Membership, Awards, Local Participat

[Baker, Mike]

Herskerinde Gunnora,

You have indeed given us some additional "thoughts to mull over".

> In both the scenarios listed above, people who play elsewhere other than 
in
> their local group are working for the SCA and making a difference.  Why
> should they be penalized if the group they mundanely live closest to is 
not
> where they primarily play?  No one would complain if I moved back to San
> Antonio and then acted as a Bjornsborger.  Why should it be a problem that
> Gunnora lives on the "extreme Northern Bjornsborg border" while Christie
> actually lives on the north edge of Austin?

Ever note my .sig block for this (and most SCA) mail-lists? "currently 
residing in" is one of the ways I try to quietly acknowledge that my true 
home in the Society will always be Moonschadowe.  No matter how long since 
I've been back for a visit, or how things might change there in the 
meantime, I know that there will always be a place known as Moonschadowe. 
Even if, may Allah in his mercy forbid, it is only within the hearts of the 
Moonschadeen and not in some arbitrary listing of recognized groups.

> Another scenario for someone playing outside their group occurs to me. 
 What
> about people who have problems with the leadership or politics of their 
home
> groups?  Isn't it better for them to contribute in a positive way 
elsewhere
> than engaging in backbiting and politicking at the local level with people
> they don't get along with or don't like?

My read of the original complaint was where the individual "playing outside 
their group" was continuing or initiating the "backbiting and politicking", 
actively opposing the growth or possible sources of support for the local 
group they chose not to work with themselves.  I can understand a certain 
degree of dissension and resentment, but I have seen too many difficulties 
created over the years when one or a few malcontents deliberately create 
more trouble than there need be.

(And, yes, I am myself at least once-guilty, if not thrice-, of blundering 
through in my opposition to an officer most of a given populace saw as being 
imposed upon the local group from Them. I was a pig-headed college student, 
full of myself and my own importance, and more than ready to take on the 
whole Known World. "Them" being, of course, the higher echelons of the 
kingdom structure. I'm still paying penance for what I did wrong in handling 
matters then, at least in some ways.  I may finally make complete amends in 
another decade or so...)

Amr ibn Majid al-Bakri al-Amra
     currently residing in Barony of the Steppes, Kingdom of Ansteorra
Mike C. Baker                      mbaker at rapp.com
Any opinions expressed are obviously my own unless explicitly stated 
otherwise!