Ansteorran Hospitalers & On-Line BLACK STAR

[William H. Herron III]

> Amr ibn Majid al-Bakri al-Amra (KiheBard at aol.com)

> William, Your Lordship, I must call you to task and to question, and
> thank you.

Ah!  A mixed message at best (smile).

> I Call you to task:  It is all too easy and simple to separate the
> official words and the personal words of an individual communicating
> in these electronic venues.

We disagree.  If I get on here and rant and rave about my work on the
Kingdom Calendar, I hear back from people who want to know if I just
made some sort of office policy statement.  I had the same problem when
I was a Regional Treasurer, which was why I was encouraged NOT to speak
as a Treasurer in any online forum.  Perception, it seems, overrides any
disclaimers you toss in.

> Simple mechanics, really.  If a particular pronouncement is
> "official", label it plainly as such.
> Otherwise, any individual's words are their own (doesn't hurt to
> include some boilerplate text or specification, such as you will note
> in the last line of my standard .sig blocks). The personal opinion
> disclaimer exists in MANY variations and is easy to implement as well.
> No problem, no question.  Very plain.

Once again, we disagree.  IMHO, I have to chomp down on my tongue and
censor things that I say in here, because I want to avoid confusion
between FitzBubba and a Lesser Officer of State.  Your mileage may vary.

> HL William FitzBubba, Thank You.

Oh, the good stuff (smile).

> Thank You for attempting to keep the issue at hand the focus of your
> comments, and for admitting openly that your experience in other
> matters might be influencing your current attitudes toward an
> individual or his words.

I feel that I did a lousy job of the above.  Sir Burke saved me by
remaining calm and rational, which forced me to do the same.  (smile)

> Thank You for taking over the nearly-thankless task of maintaining the
> Kingdom Calendar.

For anyone who doesn't know, the Requests for Dates for the Kingdom
Calendar are now handled through the office of the Deputy Kingdom
Chronicler for Kingdom Calendar Requests, namely, me.  This
responsibility was delegated to this office by the past Kingdom
Seneschal, and the current one has left it the same.  Kingdom Law still
correctly shows this responsibility as belonging to the Kingdom
Seneschal.

Oh, and a bit of confusion:  the Kingdom Chronicler's office does not
process "bids" for Kingdom-level events (e.g. Kingdom Warlord,
Coronation, etc.).  Please continue to submit bids for events to the
Kingdom Seneschal and the Crown.  We just put the dates on the calendar.

> Thank You for having the courage to support Barat in going through
> with trying to put the Kingdom newsletter on the Web in the first
> place.

Bloody prima-donna desktop publishers....oh, sorry, I was
woolgathering.  (smile)

> Thank You for then supporting Barat in having the strength to withdraw 
> it when there were serious questions raised as to the proprieties
> involved.

Oh, I support the Kingdom Chronicler.  Barat and I had some serious
discussion about it, though.

I'm sorry, folks, but in my opinion the online Kingdom Newsletter is an
endangered animal.  Too many people freaked out, openly and loudly,
about it.

I told Barat to be sure and keep a running commentary on the Web
experience in his office's log, so that he can provide the information
to anyone else who wants to throw up a Kingdom Newsletter on the Web.

> Thank you for fostering and participating in the open debate which has 
> arisen in these several matters.

Can anyone do less?  I'm Ansteorran, of course.  (smile)

> And Thank You as well for returning to reasonable dialog when you 
> realized that your words may have been taken as being harsh.

Once again, I think your thanks on that should go to Sir Burke.  I think
he and I can teach each other a few things.  (Don't get started on me
just yet, though, Burke...smile.)

Thanks for your kind words and your criticism, Amr ibn Majid. 
Everything helps.

FitzBubba