[Ansteorra] Questions 7/18

[maaggie3 at comcast.net]

I started out waxing philosophical, but then I re-read Mistress Lorraine’s plea to keep the answers brief.  So, you get the short version.

1. What attracted you to the SCA?
 
A warm summer day, sitting on a blanket at a park, watching all these people in funny clothes talking and lecturing, not to mention the ones in armor hitting each other with sticks.  At a break in the melee, I found myself surrounded by tall young men in armor who wanted to kiss my hand (and one who wrote a poem in my honor).  How could a girl NOT be attracted to the SCA?
 
 2. What is your perspective of what the SCA is to you? 
 
The SCA is a place where I can forget about my everyday life, live a little bit of a fantasy and have the opportunity to get together with my friends in a central location (events).

 3. Where do you invest the most time and energy in the SCA (household, local group, kingdom, specific activity)
 
Pretty much just at the Kingdom level now.  In the past, I've held both local and regional offices.

 4. How long before you started to take initiative in the SCA (applying for an office, organizing an activity, etc.?) 
 
About a month.  I joined on July 1, 1990 and was deputy seneschal by the end of the month.  My first event was Pennsic.  I autocratted my first event in late September and my first demo in November.  I was much younger then and had far more energy!

 5. Were there instances that could have "run you out of the SCA"..why did they not...or why did you come back? 
 
Not really.  People are people wherever you go.  Some are going to make you angry, some you're not going to like.  I just don't spend much time dealing with those folks.  This is my fun time.  I can get stressed out just fine at work - don't need to do it on the weekends too!

 6. How long before you burned out? Why did you burn out? Is there anything anyone could have done to help keep you from "burning out"?
 
Haven't burned out, but after about 1998, I did stop holding offices when my mundane life and job left me unable to make firm commitments to the SCA.  I'm very careful what I volunteer for now because I don't want to commit to running something only to have to back out at the last minute for work-related reasons.

 7. What do you get out of the SCA? 
 
Friendships that will last a lifetime, an outlet for my imagination with people who are just as happy as I am to wear the funny clothes and play the silly games, a place where I’m surrounded by people who are generally bright, generous and honorable.
 
 8. If you have your AoA...how long did you get it after starting to participate in the SCA?
 
Ridiculously soon - about eight months after joining.  I'm glad I got it then, though, because I became Royal only four months later.
 
9. And last but not least...why do you think that people should join the SCA and stay in it? 
 
Because it’s fun or because it offers you something you don’t get anywhere else.
 
Maggie



--
Countess Margaret ny Connor 
Barony of the Steppes 
Kingdom of Ansteorra