There is a proliferation of PMCs and 'mercenary' companies out there, for better or worse. For the benefit of closer solidarity in the industry and for prospective clients shopping for PMC services, we have formed The Guild that licenses and bonds PMCs. There are standards in the form of a Charter that all members must sign. Also, we ask that our seal for the NSPMC Guild be put on all members storefronts that maintain one, enabling potential customers to see that and know that the company was properly licensed and recognized by the Guild. A member does not necessarily have to maintain a storefront, and RP links in lieu of a storefront are acceptable for admittance to the Guild.
The NSPMC Guild connects clients with PMCs, as well as encourages promotion of the PMC industry in general, both in an OOC and IC manner. Guild members are given preferential treatment when trying to assist potential clients that seek help here.
Some members base their operating regulations off WA legislation, (or say they do, anyway). We monitor the WA legislating and licensing situation, but leave it up to the discretion of members whether they choose to adhere to them. However, members found to be in violation of our Charter can face ejection and possible sanctions.
Questions towards any of the members or Guild operations can be directed and posted here, including who best to hire for certain operations or how to form your own NS PMC. If you must TG me, please try me at USG Security Corporation first, which I'm using for all PMC business, but if you need a prompter response than 2 days, go ahead and TG my main account. Thanks and enjoy!
CURRENT MEMBERS OF THE GUILD
1. USG Security Corporation/Regiments
2. Axalon PMC
3. Shalumite Security International PMC
4. Salamander PSE
5. Blackwood Company
6. Varangian Guard
7. Mymidon Security Services
8. Musashi Security Services
9. Covenant Security Concerns
10. Lourens Consortium
11. SternGuard
12. Global Security Solutions
13. Kestrel Military Contracting
** Placement on the Member list in no way denotes hierarchy or ranking, only chronology of applying for membership. All members are considered equal.
GUILD LICENSING & BONDING
The Guild is licensing and bonding private military and security firms. Direct membership in the Guild is not a requirement in order to be licensed and bonded.
There are 3 types of licensing available to applying contractors:
The licensed contractor will pay their bonding fee as part of their licensing that is the sum of the largest contract fee they would possibly charge a client, including standard incidentals. This bonding fee will be made out to the PM/SC Guild Licensing Board and deposited or transmitted electronically into Guild escrow accounts.
The interest yielded will go towards Guild Board operating costs and salaries of the members of the Guild Licensing Board. Bond retainers will be held with the prestigious Engol Banc in Neu Engollon, in interest accruing escrow accounts. [Until such time that we may decide on another GE&T bank that is run by a sturdy player, is well functioning, and suits our needs.]
The licensed contractor may display the appropriate badge (Military/Security/Other) on their website (storefront OP). If they do both military and security contract work, they can display all, or whichever one they feel better represents their main focus. ‘Other’ contractors might include privateers, intelligence/cyber warfare contractors, or logistical/support contractors.
Making a Claim for a Bond or Broken Contracts
A client may make a claim to a bond fee held in escrow for a contractor they have hired, if they can prove that they have been the victim of a broken or incomplete contract, malfeasance or other unprofessional action by said contractor that would affect the client, such as the contractor being a willing participant in war crimes or civil rights violations. [OOC: Claimant client should either post to this thread, or write an IC letter to the Guild IC thread. IC letters will be given more consideration for claims.]
The Guild Licensing Board will review the case and make a decision, which may include a rejection of the claim, a censure of the contractor, probation, a partial payment of the bond fee, depending on the severity of the established damage done to the client, or the whole bond fee paid to said claimant client. Actions may include more than one of these results.
If the Guild has to pay out a partial or full bond fee to a client the contractor has legitimately wronged, then the licensed contractor must replace that full or partial bond fee once again in entirety immediately, or face the stripping of their Guild licensing. If the Guild pays out 1 more bonding full or partial fees to justified claimants (clients), the licensed contractor accused of malfeasance will be stripped of their licensing until a stipulated time to which they can re-apply and be reviewed again for the restoration of their license. A transgression may be deemed so egregious and in poor standard by the Board that a contractor may be stripped of their license, even if only the first offense against their Guild license.
A contractor may appeal this initial decision. The Board may decide that they have recourse, but may also decide not only that they do not have recourse, but might not be eligible to ever apply for licensing again to the Guild Board. This would be deemed a lifetime revocation of license without appeal.
Removal of License and False Licensing Representation
Should a contractor be stripped of their licensing, they will be notified that they can no longer display Guild badges on their website. Legal action will be taken towards non-licensed contractors that continue to use the Guild logo on their website. [website aka storefront, or if they are an RP'd contractor only, they cannot claim they are licensed when they are in fact no longer holders of a Guild license. Take note that a contractor stripped of license would be using IP content on their thread that they no longer have permission to use, in such case that they would ignore calls to remove it.]
The Guild will maintain lists of both those who are licensed [In case they don't maintain a storefront] and those who are no longer licensed in the possibility of a former Guild contractor falsely claiming current license or the failure to take down the Guild Licensing Badge(s) off of the contractor’s website [storefront].
Inversely, a client that has employed Guild licensed contractors and filed false or misleading claims for bond compensation from the Guild may find itself on a boycott list, in which case no Guild or Guild licensor contracts will be served for that client. Any Guild licensed contractor that serves a contract for a boycotted client may find itself under review and censured by the Guild.
The benefits of a Guild license are the prestige of being recognized by your peers, and the confidence and security of the client in knowing that they are employing a reputable contractor over one without any guarantees to follow through providing quality service, or at all. There is strength in a group. The Guild considers itself a well established professional group that represents the highest quality of industry standards. Being licensed by the Guild is to be recognized for accomplishments in the fields of private military, security, and related field contracting and measuring up to the standards expected by discerning clients.
Criteria For Licensing [All OOC]
The Board will be looking for certain criteria from applicants. For instance, not so much listed fees as descriptions of how these fees are assessed and types of additional fees, or incidentals, that might be assessed.
What types of services and levels of services does your company offer?
What types of personnel are available?
What is the history/background of your company? When and how was it established and by who? How has it evolved over time? This adds to the quality of the story of your brand, and your company.
Graphics can add some worth to a storefront and quality work can attract customers. Relevance to the content is important. If there is little content to a storefront and it mostly consists of flashy graphics and standard stock contractors pics being badass in action, then what is really being conveyed to the customer? You are one of multitudes that can fill a niche in their needs for contracted security or military help without really offering quality or substance. You don’t need to be recognized by the industry to do that.
If an applicant does not maintain a storefront and is not on GE&T and only RPs or factbooks/wikis their company, then we must review material relevant to the PMC on a deeper level to make sure that the above qualities are conveyed to future clients through all conceivable means by the applicant for licensing. Be forewarned that this might take more time than storefront review, as we review RP threads, factbooks, etc. to make a determination.
Current Sitting Guild Licensing Board
Who decides licensing, bonding, and arbitration in client/contractor disputes?
The Guild Licensing Board consists of several leaders of the Guild membership, as well as corporate leaders from other industries with experience in dealing with client relationships. They meet at a secret location, but more often use the convenience of video conferencing when discussing licensing and arbitration matters for the Guild.
- Graciela Nacimiento, Director, Legal Division of Intexa (Support Arm of the) USG Security Corporation (Regiments)
- Colonel Danny Archer, CEO & Founder; Myrmidon Security Forces
- Marcus Baar, Chief Legal Officer; Shalumite Security International
- Michel Lourens, CEO; Lourens Consortium
- Lysidamus Vinicius, Grand Master; SternGuard
- Magnus Thorsson, Chief Operations Officer; Blackwoood Company
- Fas ri Valk Zun, President & CEO; Haruspex International Armaments
- Pierre Masson, Chief Engineer; Netane Kinetics, LTD
- Kasperri Laitinen, CEO; Architect Corporation
- Frank Césaire, General Counsel; The Legion Corporation
* While the PM/SC representatives are listed first, with other industry leaders second, there is no other hierarchy order to this list.
How to Start the Process on Becoming Licensed and Bonded with the Guild [All OOC]
Submit an IC letter from either your named company leadership, or an appropriate official, addressed to the Guild Licensing Board, describing briefly why you feel your company should be licensed with the Guild and what it has to offer to the industry. In a spoiler attachment below the body of the letter, include storefront or RP links and any other information you feel may be relevant to us. Notice that we are not providing an actual application to copy and paste. Some applicants would only fill out such an app and ignore the first part of the requirements in the Guild licensing process. These applicants would not be licensed with the Guild, and so we are simply weeding them out early on so as not to waste our time and clutter our thread.