ANST - Wamba the Wonder Saxon

[clward at mmm.com]

Tomonaga said:
>Everybody in this kingdom has experienced his local chain of command
>exhorting him to help make something wonderful, or do work to help pay
>for something wonderful, to celebrate the queen's birthday, or give away
>to visiting dignitaries, or make a special show at coronation, etc.,
>etc., etc.  Those demands will not go away if you create
>principalities.  Add princes and princesses, and the demands on everyone
>to expend their time, talent, effort, and money on doing things for
>swank will at least double because there will be two sets of nobility to
>support and impress.

Tomonaga, I actually like you but this is the dumbest thing I think I have ever
seen anybody say.  I also don't think I've ever seen you making stuff in
response to pleas for needed gifts, and perhaps that's why you seem to think
that all the nifty presents go to the big hats. The way your statement above
came across was very "sour grapes" -  "the big noble people make us poor little
thrall nobodies make them good stuff and we get nothing."

The problem with that idea is that it is wrong! When people are asking the
populace to make stuff, it is almost invariably to be used as a prize for the
best fighter, the best archer, the most entertaining bard, the most creative
artisan.  Only very rarely do we as a group solicit gifts for other purposes --
and then it's usually a matter of interkingdom hospitality. So, everyone in the
kingdom is asked to make a prize or three and turn it over to the Crown, who
will then give it to a visiting King and Queen.  Those people don't stick the
goodies in their personal kitty -- ruling nobles, be they king, baron, or
prince, as well as peers of all stripes usually take these types of things and
give them away in turn -- to the fighters, the bards, the artists, the
archers.

Even when I get anything given to me as a personal gift, it almost always
becomes a part of my store of largesse that I will give away in turn to some
worthy person whose work has caught my eye.  And you ought to remember that I
*also* make a bunch of stuff and give it away, and I *buy* even more stuff to
give away.  It's part of the job when you are a noble or a peer, and it can
take constant effort to kep largess on hand for when it is needed to give to
someone who is deserving and needs some recognition *now*.

Tomonaga also said:
>Principalities will not solve the problems with recognizing people
>unless the people in the principalities are replaced, or shuffled
>around, or undergo some kind of epiphany.  It would still be the same
>people deciding who is recognized, picking in the same way for the same
>reasons.  Creating principalities will not create more opportunities for
>*different* people to gain recognition because it will not increase the
>resources available to those who would like to do something for
>recognition.  There may be more chances for people to throw medals at
>each other, but the faces will not change.

That's not true, either.  It became *much* easier to get recognition after
Ansteorra became a principality, because the King of Atenveldt couldn't be
bothered to come to see us poor benighted backwoods peasants.  In fact, the
King never left Phoenix.  Once Ansteorra became a principality, we had a Prince
and Princess, who came to our events, who saw what we did, and who recognized
our efforts.

The Western Region of Ansteorra is certainly in an analagous position.  It is
pathetic to go to a Western Region event and have half the people panicking
because a peer has come to see them and
ohmigod-what-does-that-mean-they're-checking-us-out-we're-in-trouble now and
the other half falling over themselves to treat you like royalty because you
are the first peer from outside their region who has come to see them in a
coon's age (I am not exaggerating - I just experienced both extremes at Bards
and Arts in Amarillo - the "treatment like royalty" part was nice, but the
panic that some people felt was not).  The Western Region is lucky to *ever*
see the Crown of Ansteorra -- they have frequently gone three and four reigns
without seeing the Crown.  The only landed nobility in the Western Region are
Kayleigh and Drake, Baron and Baroness of Bonwicke, and they are killing
themselves trying to be all to everyone in the whole Western Region -- they are
going to *every* Western Region event to act as Crowns' Representatives.  The
Western Region, for one very solid example, would directly benefit from a
Principality, especially if they were part of a principality with, say, some of
the I-35 corridor baronies.  The West would gain more royalty to attend their
events and I strongly suspect more people would get recognized.

Do you know that there are at least four and maybe more people who have been
playing continuously in the Western Region for 20+ years, who for the last 20+
years have been doing gate guard, event setup and breakdown at *every* event in
their Region, pretty much *every* weekend, plus autocrat/featocrat as necessary
and who have held offices continuously during the entire score of years?
Anywhere else in this kingdom these people would have long since been
recognized as Pelicans.  I was appalled to start seeing Western folks' SCA
resumes to see how much work they put into our Fair Realm, and that they are
not getting the awards that normally accompany such efforts everywhere else in
the kingdom.  And there are no doubt *plenty* of other examples of people who
need recognition out there who aren't getting it.  It's a good thing for the
Western Region and for Ansteorra that these people LOVE our realm and will work
for us even unrewarded.  A Principality would certainly, directly, and
measurably help recognition within the West, for one, and I strongly suspect
that the same can be said of any region that becomes a Principality.

Tomonaga also groused:
>You're concerned about dropping membership?  This is one of the main
>reasons why.  Wamba the Wonder Saxon who dug the fire pits and manned
>the toll booth at every tournament for five years running gets tired of
>seeing the same people get more awards every year, while he gets nothing
>but a hearty thanks at the Yule revel.  Principalities will not change
>his life because the people who run them will not change.

Occasionally this happens.  People work and work and don't get recognized.  I
don't think that that is the case where you are from, however.  And if you see
old Wamba totin' them barges and heavin' them bales, and you have been too lazy
and too remiss to sit down and write a letter of recommendation for Wamba and
send it to the Crown with a courtesy copy to your local nobility or officers,
then you are a big fat part of the problem of Wamba not getting recognized.  No
matter how many additional royalty and nobility an area gets, they *still* are
not going to be magically imbued with the ability to know telepathically what
everyone is doing.

Even a conscientious local noble, with the best of intentions and a cadre of
advisors, can miss people.  Bjornsborg (to pick an example I know well) tries
to avoid this by having a structured awards recommendation system -- before
each event, the Baron and Baroness meet with the officers and ask for award
recommendations, then they meet with the Baronial Order and again solicit
recommendations.  The officers typically include a broad cross-section of
people in the barony, and will include people who are newer, while the baronial
order is largely the old-timers.  Between the two groups you have a better
chance of recognizing the folks who need to be recognized.  But even this is
not 100% guaranteed -- some people may still get missed, and it is the duty and
responsibility of each of us to write the Crown and/or your local
nobles/officers to nominate that person for an award.

Tomonaga continued griping:
>Nobody will listen to his ideas about events for tournaments because he
>doesn't have a Sable Something, or because he wants to commit the
>heinous crime of breaking local tradition.

I have never been anywhere in the SCA where the opinions of people were
discounted or ignored because that person did not have an award of whatever
level.

Tomonaga went completely astray when he said:
>He isn't allowed to exhibit
>his work because he isn't a guild member.

NOWHERE is it a requirement that you be a guild member in order to participate
in an A&S display in this kingdom

Tomonaga continued:
>Maybe he just can't make fancy items because he can't afford the
>materials.  And at the same time he's being hocked at to help make
>things to impress people that he probably can't even recognize
>because he can't afford to go to tournaments very often.  He
>pretty soon reaches the point where he just can't care anymore.

Many of us are strapped for money. I used to be continually broke when I was a
student.  However, nobody has *ever* forced me to make anything for the SCA.
There have been plenty of times where I could not donate stuff because I was
too broke, and nobody castigated me for it. You are trying to make it sound as
though the poor downtrodden peasantry is being screwed over materially by the
nobility but *it just ain't so*. Nobody expects *anything* of you as a member
-- there are plenty of people whose SCA whose entire SCA lives they just
"coast" and observe, content to be "bumps on a log" watching, but not
contributing.  These people are not beaten nor put in chains or discriminated
against.

It is true that if you want awards, you have to be more than a passive observer
of the SCA.  If you want service awards, you have to work.  If you want arts
awards, you have to do artwork, but you *do not* have to give even one tiny
item away, ever!  And there are plenty of crafts that can be practiced without
spending money.  For instance, air is still free, so you could use some of that
hot air store you've been saving and do bardic arts, for example, and get A&S
awards through excellence in the performing arts.

Tomonaga said:
>There are plenty of people out there who would love to do something good
>and special in the SCA, but they don't have the resources...

Huh?  That's bulls**t.  People who want to do things for the SCA give of
themselves.  They stand gate guard.  They volunteer to do demos.  They help
other gentles set up their tents.  They add to the period ambiance by thinking
up a persona and staying in it to add to everyone's enjoyment.  None of this
takes "resources" except the resource of personal committment.  Principalities
will not change this, nor will they make things worse for those who are
financially strapped.  The people who get the most out of the SCA are those who
put the most into it, and the formation of principalities will mean just that
many more opportunities to have fun working to create a little bit more
medieval-style fun.  In fact, in some cases principalities will reduce costs --
if there are more events in your local area because a principality has formed
there, then there is more fun stuff to do close at hand, and it always costs
less to go to an event an hour away than it does to travel clear across the
kingdom.

And Tomonaga also said:
>...or their family commitments prevent them, or they think its more important
to
>save their money for emergencies than to buy stones for making jewelry
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