To whom it may concern,
If you are reading this it means you have been accepted into the consort apprenticeship program. You will receive further communications regarding specific employment policies, and the required forms to fill out before you begin. For now I wanted to welcome you to the program and explain in further detail your role and expectations while being a consort apprentice. Based on staffing availability at your current location you will study either directly under another consort, or the locations coordinator. In either case you will be expected to supply supplemental services such as research and copywriting for your superiors. This does not imply however that your work will be irrelevant, and that it does not need to be taken seriously. The intention at the end of the program is to get you enough experience to work as a consort, and eventually as a potential coordinator with the archive. If you fail to show your capabilities during the apprenticeship you will be barred from the program and replaced.
The Archive, the coordinators, and consorts therein tend to have a poor reputation in the general public, so I will try to clear up some common misconceptions. The archive generally is meant to serve as an archive to every medium. Contained within are books, paintings, sculptures, videos, music, experiences and more. Our role is not only to preserve this information, but to act as an intermediary to help people find what they need. The general public tends to do this through kiosks that automate the process. As an apprentice if anything goes wrong with these kiosks you will also be responsible to contact the maintenance department and keep the machines running. In antiquity this process was handled manually by coordinators, then eventually by consorts however these days that is deemed to inefficient for operational standards. This brings me to consorts themselves, the reason why you are here in the first place.
Consorts are here to handle the additional tasks coordinators do not have time for. Part of the role the archive serves is to act in consultation with governments and NGO’s (non-government organizations) to properly utilize the information within the archive to their advantage. Most of the time consorts are simply writing reports based on research they (or their apprentices) have done on the topic, and communicating between clients this information. Likewise coordinators do the same, however their work is held to a higher standard and typically used for more important endeavors like policy decisions. This has lead to a conspiratorial notion that the world is somehow run by the coordinators of the archive rather than government officials. While I sometimes wish this was true it is unfortunately not. Our involvement is limited, and we (contrary to popular belief) do not have an excised amount of political power. However I will warn you now that you will be at times privy to sensitive information, and it is not only part of your job, but also illegal to disclose this information. It will be marked clearly, but there will not be second chances in this so if you are unsure ask your superiors if the information is confidential. Ignorance will not be tolerated in these offences and capital punishment up to and including execution may be employed for failure to comply.
At the discretion of a consort, they may request you help them to research a given topic. These topics are sorted into collections (called Consort Collections), and will be foundational knowledge. The topic may be brand new to you, but by the end of the apprenticeship it should not. On top of your work assisting in whatever way possible you will be provided research documents on a variety of topics to go through. They will be in various formats, and for formats that require external devices such as a memoizer they will be provided to you at your location. The material will be hand-picked by your superior each week, and focus around a general topic. Some will be fictional and meant to inspire a set of philosophical conundrums, some will be records of events, and some will be opinion pieces on events. No matter the format they will all be in line with the assigned collection topic. As some of the works are more esoteric than others there will also be a “Curators notes” section at the bottom that will provide additional context.
You are free to pick your initial Consort Collection, however it is required you understand the essentials. This will provide foundational context about the political, legal, and economic systems in place. Enclosed is the essentials, you may begin to examine them and will be expected to have them complete whenever your official start date is.
Good luck in the program,
Al’mara
12th Head Coordinator | The Archive
