[Ansteorra] Things to think about....

[Pam Kendrick]

Your Grace

I agree with you whole heartedly!
The usual things that are done because "they always have been done that
way" are easiest!

In order to make things more interesting (and controversial) our Canton
(Gate's Edge) will be hosting the "Inquisition" in February, Torturous
devices and all!  It may ruffle some feathers, but it may turn out to be
a very unique event at the same time.

It will definitely NOT be a spectator sport!  Hope you can come, we
haven't seen you since 3 Kings last year!

Your servant,
Damask
Chateau La Panache'
(Household of Her Grace Desive Luciana A'Vigion

-----Original Message-----
 Dear Dominic

Most of the time I would agree  totally with you but as an active
autocrat in my time and creator of events I learned some hard cold
facts.
The more money the event cost and the more money the gas cost and more
time it takes us to get to events the more everyone expects. It is just
a
fact of life. Fifteen / twenty years ago we realize this and strived to
put more into events. We encouraged people to do stuff and told people
in
our laws it was their"duty" to help recreate the pre-17th century past.
We encouraged people to have personas and made arrangement for
opportunities to play. We encouraged brain storming and new ideas. There
was all sort of stuff going on mostly sponsored by individuals. Now the
bureaucrats have taken over.

If the officers  can not control it, it isn't done. I, Duchess Willow,
with all the titles in the world find it hard to get the bureaucrats to
OK anything. It usually take a goodly amount of time to get them to
agree
to anything. By the time they say OK I am so bored with the project I
can
hardly stand it. They go along usually if it is an all right idea but it
takes too long. A lot of people don't have the experience and patience
to
know that if they keep trying usually it works. When faced with this red
tape and bureaucracy slowdown they just get upset and stop.

Ansteorrians have faced this stagnation before. Individual got into the
offices and made it a point to make Ansteorra a user friendly place,
Senchales tried to keep an open mind and the populous of groups began to
take on the viewpoint that if you had enough people to do something and
you were paying for it and it didn't do any damage to the SCA  and
someone would enjoy it , it was alright to do. The whole point to being
an creative organization is to create.  If we want people to start doing
things again we are going to have help each other and protect each other
from the "I don't knows" and "I not sure." and "We never done that way"
and " It didn't work before" doldrums.

While I believe that you are right in saying the answer to the problem
is
Ansteorrans getting off their butts and doing things, I also think all
of
us need to make Ansteorra a easier place to do things. We need to
support
projects in our area and help individuals in other areas with their
projects. A while back you could get buttons that said " the SCA is not
a
spectator sport." I think that is a true statement.

Duchess Willow de Wisp