[Ansteorra] long early history of role of officers in Ansteorra-

[willowdewisp at juno.com]

Greetings to the populace of Ansteorra
>From Duchess Willow de Wisp

The role of officers in Ansteorra changed about 12 years ago. Here is the model from early Ansteorra. 

First and foremost, the officers  were to report to the kingdom and ultimately the BOD. Then they were to keep the necessary activities of social interaction, education and socialization (that is the teaching of norms and values to the new people) going. They were to oversee the allocating of resources (time at events, events and money, etc.) so as best they could everyone got a shot at their “dreams”.  They were to collect impute from the populace and to listen to even the quietest member and try to work them into the activities. If they could not do that at least make these people feel like someone listened to them. They were to provide feedback to people on how they could change their ideas so the group could use their ideas. They provided a buffer for new people and provided scaffolding for new people until they could function in the SCA on their own. Lastly they provided a communication net for people who may not be in the main social unit. (this could be new members, old members, loners, and busy people)   These people may not be going to meetings and they might not have a lot of time to give but often they are members of the SCA and they are often willing to work on projects if you ask them. They are a resource we have neglected in the last 10 years. Officers were to assist individuals as they created large and small events for the groups.

Officers were not to micro manage the groups and it was not necessary for them to run everything.  The model had the officers being chairman and when they stepped down acting as unofficial officers and taking leadership role in all the little things that needed leaders and then if or going on to be kingdom officers and hopefully peers, but all the time being there as resouces for the group.  

When Officers were in office they were suppose not to autocrat. They were there to assist the autocrat and to make sure all the official tasks were handled properly. They were there to help with the red tape and to make sure the autocrat followed the rules. They were there to use the communication net to supply the autocrats with people the autocrat  would not normally get into contact with.. They were there to lobby for people’s pet projects that individuals had asked for help with. They were there to buffer creative individuals from  rubbing each other. In general they were there to try (as best as they could) to make the activities and events include as many people being creative and enjoying themselves as possible. 

In early Ansteorra the groups the officers acted as chairmen. The ideas and projects and the leadership to make those ideas reality were provided by the populace. We saw the peers and nobles in the groups really taking an active role in training up and assisting junior members. Often this was done by taking on an idea promoted by a peer and allowing them to spearhead an activity and the officers suggesting new people who would benefit from the interaction. In this case the officers is acting as a matchmaker. Often the officers would “sit” in on the work to make sure the new person was fitting in. You know adding a friendly smile for a while.

In early Ansteorra it was felt that it was very important to be constantly encouraging people to express themselves (without fear of censor) and matching then with people so they could do or live their “dream”. The smaller events that are official played an important part here because people could learn on them and get prepared to do bigger events.  This level of activity starts after people get their feet wet in the SCA and have gone though “newcomer” stage. They are ready to play for real. It is vital to get these people engaged at this level or they leave. A high early turnover rate shows a failure to do that. They must be treated as thinking adult at that time or they will leave. Micro management is viewed in a negative manner at this time.  “Mother, I would rather do this myself!”  The Individual needs to view the officer as a helpful resource rather than a manager. Small event allow junior members to try and if they fail it isn’t that bad of a thing. It is a learning experience. 

The populace and that  means all the populace not just the people who make the meetings must be the source of ideas and leadership. Now if the group is small all the natural leadership might be officers but any group that has two or more social entities should have natural leadership who are not currently officers. As time passes Natural leaders often become peers because that is one of the elements that the kingdom looks for in peers, but many natural leaders are not and will never become peers. Peer and non-peer natural leaders are the backbone of our groups. Everything we do needs a natural leader even if there is only one person on the team. In that case the leader leads him or herself. 

If you look to   normal feast you can see there are many tasks that require leadership.
1.	Getting started paperwork. 
2.	The getting the site and arranging for publishing of announcements. 
3.	Setting up jobs and getting volunteers.
4.	creating decorations for the hall
5.	setting the hall up
6.	Sign in and managing the money according to rules
7.	Cooking the feast
8.	serving the feast
9.	Entertainment for the feast
10.	clean up
11.	Follow up paper work

While I have seen one leader do most of these jobs, usually a group of helpful persons would step in and cover the undone jobs. The jobs just “didn’t get done” some leader started the process and got others and saw it out. 

Nothing is ever done without someone making it happen. 

When officers micro manage the natural leaders feel left out so they stop working and after a while leave. If a natural leader looks into a group and sees no need for them they won’t join. Groups often close ranks and won’t let new people do things. It is one of the jobs of the officers to shoulder in and make a place for these people. Officers need to stress that we are a zero sum game and we are not in competition for spots in the hierarchy. People get tired and we always have things that new people can make and run. Get the people to start new guilds or just workshops, have them work on new decoration for halls officers need to be inventive. Just make sure the new person feels wanted. 

In the old days we expected officers to have many deputies, because no one person can handle all these jobs. Often it was 1.a Senior member who had been the officer in the past, 2 a really junior member to get their feet wet and 3 a person who is being trained in the job. The officer was encouraged to think of all the old officers as off-the-record deputies. We used the Heralds office as a model. When the officer communicated with these people an officer would have a wide network of people to generate ideas and to offer leadership and assit in making those ideas real. If you include the peers in that field you have a very strong base and a way to make people 
feel that they are included in the group. It was this technique that kept people involved for 5 to 15 to even longer. You will find many of the people who came in under this system still active in their local groups. 

About 12 years ago the officers were told that they needed to make sure everyone was obeying all the corporate  rules. These rules were interpretive very strictly in Ansteorra. To make sure everyone was doing everything properly the officer were encourage to look over everyone’s shoulders and this led to natural leaders dropping out and the officers  having to take over the leadership. Because the peers and nobles were often natural leaders they started drifting away from active involvement with their local groups. 

Some groups in Ansteorra did not change how they were doing things and they maintained their populace and maintained all their interest groups. They also maintained a resource of natural leaders. If you want to know who they are go to calendars on their sites and see how many different groups and activities are listed.  A group with many natural leaders will have many activities because it take a natural leader to spearhead each activity. 

I took this overview of philosophy that was in effect from the beginning of the Kingdom to year about its 25 year. This was the concept that the committee  that wrote our original laws that were codified from Ansteorra Pre kingdom days. Since the committee had people from the fields of Sociology, Psychology, Law, City management and History this model was based on mundane proven theories and facts. 

Thank you 
Willow de Wisp
Nothing gets done until someone does it. 





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