Guild Credits, explained

Guild Credits are a ledger. Members earn credits for doing things that make the Guild work, and spend them on things the Guild and its partners provide. There is no cash value, no expiry gimmick, and no tier that has to be maintained. It is a record of contribution, and it converts.

The reason to have such a thing is straightforward. An organisation like this is carried by a minority of its members: the ones who bring a friend every month, who turn up to another member's show on a Tuesday, who help load out when the crew is short. Those people already do it without being asked. Credits mean the organisation notices.

Earning

Credits are awarded against recorded events, not self-reported effort. The categories are:

• Bringing a guest. A guest admitted on your pass, or a ticket bought on your recommendation and attributed to you. This is the highest-value action a member can take, and it is priced accordingly.
• Attending. Checking in at a Guild show earns credits. Small amounts, every time, which over a year of regular attendance becomes significant.
• Referring a member. Someone joins and names you. Credits post when their membership completes, not when they express interest.
• Performing. Playing a Guild Live, Showcase or After Dark set earns credits on top of the fee. The fee is the payment; the credits are the membership relationship.
• Volunteering. Door, load-in, merch table, camera assistance, driving. Roles are posted in advance and the credit value is stated before you agree to it.
• Helping. The discretionary category — depping for another member at short notice, lending backline, hosting a rehearsal, solving a problem nobody asked you to solve. Awarded by the Guild rather than claimed.

Every entry is visible in the member portal with a date and a reason. A ledger that cannot be audited by the person it belongs to is not a ledger.

Spending

Credits are spent against real things, at a published rate:

• Mythic services — setups beyond the included annual one, fretwork, electronics, and other bench work. This is the largest and most-used redemption.
• Merchandise — Guild and show merch, shirts, hats, patches, posters.
• Tickets — public tickets for guests, or After Dark seats, which are the one Guild event members pay for.
• Events — Showcase seats for people you want in the room, premium event access, member social nights.
• Partner services — printing, strings, and the other businesses in the partner directory, where the partner has agreed to accept credits.

The design decisions, and why

Three choices about how the scheme works are worth explaining, because each one closes a loophole that similar schemes tend to leave open.

Credits are not transferable. They belong to the member who earned them. Transferable credits become an informal currency, and an informal currency gets traded at a discount by people who need cash, which defeats the point.

Credits do not convert to cash and cannot be refunded. They are a benefit of membership, not a deposit. This is stated plainly in the terms rather than buried.

Credits are held, not burned by inactivity. A balance does not evaporate because you missed three months touring. It is forfeited only if the membership lapses entirely, and even then there is a grace window.

A loyalty scheme whose main feature is taking things away from people who stopped paying attention is a scheme designed by the accounts department. This one is designed to be spent.

What it is not

Credits are not a substitute for paying artists. A performance fee is money, paid under contract, and no part of it is ever paid in credits. Credits are additional to it. Any organisation offering to pay musicians in its own points has reinvented exposure with extra steps.

They are also not a ranking. There is no leaderboard, no public balance, and no status derived from a number. The only thing a large balance buys is a large amount of the things listed above.

Where to see yours

The ledger lives in the member portal, with every earn and every spend itemised. If an entry looks wrong, it probably is, and it will be corrected — the ledger is maintained by people, and people miscount.