Hello Explorers!

We have board of director elections coming up, so if you’ve ever envisioned yourself as taking on the responsibility of running an organization this is your chance!

We also had a question about jaunty hats in our Steeplechase Slack channel, that I figured might be enjoyed in a broader dispatch. You’ve marked your calendar for Steeplechase on Sunday, October 19th right?

Read up on these and more down below!

Board Elections

As we’ve outlined in the past, the Explorers Guild is a 501c7. This responsibility brings with it an organization style to help make our guild functional and sustainable.

Broadly speaking, we make our events open to the public to attend. Members though are the ones that we organizers are beholden to. Members pay $10/calendar year, but with that are granted access to all our paid events and they are granted voting rights for the board. Membership is achieved through either signing up to our Patreon, paying a $10 fee either directly or by attending a paid event with a noted membership fee (e.g. Adventure Camp, Aftel Archive).

The organizers of the Explorers Guild (mentioned above) are two fold.

1. Council: Events are planned by the council. This group meets once a month and are often focused on ideation, building, and logistics for our offerings. We encourage anyone who would like to put on an event or make a project happen with the Explorers Guild to express interest in the council. Joining the council can happen any time throughout the year.

2. Board of Directors: The board oversees policy creation, government required form logistics, code of conduct, and financial distribution. They meet about four times a year with committed hours ranging monthly based on the tasks needing to be done.

Our bylaws state that we have a responsibility to hold elections every year for our board of directors. We’ve chosen to do this to keep the directors inspired, engaged, and accessible for members. The board of director terms are for 2 years and staggered. What we’re looking for in board members are people with: 

• Strong communication and interpersonal skills.

• Ability to think critically and contribute constructively to discussions.

• High level of professionalism and confidentiality, especially in dealing with sensitive matters.

• Commitment to the values, mission, and vision of the Explorers Guild and its bylaws.

This year we have three roles up for election, the President, Secretary, and a Board Member at Large.

Our election process is open to members and will be completed as follows:

• October 20th - November 3rd, Nominations will be taken. Nominees must be official Explorers Guild Members.

• November 4 - 14th, Voting happens, with members getting an email directly from the board about the process.

• November 15 - 17th, the existing board will reach out to winners and offer them the role.

• November 20th we’ll announce the newly elected board of directors via our dispatch.

A transition will happen at the end of the year, and your new board will officially begin on January 1, 2026.

So, if this is of interests to you, now’s your chance to think it through. You’re welcome to reach out to Dr. Professor if you have any questions, though the official roles and responsibilities will be sent out on October 20th as we start accepting nominations.

Steeplechase & Jaunty Hats

As noted last week Steeplechase is coming up on Sunday, October 19th. It’ll be a wonderful reimagining of the event as we look back on the stories of the past while we ride San Francisco’s carousels.

In our announcement we noted Explorers should make sure to bring a jaunty hat, with the side note of: “the more fun/absurd/whimsical the better, there may be prizes.” But what does this mean?

For most Explorers Guild outings, I like to call out brimmed hats and will sometimes use brimmed and jaunty interchangeably. But for Steeplechase we’ve had some absolutely lovely and over the top hats over the years. Gnome hats, pinwheels, jester, unicorn, kangaroo, ribbon filled… honestly it brings me so much joy to see what people will wear. If you have the means and the excitement, I encourage you to come out and show off your beautiful bonnet, or head cozy, or dream fascinator, etc etc. I’ve included some photos from some of my favorite hats.

For those keeping track, we’ll be identifying jaunty hat prizes during lunch time. Jaunty hats are strongly encouraged but not required for Steeplechase.

There is so much happening in October but I hope our paths get to cross in this hectic time.

If not for Steeplechase, I’ll be checking out Wylding Woods on October 25th, going to Raining Chainsaw’s Puppet Death Match, and attending Driveway Follies on the 30th.

Until that time, Semper Explorandum Explorers!!!