Lindsey has posted an important issue here.
I am not a member of IGKT. That fact should be important to the IGKT leadership and sheds some light on why Lindsey's post is so important.
I am a chemist, and have spent the whole of my career firmly reliant upon, and part of, the numerous Associations, Bodies and Guilds which define and support my industry. These Professional Bodies are driven by their membership and act purely as 'co-ordinators' to collect and direct endeavors.
As a hobby knot tyer (with a background of rock climbing and a nautical father) I was naturally drawn to the International Guild of Knot Tyers, expecting to find a professional body of the ilk I had been used to working within.
What I found was a disappointment. The IGKT appeared to be nothing more than a small (even though International) group of amateurs, swapping the occasional knot discussion on the forum. The website - which I had expected to hold a reference list of knots, their names and histories, their uses and methods of formation by different occupations, their strengths and weaknesses, and of course, all legislative and CoP aspects of knotting - in reality contained none of this, to such an extent I felt that the IGKT would be of no value to my hobby other than to follow the postings on the forum.
A Google search of the web lists over 27 million hits for knots, that does not even include the fields of rope, thread, braid etc. the specialist fields of sport, industry, decoration and so on. There is MASSIVE interest in this arena, but the IGKT reflects, promotes and co-ordinates none of it (at least through its web presence). I recognise that the IGKT also operates the KM and that other streams of information could well be available though that publication, but I surmised that as there was no indication of the IGKT playing the role that its rather grandiose name implied and its mission statement implied it to aspire to.
Against this, Lindsey has highlighted the key issue by posting his question re the Guild Mission. To Lindsey's question must be added three more:-
What do the present Guild officials want the Guild to become?
What does the present membership want the Guild to provide?
What does the 'Industry' want from a truly representative Guild?
The opportunities and challenges facing the Guild are arguably too big. Even the name containing the word 'International', challenges the Guild to achieve levels of involvement beyond the scope of just about every other professional body in functional operation today.
To me, the key question is :-
Does 'The Guild' want to stay essentially a 'Hobby' Guild, or do they want to satisfy the need for a professional Guild in this field (i.e. reflect the current mission statement). The latter is eminently doable, but as Lindsey and others have pointed out, it requires structure, plans, leadership and above all - considerable work and funding.
So, if the IGKT are standing at a critical junction in its evolution, could I suggest that everyone with an interest, contributes to the production of a 'Road Map' of the process the Guild faces in order to get to the goal we each desire. This forum is a good tool to discuss points of view and issues, but it is not ideal to formulate a consensus plan. To this end, I have added a 'Road Map' page to the Wiki, which is of course a far better tool to create such a plan. Visit the page at
http://igkt.pbwiki.com/IGKT%20Mission and log in with name, email address and the password igkt in order to edit the page. I will kick off the process with my own contribution for others to reshape as they see fit.