[Ansteorra] new comment on B&B

[willowdewisp at juno.com]

As many of you know Duke Jonathan and I have been giving advice to new B&B for decades.
I have moved to a new barony and with it I have gained new insights. As many of you know I have been in the SCA for many years  and I have weathered many storms. I am probably one of the oldest in membership active peer in the sca. 
Many of you tell me that you are in the SCA for the friendship and community, but like a aging vampire I have outstayed many a friend and enemy and many of a community. I stay for the ability to work on a creative level with many wonderful people and I have learned to let them them go. . 
While I have never lived in NorthKeep  I have many old friends here so for the first time I have entered  a community and this has opened my eyes to some things.
first the sca is two things or even more things at the same time, but for this missive I will talk about 2.
the first thing that the Local sca chapter are a community. this has a life independent of the organization and is very important to every person on a very real and private level.
the other thing we are is a club to promote creativity and understanding of Medieval history in the individuals that are members of our group. 
the needs of the human community and the needs of the club sometimes run counter to each other. 
Now to the point 
The Baron and Baroness' hardest job is to balance the needs of the community and the needs of the club. 
Here are some points they have to deal with.
Communities like to become stable and have a tenancy to close up. A club like our needs new people and new things being done all the time. 
Creative people come into conflict.
communities to stay stable need to do away with conflict so they often suppress any thing that makes conflict.
the club is based on the concept that we are coming to work for excellence and living history's environments that give people understanding of the time periods that we study. There is so much room here for conflict. but out of the conflict, if it is kept in control, we grow. 
the B&B have to balance peace and maybe going stale or high levels of creativity and maybe losing the community. 
In the past the crowns have tried to keep this balance by limiting the tenures of the B&Bs and changing up the kinds of B&B. One would be good with people and one that is good in getting people excited over learning and history and doing things
The best B&Bs have been good at both but they usually burn out fast because it takes a lot of energy to keep both of these plates going. Doing this kind of work allows no time for you to think of yourself and there is no time off. Often good b&bs sacrifice all their personal ambition to make a fun, interesting , challenging , learning SCA community.  
Because that is what we should be, A SCA Community. That is my dream and I have seen it. Unfortunately it takes many of us working together and understanding or at least agreeing to the  methods.
willow de wisp
 Please forgive the weird capitals the machine is not working right. 
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