AND STAY TUNED FOR MORE DEVELOPMENTS
SFTGG LOGO SHARING SUMMARY STATEMENT AS OF 09/17/26
Greg Quist
09/17/26
With the blessing and encouragement of the SFTGG BOT I began this project about a year and a half ago with the thought that our future as a Guild lays in community.
And with his usual inestimable helpfulness, Jason Cohen was and is key in creating the necessary legal documents for this project. We’ve also created a Forums Committee consisting of Jason, Linda Reynolds, and myself. Linda will focus on bringing onboard various for-profit enterprises, such as coach companies and DMCs.
This lengthy and sustained effort to launch this project has finally just begun to come to fruition with the entrainment of the North Beach Neighbors Association, a local organization with some 300 members. If you go to our SFTGG public homepage and scroll to the bottom, you’ll see their logo, which has to be enlarged. When you click on their logo, you’ll go immediately to their website.
So, if you’re leading walking tours of North Beach, or for any other reason, you want real time info on what is going on in North Beach, this is a very simple way to accomplish that.
Similarly, when you log on to the North Beach Neighbors Association website, you’ll see Partners at the top of their homepage. And when you click on that, you’ll see two partners, the North Beach Business Association and our SFTGG. Thus, the 300 NBNA members will become more aware of our existence. And that’s an interesting group, the NBNA, with Aaron Peskin being the organization’s treasurer.
We’ll also introduce ourselves to the NBNA at one of their community meetings and them to us at our Fall General Meeting. This introduction will greatly increase awareness of our SFTGG in this community. This will be true with all other program participants, should they or we wish an introduction, them to us or us to them.
This cross-pollination between us and other compatible organizations and institutions is the basic idea behind this project; and with each participant recognizing that we are all in this together and that we have much to gain by sharing and supporting each other. We are not simply lone voices crying in the wilderness. Together, we are a chorus.
Now, with each relationship there will be a quid pro quo, a this for that, which benefits both parties. For example, I’ve just consummated a relationship with the Exploratorium, the preeminent scientific museum in the country and quite possibly in the world.
For the SFTGG, the quid pro quo being that we will display their logo and a link to their website on our public homepage, so that anyone wanting real time info on the Exploratorium can do so quite easily from our website. And, for their part, they hope they will gain more exposure from our members as we engage with the larger community as tour guides.
The Exploratorium’s contribution will be that beginning tomorrow, September 18th, 2026, the Exploratorium will give free admission to SFTGG members in good standing, a $40.00 saving if you go once in a year, $80.00 if you go twice, and so on.
To gain free admission, a SFTGG member will simply have to have a photo ID such as a Drivers’ License and download a color copy of their Membership Card from their Profile on the SFTGG website and present it at the door. You’ll then have free admission as part of their “Show and Go” program. And again, you can go as often as you like.
I have a number of other organizations waiting in the queue, or in various stages of contact, to participate in this program. They include the Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association, the Market Street Railway (F-Line and cable cars), the California Academy of Sciences, the Russian Hill Neighbors, the San Francisco Historical Society, Japantown, the Presidio, the San Francisco Heritage Foundation, the Bonsai Garden at Lake Merritt, and many others. With each there will be a quid pro quo tailored for that relationship.
Ultimately, we’d like this to be a resource where a Tour Guide or anyone can go to get real time information on what is happening in each neighborhood or venue in many or most of the places of interest to our tour guiding community in San Francisco and the immediate Bay Area.
This will alleviate the exasperation one feels when having to search for something and then, having finally found it, having to figure out which of the sites is the real deal. No more of that! One stop shopping! Go to our website and see what’s happening in the city. Simple and direct, for us and for others!
This should also be an enticement for recruiting new SFTGG members and retaining members who might consider not renewing their memberships. And, as the program rolls out, stay tuned for additional tantalizing blandishments.
I’ve also created a new Forum where I’ll post info re the project as it becomes available. To view it, go to Forums on the SFTGG Members Page and scroll down to Programs.
This will very quickly morph into an effort that involves the entire SFTGG BOT rather than just me and the Committee. However, for the moment if you have comments, questions, of suggestions, please get in touch with me personally.
Our future lays in community, particularly in these most trying of times.
Greg