MAXIMUM SOCIETY is a private brotherhood for men.
It meets in person, 10 times a year, in a room with a door that closes.
There is no way to sign up, and that is not an oversight.
the house and the name
The men of MAXIMUM SOCIETY are called Alcaides. In public the brotherhood goes by their name, Los Alcaides, because the men are what you see and the house stays behind them.
The tradition began in Alicante in 1248. We do not offer that as history that can be checked. It is a chosen form, the way a coat of arms is a chosen form.
what this is
The name is older than the house. An Alcaide was the man to whom a fortress was given. He did not own it. He was the one it was handed to, because someone had judged that he would still be standing at it when it became difficult.
An Alcaide is not a member. A membership can be bought. This cannot.
What is said between us is said in a room, face to face, and it stays there.
what is behind the gate
A man who has built something is rarely short of rooms. He is short of one kind. A room where nobody wants anything from him.
Ten men, a long table, one evening, no phones and no audience. What a man does for a living comes up late, if it comes up at all, because it is the least interesting thing about him.
One question is put on the table and it is rarely a comfortable one. A man answers it about himself and not about his company. Nothing is pitched, no cards are exchanged and no man leaves with a deal. Some leave having said out loud something they had carried for years.
We are not alike. Some built quietly and some built loudly. What we have in common is that each of us carries something for other people, and has carried it long enough that it costs him.
If you have ever sat at the head of your own table and felt that no one there could tell you the truth, you already know what this room is for.
Nothing is sold here and nothing is won. What happens is simpler. You are known.
why there is no enrolment
There is no application form. A man who has to ask has already answered the question.
Success is a condition. Integrity is the entrance.
What is weighed is older than success. How he holds power when nobody is checking. Whether he keeps his word when keeping it costs him something. Whether he can take correction without going cold.
It is not a ladder. It is a gate, and a table behind it.
la tenencia
A table is kept by the men who sit at it. Nothing here runs on goodwill alone.
So every Alcaide carries his share of the house, and that share keeps the old name for the holding of a fortress. La Tenencia. Holding one and keeping it up were never two different things.
Every Alcaide carries the same. It is never a condition of entry and no man is weighed by it. The amount is stated in full when a man is invited to write La Carta, before anything is asked of him.
if you are approached
A man comes in by being recognised, and recognition takes time. If it happens, it happens quietly and in person.
The written request to enter is called La Carta. It is read in full and it is always answered.
There is nothing to announce, nothing to display and nothing to count.
contact
If an Alcaide has given you this address, write to carta@maximumsociety.com.
Everything else is answered by time.