[Ansteorra] Psychos and other Ogres

[Jan Van Zandt]

Chass said:  *Aye but then you also get into some trying to blackball others and mouth them over conflict of personalities.

Charinthalis Del Sans of the portable Chariot
Chass Brown*

  One or two complaints about a person is not a red flag.  Multiple problems/complaints caused/created by that person(s) with many different SCAers/local and Regional and Kingdom officers over a series of years is a major red flag.  As I said before, there are not that many of these hard-core troublemakers out there, but where they do reside or play they undermine the morale of the group.
     
  In all groups there will be some personality conflicts, spats and arguments.  This just normal group dynamics and can be eventually worked out or at least tolerated.  What is NOT NORMAL is having the same person(s) involved in or creating problems for YEARS and YEARS.  If they move from group to group, you can bet that their pattern of behavior will repeat itself eventually.  That is why I encourage local seneschals, Regional and Kingdom officers to document and keep files and pass those files on to their successors.  
   
  These troublemakers usually have a habit of repeatedly stirring things up, pushing it to the edge and then laying low for a while.  Sometimes by the time they decide to start to play again or try to stir things up again there are new people in the group, new seneschals on all levels and a new Crown Who has no idea of the past history of the person(s). The new officers/Crown feel that they must try to give them a chance - not knowing that they have had many chances over the years. So, they get by with their efforts to disrupt AGAIN, or get a slap on the wrist - as a result it just reinforces their intent to have things their way.  We live in a geographically large Kingdom and many groups try to keep their dirty laundry at home (which in most cases of conflict is fine).  There is no way that the Kingdom level officers and the Crown can know everyone.  But if there is documentation for them to reference they could better handle some of these hard-core trouble makers.  
   
  When over the years a series of Kingdom Seneschals/officers and Crowns have had to deal with these same troublemakers, then the Kingdom needs a way to deal with them.  In the middle ages, we might have put them in the public stocks and hoped they would learn through public humiliation to get along with other people.:)  
  The populace of a local group that has to put up with these people needs to communicate with one another, draw a line as to what type of behavior they will not tolerate, stand united and not let these people ruin their game.  
   
  The really sad thing about all this is that usually these troublemakers are interesting, multi-talented people who would be great assets to the group if they didn't always try to control and manipulate the others in the group.
   
  Baroness Jan
   
   

		
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