(First in a series)

I'm in what I consider to be a pretty great guild, the Hrafn Warband. We started in Midgard/Guinevere back in Dark Age of Camelot, and since then we've been represented in, let's see:
* Star Wars Galaxies
* City of Heroes/Villains
* PlanetSide
* World of Warcraft
* Auto Assault
* EVE Online
* Guild Wars
* Kingdom of Loathing
* Lord of the Rings Online
* Everquest 2
and probably some other games in a more minor capacity.

2006 was our five year anniversary - a pretty good one considering the nature of the guild. We're a completely democratic guild. All full members - thegns, as we call them - are equal in stature within the guild, no matter what, and anything that affects the guild as a whole requires a vote of usually 2/3rds majority, unless it's on a "dreng" who is being promoted to thegn, in which case it takes only two or more "no" votes to vote them down. In any single game, 3-5 members might make up a "Council" to handle guild leader responsibilities and other administrivia, but nothing more than that; they still have no more power than anyone else, unless you count the right to actually post a Thing for a vote.

(Surprisingly enough or not, that doesn't happen often, but I'll cover that more in a later post.)

What it also means is that it takes us forever to decide anything.

So, during 2006 we decided we should have a guild gathering in real life to celebrate.

We've met up in smaller, more informal gatherings a number of times before. A number of us go regularly to various conventions, such as Origins or DragonCon, quite a few live in close geographic proximity to each other in some parts of the country, and some of us, who travel a good bit for work or whatever, have met up with who they could.

But this would be different - a 'fest, a Hrafn-fest with nothing more specific than "Let's hang out with guildies."

Where to have it?

Ah, that's the question all the time, isn't? The West Coasters want it out there. The Texans want it there. The East Coasters want it there. Some even suggest Vegas.

So what do you do? You put it to a vote.

Vote once to narrow it down.

Vote again.

And again.

And even when Washington, DC, area wins out by a single solitary vote, you end up with another question - who is going to organize it?

Sigh.

I will.

I'm that stupid, masochistic person.

After all, it means *I* wouldn't have to travel anywhere. And that I'd get to pick what we do!

And I get to do all the work and shoulder the responsibilities.

How much is that?

I wouldn't know until much later, and, in fact, truly until it was over.

But until then it was endless discussions. When? What to do? How to keep non-gaming spouses amused? Where to stay? How to help poorer members?

We worked and worked on those questions. And soon we had a weekend, and a hotel.

Next time: The joys of working with a large chain hotel, and of trying to see how many people are actually coming.