The Guild’s activities support companies in these ways:
- Timber framers start timber framing businesses. Many timber framers learn to be timber framers or learn to be better timber framers through their participation in the Guild.
- Many employees of timber frame companies learn to timber frame or become better timber framers by participation in the Guild.
- The Guild hosts the Timber Frame Engineering Council, the best source for timber frame specific technical information.
- SEO reporting—aggregated data from the new website will be the most powerful information about timber frame buyers ever collected.
- Historical perspective—Traditional Timberframe Research & Advisory Group shares documentation and restoration/preservation techniques.
- Training for employees—workshops and conferences.
- Business education—Business Bootcamp and other activities.
- Promotion of timber framing via Community Building Program and other TFG activities.
- Creating informed customers through outreach programs.
Few of these are likely to appeal to a guy with a chisel in his hand, yet each one is vital to a well-run, prosperous company. And each and every one of these items can be enhanced and expanded—if we have financial support from companies. The TFG will not thrive on individual memberships alone.
Timber frame companies have been benefiting from the Guild’s strong brand for many years.
With the expansion of service for Company members, the Guild can broaden its focus from a solely craft-based vision to one that includes outreach to specifiers and end-users (architects, engineers, general contractors, and building owners—the people who make buying decisions) increasing even further the Guild’s value to member companies. Our business-related efforts are less about “Expand the Demand” and more about telling the story of timber framing, craft, our companies, and the benefits of timber framing to our communities and environment. Timber framing has a compelling history and a dynamic present and future. The Guild has developed 35 years' worth of stories that inspire and inform consumers as well as those who advise them. Our community is strong and the Guild is proud of our members and their commitment to craft and service.
For more information about Company membership, contact Brenda Baker, Acting Executive Director, at brenda@tfguild.org or 833-862-7376.
