Starting a Chapter: Guidelines and Requirements

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• The Warfighting Society is an informal and voluntary network of communities of practice, modeled after the Military Society of General Gerhard von Scharnhorst. It, and its constituent chapters, have no official ties to the, the US Marine Corps, the DOD, or any components thereof.

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• A chapter requires a minimum of 2-3 people to start.

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• Membership is open to all: enlisted and officer, active-duty and retired, sister services and civilians.

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• Each chapter will devise its own guidelines for setting times and dates for meetings, topics and activities of meetings, assignments for members, etc.

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• For the society to fulfill its purpose, chapters ought to meet at least once a month, even if only part of the membership can attend. Momentum and consistency are key.

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• To remain in good standing, each chapter must produce something of professional relevance each month. This may take any number of forms, from decision-forcing cases to articles to talks. For the time being, these products will be sent to Mr. Damien O’Connell, who will share them with the rest of the society. (In the near future, all products will be stored and made accessible on Dropbox or some other file-storage site.)

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• Chapters ought to keep a list of its members and their email addresses (preferably commercial email addresses) to facilitate the sending of large files, invitations to Dropbox folders, etc. The chapter will share a copy of this contact document with the society’s leadership team, which it will use it, in turn, for announcements, sharing of files, invitations to Dropbox folders, etc. *Chapters must keep some form of leadership. The leadership organizes meetings, runs them, and stays in contact with society’s leadership team. What form this leadership is the decision of each chapter.

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• The members of each chapter are strongly encouraged to require civilian attire for its meetings. PT gear is also acceptable if need be. Meetings should have an informal, yet professional and focused, atmosphere.

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• For meetings, chapter members are strongly encouraged to address all other members as “sir/ma’am,” “Mr./Ms. ____,” or by first names. Whatever a chapter chooses, members must remember that rank, experience, and billet should not stand as obstacles to the free, frank, and critical exchange of ideas.

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• Chapters are encouraged to record minutes of each meeting and send these to the society leadership team within 1-2 weeks of the meeting. The Warfighting Society

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• Chapters should inform the society leadership team of any planned meetings, along with the topic or activities planned for the meeting. All communications of this sort should be directed to thewarfightingsociety@gmail.com. Where possible, the society leadership team will support chapters in their meetings however it can.

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• All Society members subscribe to the Society’s charter:

 

The members of the Warfighting Society have entered into a voluntary association, one which any member can leave at any time, to foster progress through criticism within the US Marine Corps and develop military minds of investigative curiosity, analysis, and synthesis. The members of the group will organize themselves into chapters that will meet regularly and produce something of professional relevance. This may take the form of interactive talks, articles, decision-forcing cases, tactical decision games, staff rides, wargames, etc. Each chapter will share the products of its meetings with the rest of the Society. The society leadership team will make available copies of all work through Dropbox, www.themaneuverist.org, Facebook, and other forms of social media.

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