🌿 What is The People’s Faire Council?

The People’s Faire Council is a community oversight initiative—formed by and for the people who make our faires possible. It exists to restore transparency, trust, and accountability in the leadership of our local Renaissance festivals.

This council is not just a discussion group—it is the foundation for a formal Community Oversight Panel that will guide the faire’s future with integrity and shared responsibility.

🗳️ How It Works

Council = Roots

Anyone who has worked, performed, volunteered, vended, or attended our faire is welcome to join the Council. This group forms the living foundation of public input.

Oversight Panel = Branches

From within the Council, a smaller Community Oversight Panel will be elected. This panel represents the broader community and is responsible for reviewing leadership conduct, approving key structural decisions, and safeguarding transparency.

Community Voting Rights

Council members will have the right to vote on matters such as panel representation, ethical policy changes, and candidate approvals for leadership roles.

🏛️ A Reimagined Board, Built to Serve the Faire—Not Control It

To prevent past abuses of power, the future board of the faire will be restructured around representation and accountability:

One elected representative each from:

• Performers
• Merchants
• Food vendors
• Bar 
• Volunteers
• Guilds or reenactment groups

Term limits will be enforced to prevent long-term entrenchment.

Board members will not be paid for simply holding a board position; instead, they will be compensated based on their actual work roles within the faire (e.g., as a performer, vendor, or staff member).

The Community Oversight Panel will hold one board vote, ensuring the community has direct input in every major decision.

⚖️ Checks and Balances: ECO & PR with Veto Authority

To ensure no unethical or illegal actions can be pushed through unchecked, two neutral officers will act as guardians of integrity:

• Ethics and Compliance Officer (Will Blow)
• Public Relations & Community Outreach Representative (Shana)

While these officers do not vote in board decisions (to protect their neutrality), they hold veto power if any decision violates:

• Ethical standards (e.g., favoritism, retaliation, conflicts of interest)
• Legal obligations (e.g., labor law, nonprofit compliance, discrimination)

This dual-lock system ensures internal power plays cannot override community protection or legal boundaries.

🛡️ The Role of the Ethics and Compliance Officer

The ECO ensures the faire operates ethically and lawfully. Their duties include:

• Investigating misconduct or financial abuse
• Enforcing labor laws and nonprofit regulations
• Monitoring board behavior
• Publishing transparent compliance reports

The ECO is independent of the board and reports directly to the Community Oversight Panel.

The community has the power to:

• Remove the ECO for failure to act or uphold duties
• Determine their salary and raises, based on fair market averages

This gives the ECO every incentive to act in the community’s best interest, not internal leadership’s.

📣 The Role of the PR Representative

The Public Relations Representative handles both traditional PR and community engagement. Responsibilities include:

• Managing messaging, social media, and press outreach
• Elevating community concerns to leadership
• Coordinating outreach programs to reconnect the faire with underserved or overlooked groups
• Ensuring transparency in decision-making and public response
• Acting as a consistent, trusted point of contact for the community

Like the ECO, the PR Rep:

• Reports directly to the Community Oversight Panel
• Has salary and raises determined by the community
• Can be removed if they fail to serve the public interest

📨 How to Contact Us — Clear Reporting Channels

To ensure your concerns are heard and handled correctly, we’ve established two transparent reporting pathways:

→ Community Concerns: Contact Shana (PR Representative)

Use this path for:

• General feedback, ideas, or emotional experiences
• Accessibility, outreach, and inclusion concerns
• Non-legal or undocumented issues that still matter

→ Ethical or Legal Concerns: Contact Will Blow (ECO)

Use this path for:

• Reports of misconduct, discrimination, or unsafe working conditions
• Concerns about board behavior or financial ethics
• Third-party or organizational concerns (even if not personal)

🔒 Privacy matters: If you send a message to the wrong contact, we will ask for your permission before forwarding it to the appropriate party.

🌱 Why This Model Matters

This structure was not built to resemble the old one—it was built to replace it entirely.

The previous leadership ignored voices, silenced concerns, and prioritized control over community. We are building the opposite:

• Every faction has a seat
• The public has a vote
• Oversight is real, and trust is earned—not assumed

By empowering two independent officers with veto authority and community accountability, we’ve ensured that transparency and ethical conduct are baked into the foundation.

This is not just reform—it’s a rebirth.

A faire by the people, for the people.

Rooted in balance. Grown through truth. Guarded by community.

🌟 Special thanks to Jaymie Workman for staging and capturing the beautiful photo used in this update. Your talent and heart help bring our story to life—thank you for being part of this movement. 💛📸