ANST - Proposition: a Kingdom Business Meeting

[Chris and Elisabeth Zakes]

At 11:42 AM 1/19/98 -0500, you wrote:
>
>I have a question about this.  Suppose you are in an order that does not
>typically have a long meeting; say, the White Scarfs.  Do you want to
>travel 4 to 8 hours for a 30 minute meeting and nothing else?  No music, no
>dancing, no tournament, no feast?  It seems to me that almost anything
>would be preferable to that.


Excuse me? I don't think I've *ever* been in a White Scarf meeting that was
that short, unless we were under a *serious* time-crunch. White Scarves
talk just as long, and get sidetracked just as easily as (from experience)
Pelicans, or (from observation) Laurels, Chivalry, Great Officers and
Landed Nobility. <G>


>If you are determined to move meetings away from events, then how about a
>group conference call instead?

I don't like it. Either everybody would be talking at once, or a few people
would dominate the whole meeting. You're also talking about being on the
phone for a series of (at a guess) 30 or 40-person conference calls for
something like eight or nine hours; figuring you start at 9:00, break for
lunch from noon to 1:00 and then continue to 6:00 (except it will
inevitably run over to at least 7:00.)


As for "what to do before/after the meeting?":

Sit and talk to the friends you've been too busy to visit with at events.

Set up an area for pick-up fights. (No tournament, nothing fancy, just an
informal fighter practice with folks you don't get to fight that often.)

If the Business Meeting is in the right location, go shopping at nearby
stores.

If we're doing this in modern clothes, instead of SCA clothes, bring in a
couple of TVs and video players, and show some good (or bad <G>)
period-style movies. Daoud Bob rides again!

Bring along your latest A&S project and work on it while chatting with your
friends.

Have a "pre-meeting" where you can discuss candidates, or hash out some
agenda items, or bring up new ideas before presenting them to the Crown.

Presuming there's going to be a feast afterwards, go help in the kitchen
for a while. "The food is hotter, the service is better, and the company is
*much* less formal."

	-Tivar Moondragon

Rule #8. If it is time to serve dinner, the meeting is adjourned.

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