[Ansteorra] Cookies and Management....was Whats happening...
Paul Gilbert
niklas at pbgilbert.net
Sat Sep 23 13:38:52 PDT 2006
Greetings....
With respect...While the desire of the comradeship, fun of the game and
ambiance is very important...there is a deeper and sometimes hidden
level to the game of "cookies"....Soooooo....
Hummmmmmmm...ahhhhhhh....to a point I disagree..... that cookies are bad
and the wrong reason to participate in the SCA.
Now, that statement is going to most likely get me in trouble with
some.....but let me make this point before you swing the knives...
With the exception of very few people, the human being works better,
responds better and is is much happier when one receives positive
feedback of some type.
In the SCA, one of the primary means of this feedback is thru the
awarding of the so-called "cookies".
Having been a Landed Baron, I have had to sit and balance our
recommendations for and against "cookies" vs rewards in our words to the
Crown.
It was a great joy to reward (and reward is EXCATLY! what I mean) for
hard work, good performance and getting along with others. H.E.Kezia and
I also on the other hand, have given words of warning concerning
recommendations that were ill advised.
I know that some folks have a "laundry list" or agenda to get this award
by this date and so on. That does tend to raise a flag or warning, but
(and here is where I am going to get in trouble) if that person is
playing the game, performing, looking good and getting along well with
others...perhaps this is a manageable ASSET (and I will save my asset vs
liability speech for another time) that can be channeled to good means
and efforts.
Many people must have goals to achieve or set their sights on a point to
strive for or they are lost in life. In many cases these are the ones
that are the high energy, hard workers that use "cookies" as bench marks
of their life.
Often you can give those folks a task and get out of their way and watch
it happen. It is a wondrous thing to watch some of these folks work.
They can do great deeds if given the chance.
I have always believed that as any officer of the SCA, Crown or Landed
Noble, it is a major part of your job to channel your team or groups
members to the most of their potential.
Sometimes that is possible and sometimes not. You can tell in the groups
where it is working and not.
True, there are those participants that just because they have been in
the SCA 1 year plus, that they think they deserve an AoA. But, that does
not mean they have earned it or deserve it, nor that they receive it.
Awards, cookies or as I prefer to call them...rewards, is extremely
subjective in the criteria used to judge the candidates.
I know what we used and it worked well for us.
I feel that to use the blanket judgment that "cookies"
are bad, is a bit short sighted based on what we have seen and had to
do. Rewards (call them "cookies" if you want to) can be a tool in
managing your group.
Ok, so now you can fire at will.... :)
In Service,
H.E. Niklas Vasilevich, Former Baron of Raven's Fort
>
>> Personally, I have always felt that people who only play for the cookies,
>> are playing for the wrong reasons.
>>
>> They should be playing because the love the concept, the ambiance, the
>> excellent fellowship. and the fun of the game.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Paul Gilbert, KE5ZW H.E. Niklas Vasilevich
niklas at pbgilbert.net CB,CSM,KGA,OTR,ORH,Crane,AoA
512-733-3035 Cellular Kingdom of Ansteorra
Society for Creative Anachronism
Texas Dept. Of Transportation, Radio Operations
Austin, Texas 512-506-5141
pgilber at dot.state.tx.us
"The Eagle has landed"
"Sable, a double-headed eagle, a bordure engrailed or"
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