[Ansteorra] Group Status Changes

[L T]

With respect,

--- On Tue, 7/15/08, willowdewisp at juno.com <willowdewisp at juno.com> wrote:

> From: willowdewisp at juno.com <willowdewisp at juno.com>
> Subject: Re: [Ansteorra] Group Status Changes
> To: hughkillingbury at yahoo.com, ansteorra at lists.ansteorra.org
> Date: Tuesday, July 15, 2008, 1:32 AM

> I have been in the SCA for a long time and during that time
> I have seen problems of all kinds. In the beginning of
> Ansteorra we have some ideas.  One of them was that our
> officer were here to help the populace get through the red
> tape and be creative and have a good time. Group after
> group of officers did this. But it wasn't just the
> current officer it was everyone that every had been an
> officers and all our peers and nobles. 

I think part of the problem is that the officers don't understand that they are part of the "leadership" of the group and not just plugging in to "do a job." I also think they don't understand how to approach the people previously in office or with the knowledge or ability to handle problems without creating a debt to that person. 

> If there was a problem the officers would call on older
> people with experience to help out. Sometimes officially
> and sometimes officially. For my first 25 years in the SCA
> I helped people work out their problems  Then about 15
> years ago we started changing. the BOD started stressing
> the Business model and the officers were expected to be
> more in control. Groups that had longer histories knew what
> worked or didn't work but groups in far away places like
> the Western area or small groups the officers  just knew
> they were supposed to make things happen.

> We moved away from the community where we all shared
> knowledge and openly talked about good things and bad.
> things. to an organization where talking about problems is
> politically incorrect. We stopped calling on older members
> to be social leaders. In a way we have cut ourselves off
> from our collected wisdom. 

There is an alternate issue, it's difficult to tell which of the past leadership doesn't "keep up" with current issues or may have unresolved issues with others that cause them to be a less than reliable source. 
Some questions require current knowledge and the abiltity to be objective of the issues, people and one's own ability to be effective.

It also doesn't help that the SCA is a social organization that spreads flavoured information like wildfire. Sometimes innocently...sometimes mistakenly...sometimes maliciously...

I know several times when I was an officer dealing with problems within my group and we tried to gather the officers together to discuss how to handle situations, there always seemed to be a leak and before we could even meet to get our act together for the group... all hell would break out and we would get a shit storm that ended up causing more rifts and derision in the group... we couldn't create solutions because one of the officers sabotaged the effort before we could even talk about a solution. 

So at times secrecy is necessary for a time to get things into perspective without the storm of opinions, half truths and self serving elements going off half-cocked.

> I think we should use the problems in the West as an
> learning tool. Communication seems to be at the root. I
> believe that many of us are worried that we too might be
> making mistakes and not know it. One minute the West was
> talking becoming a Principally and next moment they were
> not there. 

Communication is always the key. Every situation should be used as a learning tool.

> All of us are thinking people and we would really like to
> understand what happened so we can pass this understanding
> to future generations of SCAers

Your Grace, with deep respect. Just because people have the propensity to think doesn't mean that they do.  A large number of people react instead of think... and it's one of the biggest problems at all levels. 

It would be nice to have a greater understanding of things but even if we had all the hard facts... there would be many nuances that we would not ken because they were related to the perspectives of the persons involved.

The best thing is to delve into how to communicate effectively (there is tons of study on the subject) and put it into action into each of our own lives. 

> One of  the best ways  to keep mistakes from happening is
> to give knowledge to the populace and they would pass the
> knowledge along. 

With respect, I've seen "train wrecks" coming before and played Cassandra and... it just doesn't work... people don't want to listen... they don't want to deal with problems in the SCA because they are here to "have fun" not to maintain an organization...and if you tell them of the problems you spoil their "fun"... then they freak when things go to hell... and all you can do is stand back and shake your head...

Unfortunately, the way most people learn from mistakes is by making them... there will always be mistakes... the difference is how we react to them. 


> Willow
 
Lorraine