[Ansteorra] The waterbearing brouhaha

[Richard Threlkeld]

><snip, snip>
>
>I've seen you and a couple other folks say "We got along just fine
>before waterbearing was made a formal office."  So my question is
>this:  Why was it made a formal office?  What reason caused it to
>become so?  Has that reason changed?  If so, how did it change?  If
>not, does this paranoia about lawsuits trump whatever that reason was?
>
>I made a cursory seach of the Florilegium and caressed google a bit
>but didn't find any discussion of why waterbearing was made an office.
>
><snip, snip>
>
>Gregor MacBeathain

We set up an organization to (1) provide a ready source of people willing to
waterbear, (2) stop some of the unhealthy practices we had observed, (3)
promulgate legal and medical information about providing water to our
people, and (4) to provide a standard of training for waterbearers. In our
kingdom you do not have to use "official" waterbearers, but if you do, you
know they will be properly trained. They will be able to set up, run, and
shut down with minimal help from the autocrat. They will not be a problem
for the Marshals. They will know things like how to use volunteers of
various ages. And they will use methods that would meet the local laws.

Does the execution always meet these goals. No, but it does in most cases.
And it does much more often than when untrained people do it. IMHO, the need
for such organization still exists. It may certainly be possible for a Guild
without officer status to become that organization.

Caelin on Andrede