Hear, ye! Hear, ye! Let it be known that The Chandler Guild will hold its first Continental Congress sometime in the next few months on dates and at a place to be determined! All Chandler Guild members with ideas, comments and questions about this upcoming revolutionary event are encouraged to contribute your two or more cents' worth as a comment below.
The Chandler Guild Continental Congress will be the monumental kick-off event of the guild's Formative Year. During this all-important first year, we'll be envisioning what we want the Chandler Guild to be, how it will work, and how we'll each fit in and can make a truly valuable contribution to this first-of-a-kind microenterprise network.
Why call it a Continental Congress?
Much like the original colonies that were destined to become the United States, the Chandler Guild is currently a loose association of craft-oriented business folk who share some revolutionary ideas. We are independent business people who want to be part of something truly remarkable. But we don't want to sacrifice our individuality and freedom to be part of it. We want to revolutionize the candle industry. But in doing so, we don't want to simply become the latest nameless, faceless megacorp to dominate a highly consolidated industry.
The revolutionary founders of the U.S. didn't create our country overnight on a whim. They gathered, in secret at first, for the first and second Continental Congresses of 1774 and 1775. Eventually these revolutionary folks had a Declaration that everyone cold get behind that led to the creation of a new and radically different nation.
This is what we'll be aiming for at the Chandler Guild Continental Congress as we launch our Formative Year of business discovery. The Congress will be the ceremonial initiation of the deliberate and shared commitment of a group of folks who together want to create and grow a business that is unlike any we've been part of before.
Where will the Congress be held?
Like the U.S. founders trying to build a nation, we're on a tight budget. Revolutions are historically underfunded. So there is a very good chance that the first Chandler Guild Continental Congress will be held in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Mike and Lynette Richards' neighborhood is a vital and lively place with some pretty funky spaces in the various art studios and galleries that surround their Soyawax and Village Chandler headquarters building. We're in the process of evaluating the availability and capacities of these locations.
When will the Chandler Guild Continental Congress take place?
Soon, but not too soon. We know that many of the Founding 100 Village Chandlers are family-based. You are hoping that we can have this kick-off organizing event sometime before school starts. This means sometime in the early-to-mid August timeframe. In the event that we can't pull everything together by then, our 'Plan B' would be to shoot for dates during a Fall school break time such as around the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday. Obviously, scheduling during the school year gets tricky. So you can be assured that we are going to do everything possible to make an August date work for us.
What about?...
Yes, this announcement opens more questions than it supplies answers. We will be doing our best to organize this exciting and important event as soon as possible. At this point, we simply want the Guild members to have an advance warning of what's shaping up. If nothing else, we're giving you a guesstimate of when and where we hope to hold this event. This should help you with shaping up your Summer schedules.
Please feel free to post comments and questions below about the Congress. Also, don't hesitate to post ideas about what meetings, activities and events you'd like to see incorporated into the Congress' agenda.