[Ansteorra] An answer to the population problem

[Hugh & Belinda Niewoehner via Ansteorra]

All the posts on this subject in my opinion have carried valuable 
points.  I believe, as I have said before, that it is 'life in the 
modern world' that contributes most to the lack of attendance, 
membership growth, and general participation. Whether that is due to 
employment, finances, family obligations, health, or other non-SCA 
commitments, it is something the Society has no control over.

The cost of membership (not implying that it was or was not necessary to 
increase it due to rising legal costs, etc.) has made it more difficult 
for many.  As Arthur pointed out, we have also considered whether paying 
the non-member surcharge would not be more economical considering the 
few events we can attend.  We keep our memberships more in the spirit of 
supporting the organization then in avoiding the non-member fees.  Many 
can not afford that luxury.  The high cost of membership can also deter 
willing 'volunteers' from holding office since /I believe/ many of the 
offices require it.

As Lady Maria pointed out some are not going to events because of 
economical issues.  This may, indeed, be causing a rippling affect in 
that less active or relatively new people aren't going because their 
friends won't be there.  Perhaps a solution in the case of gas prices 
could be in car pooling and sharing of expenses.  But with car space at 
a premium (camping gear--especially SCA style takes a lot of room) and 
schedules not always in agreement, this may not be a feasible solution 
either.

Alma Danks has presented an excellent observation about the scheduling 
of events.  Don't remember that coming up before on this topic.  I 
thought we used to try and not schedule events close by in clusters 
because of hurting attendance.  It may be that our schedule is just so 
full now that this happens.  Everyone wants those prime dates because of 
weather,  wars, holiday, etc. Perhaps money could be set aside during 
the course of the year so that more of these could be attended, but that 
does address the issue of 'real world' schedule commitments conflicting.

As to leadership vs. management, I am not sure I understand all of Her 
Graces' points.   I do believe that under good leadership, people can be 
inspired and desire to contribute and participate more.  If a particular 
peer is well liked, respected, etc. they can cause others to want to 
emulate them, serve or work with them and so forth.  And unfortunately, 
where humans are involved it can also be warped into cults of 
personalities becoming divisive and problematic.  Officers are like 
management as they handle the business end of the game.  They are 
usually the ones held legally responsible for actions so it is my 
opinion that they should have final say on certain rulings.  For 
example, a Baroness may wish to use funds of a group for something that 
SCA corpora doesn't allow.  The Sensechal may have to over rule 
her--hopefully, tactfully.  The dissolving of guilds by anyone is 
unpleasant.  I'm not sure whose jurisdiction it does/should fall under.  
But just because a guild or household has been dissolved, I can not 
understand how it would be possible to forbid people gathering and 
enjoying a particular hobby or activity.  It might not be listed as an 
'official' guild, but what is to prevent someone from saying, "Come by 
my house/camp.  We're having a middle eastern dance session/party.  If 
it's successful we'll be doing it again on Tuesday night/at such and 
such event."

H.E. Ian mentions civility.  There will always be disagreements and 
misunderstandings.  It's present in any group.  But these can be handled 
with civility, respect, and, yes, kindness.  I was encouraged by the 
article written about Pensic by the newspaper woman.  More than once she 
quoted someone saying, "Everyone is so polite."  Even if we grumble at 
each other at least to the newbies and press we still appeared 'shining' 
at Pensic.  Compared to so much of what's out there, SCA folk,/in 
general/, are exceptionally nice, civil, kind, generous, etc.  We're all 
human, we all make mistakes, do stupid things.  It's easy to find fault 
with others.  And it's easy to be offended when no offense was 
intended.  But perhaps it would be good to take the advice of someone 
much wiser than I'll ever be and consider that before we try to help 
take the splinter out of our friend's eye, we first take the rafter out 
of our own.  After all we can't really control any one but ourselves.

Ismet