[Ansteorra] How to get to do things in the sca long

Ld.blackmoon ld.blackmoon at cox.net
Fri Apr 15 23:03:54 PDT 2011


greetings

your grace has many good points ,
but for a slightly different take on things,
I have been in the sca since 1982 , I spent the 1st 20 years trying to stay 
in the shadows, and avoid the politics.
but when I returned to northkeep from calontir , archery had become " 
official " here ( it wasn't when I left for calontir ),
( and the shire I had left , had become a barony )
but northkeeps archery marshal wasn't active, wasn't holding practices , 
etc. , so I found out who I needed to talk to , and got myself authorized as 
an archery marshal, built an archery range in my back yard,( which the 
barony still uses ; ) became the baronial deputy archery marshal and started 
holding practices,that was 9 + years ago, I have been an officer , usually a 
dual officer ever since.I have held baronial offices, regional offices, and 
am in my second term as a kingdom deputy officer and a baronial seneschal at 
this time .
I have made and given out archery regalia, and am currently making  both 
baronial and kingdom award regalia , to be used as each see fit.
as well as items for the bardic community .
officers are always needed , deputy officers are always needed, both of 
which are also good starting points for people wanting to help the sca, the 
kingdom, and the group they play with .
 some groups have found ways to help new and old players alike become 
involved.
the backbone of northkeeps populace, the ones that you always know will be 
there , helping, working, giving up their own time/ energy so that others 
may enjoy the many opportunities / activities at any event or demo, filling 
offices because there is a need, working on baronial and kingdom projects 
,etc. are the members of The Lions Paws of Kenmare .
these are the people you refer to as the movers and shakers , and as the 
highest recognition you can get at the baronial level, it must be earned , 
not over night, not in a season, not in a reign, but over years of service 
to the barony .
our only language is honor and honesty .

the older members that you see as a " power block " are the members that 
have poured their blood , sweat, tears, time, energy and money into keeping 
the barony  going and growing.  so no they aren't going to just jump on any 
band wagon until they have time to consider the consequences for the barony 
they love.

one of the ways we help people to earn this recognition is that all of our 
events are set up to have co-autocrats , an experienced autocrat teams with 
a novice autocrat.
the experienced autocrat teaches the novice autocrat all during the event, 
but if mundanity strikes, or worse, illness strikes, the novice has been 
fully involved to that point in the planning etc, and can take over with out 
needing to start from scratch. also after this 1st event the novice becomes 
the experienced autocrat. they also have other experienced autocrats to 
answer questions / help if needed.

another way , is that we are an active barony, we are constantly working on 
baronial projects, as well as kingdom projects, at which anyone / everyone 
is encouraged to come help out .
and at events, everyone is encouraged to spend a little of their time 
helping to make the event a success, whether that is by sitting a gate 
shift, helping set up, or tear down, serving at feast, water bearing, 
marshaling, heralding , or any of a large number of other ways to help out.

if you have grown enough in the society , and want the sca to continue, you 
will find ways to help that cause, and believe me, people will notice, 
people will talk, and eventually you too may wind up belonging to a group of 
people that you know will always be willing to stand beside you and do 
whatever is needed to help support your barony, and your kingdom.
as her grace says , ask anyone and everyone how you can help,where you are 
needed, etc. if they don't know , they may have a good idea who to ask that 
will know.

the best and fastest way to become part of any group is to " get active " 
join in, help out , hiding in the shadows makes it harder for both you and 
the group .
no one will bite your head off for asking to help, or for putting in for an 
officers position, many times we are moving from office to office, because 
no one new is willing to step up and apply .

just my opinions , your mileage may vary
but I hope it helps ; )

Be Safe , Be Happy, Have Fun .
Arthur

for spaghetti lovers, aoa,kings archer, sable talon,arc d'or , sable crane, 
lopk,sable thistle .






----- Original Message ----- 
From: <willowdewisp at juno.com>
To: <ansteorra at lists.ansteorra.org>
Sent: Friday, April 15, 2011 3:28 PM
Subject: [Ansteorra] How to get to do things in the sca long


Hi this is one of my helpng hints stuff. It is long. If you have any 
insights on being able to do things in the SCA please add them to the post. 
i give everyone the right to reprint this in any format forever.
Ann Lanphier Herbert
April 15, 2011
willow de wisp
    How to get to do things in the SCA<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = 
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
By Duchess Willow de Wisp, OL, OP, OR
Lion of Ansteorra, Defender of the Dream
Hello, this is a note from someone who has been in the SCA for over 40 
years. I am speaking to the individual who has become frustrated with the 
SCA and is thinking about quitting. Either you have reached a stage in your 
SCA career where you want to do more or you are bored with what you have 
doing.
Let us talk about wanting to do more.  After your first two years and about 
every two years after that people become bored with what they have been 
doing. They often want to give back to the group or do something more 
exciting and creative. Often they run into what appears to be a power block 
of older members deeply entrenched into the system. This power group seem 
not to want to give up control and there appears to be no need for you to 
take part. When you introduce new ideas they don’t seem excited and seem to 
put obstacles in your way.
This behavior make people upset and they do not want to fight so they drift 
away to another organization
Most people who leave at this point believe  our leaders are power mad 
clique. This is not the case.  Most of our groups have developed a “working” 
clique, but this has nothing to do with power and control. They are people 
very much like yourself who have taken on the responsibility of making sure 
that we continue to have events and activities. They might be tired, but 
they have done this so long that it is part of their identity in the SCA..
The policy of having only a limited amount of events means there are no open 
places for new people to express themselves. First the local “working” group 
does not “need” new people because they are capable of doing a limited 
amount of events by themselves. Second they enjoy working with their friends 
and if new members took over their work force they what would they do. 
Thirdly, the groups need  profitable events to cover their working cost and 
they don’t know if newer people have the skills to run a major event.
The answer to this problem is for groups to have small activities or events 
where people can express them selves and feel needed and useful, and learn 
the skills for putting on event.  In the past establish “work” groups have 
not approved of this option.
When you get to this point, the people, who have been doing so much of the 
work, just want to rest on their “off” time. Many times they don’t even want 
to go to events and they certainly do not want to think about events. The 
officers, who usually are part of the “working” force, do not have the 
energy to handle small events.
Also if your group takes part in a war that takes up a lot of money, time 
and energy and the “work” force is just tapped out.
Normally SCA group only  recruit only a few people each season and with a 
2-5 year turn over of new people there are usually not enough new people to 
put on a little event or enough extra people to go to it.
So what can you do?
You can do things in your own areas. You don’t need to get permission to 
express yourself at your own table or campsite or on the bodies of your 
family, and yourself.  As long as you are not doing something illegal or in 
bad taste, and you are doing something that brings ambiance and style to the 
Hall or the camp site you will get brownie points and the community will 
smile on you. Having a Community happy with you is a wonderful reward.
Also if the community sees you dong something creative on your own or with 
people they will realize that you are at the point where you can be trusted 
with a task and it will be done well with little or no supervision on their 
part. Many of our “working” group would like more creative things done at 
our events, but they are so busy they do not have the energy to train or 
supervise those activities.
Sometimes the reason individuals are not allowed to take on position of 
responsibility is s a matter of communication. We have many different 
generations of people in the SCA and words don’t mean the same for all of 
us. The older and more stable the “work” group the more likely they are to 
have developed their own “language” to work together.   The “work” group may 
not even realize that they have done this. If you want to able to work on 
important things in your group you must understand this language. They do 
not have the time to teach you so you must take the time to learn it. This 
language thing is a common feature of well working groups so the skill of 
learning a “working” language will stand you in good stead.
Many events have “dead” times. We do most of our business between 10 am and 
10Pm.  After court there is often nothing. crown Tourneys have so much dead 
time you could put a whole event in them and it would not’t be noticed. If 
you don’t mind working with the difficulties of these times you could do 
something then. But please remember that people often go home because there 
are no official activities on the information so you will have to advertise 
a lot and often you will not be able use the event web site or official news 
channels.
Start small. For example, bring games to the hall and set them up and start 
playing and teaching or start teaching something new. Sometimes this does 
not’t work because you are the only “new” person in the hall.
Almost every “work” force I have dealt with has people that come with the 
people working. They can be spouses, children and friends. Look for 
activities that might entertain them.
Do not be discouraged if you don’t get a lot of people taking part. The 
“working” force often notices and if they see skills or ideas they could use 
to expand and see you are good worker and that you do good work they will 
often bring you into the team. They did not exclude you because they are 
hateful people they exclude you because they are working so hard that they 
have tunnel vision.
Go to the business and populace meetings.  Don’t try to be heard at the big 
meetings. Go to them and listen and then talk to the people in charge. Often 
the officers and movers and shakers get together in a casual social 
situation right after the meeting. Brain storming and problem are solved 
here.. Go to these places listen and carefully make suggestions. Control 
yourself. If you have suggestions that might help make them short and quick. 
Everyone has limited time. This is a great place to volunteer. Take on their 
jobs first and get them done quietly and do them well. After you have shown 
you have workable ideas then suggest your ideas for events and activities.
 Suggest your ideas well in advance and give the people a chance to think 
them over. Talk to people who should be asked. Don’t ask who you should talk 
to just talk to everyone you think should be asked. The BB and officers is 
good people to start with. Suggest the idea in a casual way.  Don’t expect 
approval. In fact expect to be told why you can not do this thing.  This is 
not necessarily a “no”. This could be just a warning about problems you will 
have to deal with. Then work on the hurdles. Talk to members of the “work” 
team, past and present. They can give you insights and help you phrase the 
concept in such a way that it will be understood.
Don’t tell people what they should do. Make it clear that you plan to do the 
work on this idea. Remember that the “work” group is going to need the 
populace to help with the event. Try to recruit people who are not currently 
counted on by the establish “work” group. New comers and semi-retired people 
are good sources of unattached labor.
Watch out for the sacred cow. If an idea is dismissed loudly and out right 
try to find out why and try to find out what part of the idea is the 
problem. Sometimes groups just do not like an idea and you will get a “no”. 
Don’t push it.  Be willing to scale back and maybe come up with something 
similar that does not’t bother people.
We often expect things to come to soon. The most common mistake today’s 
young people is to expect the speed of the Internet when dealing with human 
groups. Remember everyone you talk to only does the SCA as a hobby so they 
must fit the SCA around their regular life. This produces time lags. Fast 
communication dozen’t help if they must wait to the week end to get it done.
Even though people tell you to wait that does not’t mean you should do 
nothing. Volunteer to do things and help people with stuff. We are 
chronically understaffed at events. If you keep your eyes and ears open you 
will find people who need help. Please remember that tired people are not 
opened to change. When you help and see a way to do things better and you 
suggest it there is a great chance that you will get an inflexible “No”. 
This is not a rejection of you or even your idea. This is a tired person who 
does not have the energy to think of new ideas.
 I can not promise that you will become part of the mover and shaker team in 
your area, but these behaviors have been known to help.

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