The Eulenspiegel Society (TES)
A volunteer-run, not-for-profit BDSM education and support group founded in New York in 1971. Rope is not its sole focus, but it runs a bondage special interest group alongside its wider class program.
The Eulenspiegel Society, usually shortened to TES, is a volunteer-run, not-for-profit BDSM, leather and fetish group in New York. It is not a rope school, but bondage is part of its program through a bondage special interest group, and its history reaches back to the beginnings of organized kink education in the United States.
Wikipedia describes TES as the first BDSM organization founded in the country. It traces the group to 1971, when the music teacher Pat Bond and Fran Nowve, who had answered an advertisement Bond placed in Screw magazine in December 1970, began meeting as a support group for masochists; sadists were formally welcomed later that year. Nowve chose the name after Till Eulenspiegel, a clever fool of German folklore. Members first met in private homes and later in rented theater and church spaces. TES published the magazine Prometheus for decades, marched in New York Pride parades from the early 1970s, held a large BDSM convention for its 25th anniversary in 1996, and was a founding partner of the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom in 1997. It was inducted into the Leather Hall of Fame in 2011.
On its own site TES calls itself the oldest and largest BDSM support and education group in the United States and reports nearly 50 classes in the current year, held in person and online: lectures, demonstrations, panels and hands-on workshops, along with parties, social activities and a monthly munch. Special interest groups meet regularly around shared topics, and the site lists a Bondage group among them. Members receive discounts, and a pay-it-forward program helps people who cannot afford classes. TES serves the New York tri-state area and also lists TES Fest, an annual gathering focused on BDSM, kink and sexuality, with the 2027 edition announced for early July.