Hi
Firstly please let me state that I am NOT trying to upset or offend anyone Involved in the Guild and welcome any frank or direct comments!
So,
I have been a member on the forum since April 2008 and have spent many hours reading the pages and have printed and used the Knot charts many times, As a Petty Officer Seaman in the Royal navy many of the charts have been used to teach my young Able seaman to splice and help them understand how to tie some fancy work. I am also working may way through the 100 available back issues of Knotting Times which I do enjoy, (especially the first edition which is my favourite ) but my wife asked me the other day if I was a member? to which I replied “no” and I justified this by stating that I’m not sure what I get for my Money? I live in Plymouth in Devon and the closest regional branch I can find is almost 100 miles away so the probability of me attending a meeting is slight, so the membership pays for 4 issues of Knotting times which from the vintage 100 issues I have to read on my Kindle maybe justifiable but at almost ?6 an issue it is steep for a newsletter?
As I stated as an opener to the post I’m not looking for a on-line fight and think the Guild is a great thing but why should I join???
Thanks for your time
Matt
Hi Matt
I often wonder why people join the IGKT. We all get Knotting Matters of course and apart from junior members we all pay our dues yet probably only 15% of members ever go to a meeting, few teach knotting or do demonstrations and only the odd very few make a living from knotting. So the vast majority of us are not here for anything material. But we all enjoy knotting in some shape or form and just “belonging” to an organisation which caters for like minded people is enough for many.
But why should you join? You are already a member of this Forum (and a belated welcome!) and can enjoy the stuff posted here (you can also be exasperated, confused, amazed and even amused) so why pay? Well I think the answer is not a simple one. I joined in 1983 when there was no web, the BBC micro was at the forefront of technology and things like paracord just never entered my head. All I got was KM and as I lived in Essex, a couple of trips to London to meet the great and the good of knotting (wonderful people I will never forget).
But these days I pay the same amount as my annual family subscription to MacMillan Cancer Relief each month - and I really, really hope that I will never, ever benefit from their support. The IGKT is a charity and without its members it will not be able to provide a website, there will be no forum, the Bushby manuscript will stay locked away but more than that I was Hon Sec for 3 years and we did a survey of members including an age profile. The unfortunate truth is that unless younger people (ie under 60) join, the IGKT will simply cease to exist as we know it (certainly in the UK anyway). So you are not joining to gain any more than a warm glow from knowing that you are helping to preserve the art and craft of knotting for future generations as well as support today’s knot tyers. If you can get to a meeting, however informal, you will meet people who will expand your knotting horizons. Is that enough?
Go on - join - you know you want to really!
Barry
Thanks for the reply Barry I joined last night!!!
so about these knot thingingys…
Good man! Welcome to the Guild.
Barry
Matt the knot welcome to the guild.
While not known to you yet, there are other knot tyers who are not that far away from you.
Roughly 24 in the Cornwall/Devon region if I count right.
Certainly enough to be able to meet some, either just visiting one another at home, or by calling for a meeting somewhere central.
Many of the members will not come to meetings, I know from experience, but you only need two people to have a nice talk about knots, three to get a regular meeting started.
Distances are no real guidance for whom comes to meetings, in the Netherlands we have monthly meetings, three of the most regular visitors to the meetings live farthest away in different directions, most to the north west and most to the north east of the country as well as south into Belgium.
People who live much closer often never come to the meetings for different reasons. Or only once in a while.
Your nearest regular meetings now are for the West Country, just outside Bristol if I remember correctly, on a Saturday every other month, I can come back with more details if it is near enough for you to consider.
The half yearly and yearly meetings in the UK are farther away, although they have been in Bridgewater and Weston super Mare and might return that way again in the future.
As I have traveled to two of the IGKT meetings a year for the last 20 year, I can say that I think they are worth it. Whether you agree you can not say till you have been to your first. And it is not just distance, it is also other obligations that might stop you from coming to your first meeting.
I hope I will meet you one time in the future, at a meeting or somewhere closer to your home when I am in your part of the country for a next visit.
Willeke (from the Netherlands.)
Hi Matt,
So welcome, it’s a bit like joining a new mess, you make up your on mind who you sit with, and what type of Run Ashore you want.
The guild has a rich mixture of members, with backgrounds from scouting and the sea ,or both, and a lot of other interesting folk. It is fair to say not many of or members show themselves on the Forum, unless they get a prod.
You will not be alone " The Grey Funnel Line " is well represented, not all from the lowerdeck either, so you will get chance to swing a lamp.
I thought I was a competent Knot Tyer by the time I left the Andrew, but it as not until I rubbed sholders with other Knot Tyers in the IGKT, did I start to open my eyes and mind.
So make sure you get out ( not all of our members can ) to events and shows and meet other Knot Tyers.
Welcome
Yours Aye
Ken Y