A reflection on the 2025 Toutâ Galation Constitution by Cunobelinus Betullicnos.
The purpose of a new Constitution was to spur new change within the community and to put our values as an organization into our very foundational document.
I will discuss each section, our intention behind each piece. If you have any further inquiries not covered here, feel free to email us at toutagalation@gmail.com or speak with us on our public Discord server. For transparency, I wrote the Constitution with support and feedback every step of the way, where it was voted on section by section with some amendments in our recent Iwous Lugous session of our democratic assembly.
I was not inspired by another polytheistic organization’s foundational documents, but instead gained much of the insight through the constitution of Canada’s NDP. This is a progressive organization that shares many of the same values as we do, and is democratically run by membership.
Before I continue, I would like to state that this is a living document that can be changed by our democratically run members’ assembly and we have sincerely appreciated the feedback and insight our neighboring communities have shared. We hope to continue to refine this document over time with help of our membership and allied organizations.
Preamble
The preamble allows us to put into words the goals of the organization and our values especially. Emphasizing our inclusion, and rejecting the divine rights of kings was particularly important to us.
Official Language
Regarding official languages, those of you with keen understanding might know we are intentionally disallowing the use of “Modern Gaulish” because of the abhorrent views (that conflict with our values as an organization) of the creator and the narrative published on the website.
Our second goal with this section was to encourage non-English language groups to form under our umbrella, particularly to make connections in French-speaking Europe and other areas that the Gauls previously inhabited.
Sacred Names
There was some back and forth on this concept within our discussions, as some see theses as a barrier while others see them as foundational parts of being a contemporary Gaulish pagan.
It also facilitates other important functionalities such as enabling our variation of Robert’s Rules of Order in meetings (it’s very easy to use, trust) and assisting us in our anonymization of membership for those who wish to screen their activities with us from their everyday life.
What we settled on was allowing members to start with a single easy name and allowing for additions over time, while allowing them to use other names as they wish in conjunction with their Sacred Name.
Membership
This has always been a big head scratcher for me personally, as we want to have a membership that encompasses as much of the wider Gaulish polytheist community as possible, but also seek help and participation from them.
What we agreed upon was to have no membership requirements beyond the participation in a single meeting or event of an in-person or specific interest group within TG per year, and membership fee, which is currently 10 CAD. They do not need to attend our fancy bureaucratic mumbojumbo member’s assembly twice a year, but they should if they wish to submit their votes. There’s also an understanding for those who cannot make the membership fee, we will reduce or waive them depending on the circumstance (written into the Treasurer position).
Another change that we have made is allowing people to withdraw from our social networks without withdrawing from our organization automatically. We’ve had some examples over the years of this and sometimes people just need a break from social media now and then.
Here we also introduce the concept of membership petitions, where three or more members can petition the Council (which are the elected leadership body) to enact change, such as barring an Observer from meetings if they make members uncomfortable, and much more.
Comreton Calleios
This is such a big deal for our organization, our (at least) yearly digital convention that has allowed us to make our biggest mark in the pagan community. I felt like this was so important, I wanted to be part of our Constitution. At the agreement of the Assembly and the Uercobreton (our Chief Magistrate), the year’s event director is chosen. It’s something I hope to continue to do for many years, as long as the community would still have me.
It allows the membership to keep up to date on how it’s being run and to have a say in it as well. This is especially important if funds from our Treasury are being spent to pay for presenters for example.
The Assembly / Moot:
It’s not specifically enshrined, the plan is to hold future meetings in Gaulchat or in a publicly available Zoom. While observers won’t be able to speak or vote on proceedings, we would like to try to open up the workings of our organization more to give people a reason to be excited about it.
A big difference than we’ve had in the past, is that Quorum is only for those who are present at the meeting. If this kind of thing doesn’t interest you, it’s not a requirement anymore and we’d love for you to engage with us in other ways.
A large number of roles/groups within the organization will also be charged with making reports at these bi-annual meetings, which can easily just be short and sweet.
Seers
This is something that I feel needs a lot of work, but because the seers are self-governed it relies on growing the membership within the seers to really get it going. I believe there are currently three seers recognized by TG, all with extremely busy lives.
I envision this group creating proper initiation rights for new members, working with the Treasurer to create a welcome package to new members, and more. We’ve had some ideas how we could expand the responsibilities of this group, but currently we believe they aren’t in a space yet to be able to fulfill new responsibilities. If you are interested in joining the Seers, I’m sure Reno and the others would love to have you. You’ll be able to find them in Gaulchat or by emailing us.
Warbands / Squads
The term warbands is a bit too militaristic for us, and we are currently looking for a term that would better suit these groups.
The goal for these subgroups is to give specific areas of interest for members to devote themselves to and create lasting bonds in. This is why we made it so the minimum activity interest is within these groups.
At the time of writing this, none of these groups have officially started. Some groups I’d personally love to see: Gallo-Brittonic/Brittonic, French Canadian Witchcraft, Bolgon, Book Club(s), and Newsletter(s)/zine(s).
To recognize when many members have put in time and effort to build up one of these groups, that’s why we give their leader or representative a seat on our leadership council. If you’re a leader of a Gaulish or Gaulish adjacent group, we’d love it if you wanted to set up a branch within our organization, so please reach out.
Homes
In person worship groups have always been a goal that’s felt just beyond our reach for so long. We have the map in Gaulchat where people can submit to have their location displayed and we are always so far from each other!
We are much more confident in this variation of the Trebas model to allow for sustainable and achievable growth of in-person groups. Especially with the inclusion of Regional Guides (later on in the Council section) so members can be directly empowered to foster local growth of the Gaulish animist community.
I’ll make a shout out to Gaulish Laurentia here, an earlier attempt at an in-person group. Even though it sputtered out due to life’s many difficulties, the weekend we spent hanging out in the outskirts of Ottawa was like a dream come true.
Council
For a long time we were seriously considering getting rid of specific roles other than Treasurer in their entirety, including the Uercobreton to help with the flexibility of the organization and better show that we are democratically run if there is no single leader.
However, for the time being we are continuing with both the Chief Magistrate and Teacher roles, as we believe they still fulfill their purposes. My own previous role (events minister) has been removed and replaced with the aforementioned Regional Guides, leaders of the in-person and interest groups (after they reach a certain size) and a new role simply named Membership Officer at the moment. This position is currently vacant and would involve being in charge of the organization and security of the membership list, and getting new members of the organization.
There are still some gaps that we need filling, such as social media and a webmaster. We hope to fill these positions soon under the new “Helper” roles that each member of council can have up to two of these that act as proxies on their behalf.
Three important things that we will be creating in the near future (thank you for these important recommendations Branos) will be a Code of Conduct, Data Privacy Guidelines, and a Grievance Policy (based on the Coru’s) to be all publicly available on our website.
Rules of Procedure
It might look complicated at first, trust me I was equally intimidated when I was introduced to Robert’s Rules of Order. With smaller groups this won’t be necessary so the plan is to ease into it over time.
These allow for accountability and fairness, especially as the organization grows and becomes a chorus of many voices.
Conclusion
While no binding document is perfect, we are at least satisfied with what we have pushed through. These things can also continue to be changed over time. We are extremely open to advice, questions, and feedback from the wider community as we hope to become a more successful and accountable organization as we grow. You can reach us in our Gaulchat discord server or through email at toutagalation@gmail.com.
Thank you,
Cunobelinus Betullicnos
Toutioi of Toutâ Galation