Reasons and Benefits for Joining the WCBG

This web page is directed at builders of wooden canoes who may be interested in joining the WCBG. It outlines the specific values and benefits of membership in the WCBG for wooden canoe builders.

Who Can Join?

The Guild has only one category of membership and it applies equally to all members.
Membership is open to all builders of wooden canoes, including cedar canvas, epoxy strippers and all other methods of wooden construction. The Guild also welcomes those engaged solely in repair and restoration work of wooden canoes as well as those who make components for canoes such as thwarts, seats and gunwales. Membership is also open to those engaged in allied vocations associated with wooden canoes such as wooden paddle makers, writers, photographers, artists, historians, educators etc who are concerned with the construction and use of wooden canoes in the pursuit of their respective vocations.

Why Should You Join?

The WCBG is a support and educational organization for wooden canoe builders and those in allied vocations. It gives builders the opportunity to be associated with the only existing professional organization representing wooden canoe builders. The Guild promotes high building standards amongst its members who agree to adhere to a published set of building standards for cedar canvas canoes, thus conveying a message of quality to the purchasers of this type of canoe.
Members are able to display the Guild logo on their literature and web site.

What Does the WCBG Offer?

For a low annual fee of $75.00 Cdn. we offer the following benefits of membership:

  1. Listing on the WCBG Website
    Increase your exposure on the internet at www.wcbguild.com, with a listing of your business and contact information for free. This web site gets a lot of hits, and is an excellent source of contacts for our members.
    1. Individual Web Pages
      In addition to simply being listed on the site as a member, each member can have their own webpages within the Guild website, giving them a chance to high light and show case their work. This gives all members a chance to have a web site of their own and a presence on the world wide web.
      The cost to maintain a site such as this individually would be well over $100.00/yr for domain name fees and server host fees. It is free for Guild members, so this one benefit more than pays for your yearly fee. If a member already has a website, the Guild site pages are linked to it for free to maximize web exposure for the builder.
    2. Rotating Picture Gallery
      A rotating picture gallery on the website highlights work done by our members. There is no charge for this and members can submit pictures of their work for inclusion.
    3. Before and After Gallery
      A second gallery similar to the one above is specialized to display before and after pictures for canoe restoration/repair. This gallery will show very clearly how builders go about restoration/repair and what results they are able to obtain. If you do repair work this is an excellent chance to display that work to the public.
  2. 30 free Guild brochures each year
    The brochure, entitled 'A Buyer's Guide to Cedar Canvas Canoes' is a 2 colour, 8 panel brochure that promotes cedar canvas canoes. It is a source of information for your customers about cedar canvas canoes and explains and promotes the Guild's building standards for that type of canoe. It is designed as a piece of informative literature that members can give out to their customers in the shop and at shows. Click to view a black and white PDF version of A Buyer's Guide to Cedar Canvas Canoes.
  3. The Guild is a Source of Supply for Hard to Find Building Materials
    The Guild engages in co-op buying from time to time to get hard to locate building materials such as brass tacks, brass seat bolts, silicon bronze screws, cedar, ash, brass stem bands and so on. The Guild also has information on where to get other items at the best price.
    1. Brass Stem Bands.
      Brass stem bands are a necessary item for cedar canvas canoe construction but are notoriously hard to access since no mills in North America produce them. The Guild found a secure source of brass stem bands and now has their own set of dies for producing this product. The bands are of very high quality, and produced to our specifications at a mill in Italy. Bands are available to members in quantities as low as one dozen at a time at the lowest cost currently available in North America. Bands are available to non-Guild-members at a premium over Guild cost. For more information about stem bands contact: dalguire@xplornet.com
  4. Group Email Contact With all Members
    All members (who are online) are in group email contact with the rest of the Guild, so all members have the unlimited opportunity to ask questions, exchange ideas and seek information at any time from all members at once, with one email. This is an informal medium but has proven to be quite valuable in the exchange of ideas and information related to canoe building. Members can seek help with any building or repair problems that they run into. They can get help in locating supplies, identifying historical canoes and any other sort of canoe related problems that they encounter.
  5. Fairlines
    Twice a year the Guild produces a publication called Fairlines. It is written mainly by members for members and covers a wide variety of topics related to canoe building and running a canoe shop.
  6. AGM
    Once a year the Guild holds an annual general meeting. Guild policy and direction are established at these meetings with each shop having one vote and equal input into Guild decisions. All members have the opportunity to participate very directly in how the Guild is run. Generally the meeting is held at a different member's shop each year so this feature allows members to see other builder's shops and products. The meetings are also excellent opportunities to meet the other builders, expand your contacts and increase your knowledge and exposure to the industry. For a lot of the builders this personal contact and interaction with other members is one of the most valued aspects of Guild membership.

A Note About our Construction Standards

The WCBG is primarily a support and educational organization for builders and it does not directly control, inspect or monitor the products of its members. However, the Guild does promote high construction standards, and all members who are building cedar canvas canoes voluntarily agree to meet or exceed our set of minimum construction standards, as published in our pamphlet entitled 'The Buyer's Guide to Cedar Canvas Canoes' or on this web site. Builders are encouraged to exceed the minimum standards and are free to advertise as such, if their products do exceed the standards. At present, the WCBG has construction standards for cedar canvas canoes only.

 

For further information about joining, contact the membership co-ordinator at: dalguire@xplornet.com

 

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