Here’s a fast-track for those who don’t need convincing or are renewing memberships, but we do recommend you read these preamble pages – we want to explain clearly what’s involved in becoming a TDN Member. There’s a lot here to digest, but we want to be wholly open in all our dealings, and that sometimes means being verbose.
So, why would you want to join TDN? You have visited the main site, and liked what you saw, ok. And that’s great, because we are here to provide all our information for free. What else do you want here?
Maybe you feel the need for a community you haven’t found elsewhere. Maybe the teaching Orders aren’t for you, or if they are you still want a more diverse Druid experience. Maybe you see the value in the public web site and simply want to help sustain the server costs!
Joining TDN offers all the above, but we emphasise that all our information is already free. We have no occult or hidden sections. When you join TDN, it’s the Membership you are joining – that’s all the other Members who are already here.
Joining the Membership links you in with possibly the most diverse, inclusive and informed Druid community out there. In private and secure, lightly moderated discussion groups, the whole of Druidry is topic after topic of debate, enquiry and polite challenge.
Joining the Membership gives you access to the quarterly Members’ newsletters, and the archive of all the newsletters that came before. It gives you access to the Annual General Meetings, and the subsequent minutes and reports, and to the minutes of the Monthly Trustee Meetings and project working groups.
Joining the Membership enables you to apply for funding grants for your own Druid projects, whether they be running workshops or making positive changes within your landscape (criteria exist). TDN funds tree planting, conferences and much more besides.
And joining gives you the opportunity to get as involved as you want with all the above, with the running of The Druid Network and all the ways it interacts with other faith groups, government and academia.
The Druid Network really is its Membership.
Hierarchy is minimal and is resisted.
The Network is run entirely by volunteers. The back-office folk do all the work in their spare time, usually fitting the needs of the Network around other work and family commitments. There are no full or part time time employees at the Network. Therefore, enquiries cannot be met in the same sort of time period as is generally expected of modern businesses today. They will be met, but the immediacy that is the commercial norm for today may not be attainable.
The Druid Network is an ethically driven organization. Consequently, the site is, and will remain, free of commercial advertising. The charity is funded solely through the Membership fees, fees that have remained at the same level for over twenty years. These ethics also extend into the use of the IT companies the Network chooses to use and many hours have been spent (and continue to be) in sourcing companies with a strong ethical policy in regards to their impact upon the environment and their stated use of renewable energy in powering their activities.
Membership of the Druid Network gives the Member opportunity to be involved in the interactive side of the site through the Members’ section. This is a private, secure and interactive part of the website that hosts discussions between Members. The Network also provides the Member with regular newsletters and the opportunity to get involved in various activities, part or fully funded by the Network, throughout the year. These interactive Membership activities are only available when Membership is taken out with the Druid Network.
The Network’s momentum is, therefore, mainly driven by its Members contributions through this interaction section. It was through the Network’s Members contributions that we successfully engaged with, and ultimately attained, the legal status afforded by the Charity Commission under the 2006 Charities Act for organisations deemed suitable for the promotion of religious activity in the UK. The Druid Network was the first pagan organisation to have met the conditions of that Act with regards to its stated aim to inform, inspire and facilitate Druidry as a religion.