More specifically, Wandering Folk Society (WFS) is a LARP-centered social club, meant to foster recreation, social interaction, and community for its members. Everyone who is a part of our club is a Community Member. All Community Members are expected to follow basic codes of conduct such as courtesy, kindness, and integrity. Only Community Members are able to purchase entry to our games and events (although we do make it a point to partner with local businesses and proprietors to help ensure our events connect with whichever area our wanderers descend upon; part of our ethos is to get others involved in our hobby!). In WFS, “member” can be used interchangeably with “community member.”

We used to call the different membership types “tiers,” but the reality is tiers does not represent our role-based participation, with each role taking on a different responsibility in interacting with, engaging in, or running our club.

Each Community Member can take on different levels of responsibility if they are willing to serve. These areas of responsibility are selected either by a Lead, by committee, or upon an election.

Participants are anyone who partakes in our games by purchasing entry and attending one of our Games/Events. Participants are anyone who plays in-person at our events or games. Our volunteers always have always started out or had tenure in being a participant. Folks typically cannot take on more responsibility if they have not yet played and then volunteered in a game.

Stewards are the folks who help make our games run. They are made up of Leads, who lead a team of volunteers who work on some aspect of the game which can include the lore, plot, rules, strategic gameplay, budget, and logistics. Some of these folks take on responsibility leading up to the game, some at each game or event, and some have day-to-day duties such as Culture Leads or the Lead Gamerunner of a game.

Wardens are officially the Officers of our club. Their terms are two years at a time, they can serve three consecutive terms before taking a step back to allow at least one term with new leadership. Our first Warden positions were created before we officially had members and so were not elected; our first two-year term ends in October 2026 for the President, Secretary, and Treasurer positions. Our Vice President has stepped down and so our membership will be holding an election this year. Only Members may campaign to be elected as a Warden. Wardens, or Officers, are responsible for the day-to-day management of the Society. They are not necessarily focused on any one game but rather the distribution of resources, organization and communication with membership, and continued sustainability.

Board Members are folks who have applied and been chosen by our Wardens to handle the governance of the Society (although we continue to have openings and bring on one by election and one chosen by application for people outside of our membership). Where management of the Society is about operation, logistics, and day-to-day decision-making, governance is about oversight, accountability, and long-term vision.

Each Member has certain voting rights, especially in the election of Wardens.

While that all summarizes our organization, our structure is a little different. We are a nonprofit operating as a hopeful 501(c)(7) social club. The purpose of operating as a hopeful 501(c)(7) is that we will exempt from certain profit-focused taxes since our organization is structured in such a way that our budget goes directly back into our mission to provide more LARPs like our flagship LARP. This does not mean we pay no taxes; we contribute to other taxes, such as sales tax.

Overall this structure is meant to get away from single person or company ownership and more to a communally-tended and preserved entity. We are hoping that this structure allows for a more sustainable organization so that we can continue to join together and play our games for as long as we like.