Why I Served in the HEMA Alliance Governing Council and Why You Should Too!

For the last two years, I have had the pleasure of serving on the governing council of the HEMA alliance. We are about to hold elections to welcome new GC members, so I wanted to share why I've done re-election and why I think you should volunteer!

But first, we should talk about what the HEMA Alliance is and what it is not. Simply put, the HEMA Alliance is a community service organization that aims to grow HEMA. We provide services like event funding support, the HEMA club finder, insurance, a high-level code of conduct to encourage inclusion in the community, and recommendations for safety gear to help people start and operate their clubs. We are not an organization that dictates how people should study, what the correct interpretation of sources is, or even how tournaments should be run. We believe strongly in the freedom of study and in everyone being able to have their own journey in historical martial arts.

For the last two years, I have had various roles with the organization, such as treasurer or head of various committees, but my primary role was managing the HEMA club, Finder. During that time, I added or updated nearly 500 clubs to the website to help people find a club in their area and start their HEMA journey. Managing the HEMA Club Finder has led to amazing interactions with fencers from around the world, and it's been a joy to talk with you all and help your club get discovered. Admittedly, I didn't always add your clubs as fast as I would have liked (I tried to process new club forms at least every other week), but please know I cared a lot about getting your club on the map as quickly as possible.

This is a good segue into the workload and what you can expect if you are voted into the governing council. First off, you will need to be a member of the HEMA Alliance and will be expected to serve a term of at least 2 years. We had regular meetings once a month to vote on various topics, such as approving funding for event support, but sometimes we had two or three. Fortunately, everyone understood this was a volunteer role, so absences from meetings happened. After all, some of us had fun tournaments to go to!

Each member volunteered to run an area they managed, such as social media management, event calendar support, or instructor certification, and that was their primary task. We also picked days of the week we would cover to address emails that came in. This was actually one of the most surprisingly rewarding aspects of my time on the governing council. It was so much fun answering questions and advising people how they could use HEMA Alliance services to grow their club. I even had a few people reach out to me via Facebook or Instagram about how they can get involved in HEMA.

So if I enjoyed the work so much, why am I not seeking re-election? Ultimately, it's because my personal life has changed quite a bit in the past few years. I need to take a small step back from HEMA to focus on myself and achieve the holy grail of work-life balance we all desperately crave. I will still be very involved in the HEMA community. After all, I love talking to you all about I.33 and seeing old friends at tournaments. But certain parts of my HEMA life need to come to an end because real life is more important than HEMA life.

Is the HEMA Alliance perfect? No. You do not need to look too hard for areas where we have been slow to support people asking for our help. However, I can assure you that behind the Governing Council and Board of Directors is a group of people who give all the time they can to help HEMA clubs around the globe.
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We always need more volunteers and people passionate about growing HEMA. So if anything I have said today resonated with you, consider putting your name forward to run for the HEMA Alliance Governing Council. We'll send election information shortly, but feel free to email us now to nominate yourself or another member and start volunteering!