The fifty-fifth General Convocation of the Guild met at Lantern House from Thursday, September 24, to Sunday, September 27, 2026. Two hundred and twelve members attended in person, and three hundred and forty more voted by proxy. Every Chapterhouse was represented, Aotea and Yarra by members who had crossed half the world to be there.
The roll
The Warden of the Seal reported 903 members in good standing at the equinox, an increase of 31 on the year. Sixty-four Apprentices were admitted during the year, and nineteen members advanced to Journeyman. Eleven members died. Their names were read in the Hall on the first evening, and the lamp was kept for them through the night.
The Guild now has fourteen Chapterhouses and thirty-one Workrooms. The Warden of the Hall reported that the Workrooms in Toronto, Manchester and Sydney are working toward charters, and that the first of them may come before the Convocation next year.
Business
- The audited accounts were received. The dues remain at 96 dollars for the coming year.
- Soren Halvard was elected to a second term as Warden of the Purse.
- A motion to allow the monthly letter to a mentor to be sent as a spoken recording, where a member finds writing difficult, was carried without dissent.
- A motion to create an eighth Warden with charge of the online Workrooms did not reach the two-thirds required, and was referred to the Council for a report.
The Masters' pieces
Three pieces were laid before the Convocation. By custom the names of candidates are not published.
The first was a year of the seven lots, drawn daily and scored each night against a second draw made and sealed by another member, so that the candidate's reading of the day could be compared with a lot she had never seen. The Convocation questioned her for two hours, chiefly on her scoring, and accepted the piece.
The second was a set of the four instruments made from a single wind-felled oak, with a rite of consecration composed so that each instrument was received at one of the four Convocations of a single year. It was accepted, with a request that the rite be printed in The Guild Record.
The third was returned to the bench with comments. Its author took the decision with a good grace that several older Masters remarked upon, having had less of it themselves.
Founders' Night
On the Thursday evening, the fifty-fifth anniversary of the first meeting of the Thursday Workroom, the three lots were drawn in the archive. They gave an entry of Ambrose Tolland's for February 1962, recording a working that failed completely and a head cold; one of Imogen Castellane's for October 1977, on the difficulty of translating a single line; and one of Margit Anselm's for June 1990, which consists of a column of figures and the words "checked twice." All three were read aloud, as they are every year, without comment.
The fifty-sixth General Convocation will meet at Lantern House from September 23 to 26, 2027.