to see all children having at least one parent
in the same guild; unattended parents will be collected and may be...
No, hang on... Parents need to be accompanied by a responsible child.
Yes.

The Guild Team
==============
The wise History Monks in the Committee looked back at previous
conventions, and found that while they could handle things going on all
the time, they found it more challenging to handle things going on all
over the place.  Clearly, they said, we need people who are always on
top of things, who know what's on, what's in, and what's hot.  Put like
that, the answer presented itself, and young Bompal was dispatched to a
neighbouring monastery to ask for help.

The Abbot of the Monks of Cool agreed, and picked a small but
unflappably cool team.  Before sending them off to manage the guilds, he
gave them sage advice - "Let all be excellent unto each other" - and
they left their mountain sanctuary with the Holy Chord echoing behind
them.

We, the Monks of Cool (or the Guild Team, if you wish), are responsible
for all things guild-related before and during the convention.  We will
assign deputies, handle transfers, answer your questions, approve or
veto guild plans, assist where we can, and perhaps most importantly:
keep track of the score.

Each guild will have one or two deputy heads who will be in charge of
their activities.  We are currently in the process of recruiting these.
Should they encounter any problems, or be uncertain as to whether it's a
good idea to, say, paint the hotel black to match their clothes, we will
be at hand to help with friendly advice and blunt instruments.

Mailing list
============
There is a mailing list set up to discuss guild matters, and the Monks
of Cool will be answering any queries sent that way.

Join here:

http://groups.google.com/group/dwcon_org_guilds?hl=en&lnk=li

Follow the link to 'apply for group membership'.

The Rules
=========
There are two recommendations, and one rule, all derived from the sage
advice the Abbot gave us.  If you stick to these, all will have an
excellent convention, and we'll have less to do, leaving us more time
to, well, be cool.

* Have fun
* Make fun for others
* Don't annoy

The Monks of Cool

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