[Ansteorra] beaurcatic model was fee

[willowdewisp at juno.com]

When we talk about things moving from a group of individuals to a tight organization with internal systems and officers and "red tape". We are talking about moving into the Bureaucratic system.
This system came into being along with the absolute monarch and in the end supplanted it. It was the perfect system to bring the world into the modern age. It is logical and takes the "human" element out of organizations. 
Most clubs and organizations us it as a pattern. Decisions are made by a limited number of officers and then they decide what the members at large will vote on. Since only a limited number of member show up to vote this is usually a rubber stamp. 
In business and govt agencies the system is a totally authoritative system. 
In the king and vassals system  the kings had to convince their nobles to support the Crown. The Crown has to depend on his vassals to get anything done. While the common people didn't have much choice the relationship of the Crown and the noble class was interdependent. 
When the SCA was started it was very clear that all of us were of the "noble" class so when we set the structure for the kingdom we based it on a model that worked fairly well for nobles for over 15oo years. All of us were nobles so we would all do our share in running the kingdom and in turn the Crown and the Crown vicars would take our needs and desires into account when they made decisions. This would be an egalitarian system not a democratic system. We would each be given a chance to do things as long as we could support them with resources and labor without damaging the kingdom or group..
This system meant we needed an infinite number game. We didn't put limits on how many awards could be given out, or how many events a group could have. We didn't put a lot of limits on who  could fight in Crown Tourney. This reinforced that we were all of the noble class. All of us have blood and linage good enough to be Crown. 
We have fought to keep the BOD from limitings who could take part in our events. We might not be successful but we have fought a good fight. 
We used the historical base as a set of rules. If something was done during our periods and isn't illegal or in bad taste now it is OK to do. This line of thinking allowed Ansteorra to be the only Kingdom in the Known World to support Rapier Fighting. It is Period and as Ansteorran the Rapier fighter have a right to their share of the pie because there is enough pie to go around. 
We believed that the officers were there not to control but to provide information and help people with the rules and regulations of the SCA and to act as traffic controllers so people were not running over each other in their desires to do things. 
The older members acted as leaders and since they usually had some awards because they were leaders the peers and nobles were expected to help people get the most out of their SCA experience. All of us were learning and teaching at the same time. Because most of us really believed that learning about our time periods was really important a lot of research and sharing of research was going on.
This system started degrading about 15 years ago. I didn't understand why then and I still do not know why. The system has changed again and I think Maybe it is time to look at the programs of then and see if they stand being revamped. 
I do not mean going back because you can not go back. We need to create an environment where young, doing ,creative people feel welcomed  and comfortable and us older people can still live in the Ansteorra we love. 
I have some ideas taken from other groups and other kingdoms and i will put some of them out to look at latter
willow de wisp 
 
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