[Ansteorra] From the Kingdom Seneschal

[Kingdom Seneschal]

 With all seasons comes change, and this season brings with it a change in
the Kingdom Seneschal's office. In consultation with the Society Seneschal,
the Crown has selected Master Ainar Magnusson to be the new Kingdom
Seneschal. He will formally step up at Round Table. Congratulations to him, and
thanks to all of the applicants who put in for the position.

I have been blessed to have a wonderful local officer corps and team of
deputy kingdom seneschals, without whom I would not have been able to do
this job. To the regionals that I worked with during my tenure - Master
Avery Shaw, Mistress Colleen O'Kelly, and HL Cadhla Ua Cellachain - thank
you for your hard work and support. The regions have been in great hands
with you, and will continue to be in good hands with your successors.
Centurion Charles the Grey has succeeded Cadhla in the North. Colleen will
be stepping down in January, and will be succeeded by Mistress Katrine le
Roux d'Anjou after a transition period. For the Southern Region, Master
Avery will be stepping down at Round Table, to be replaced by Don Miles
Ridley.

The kingdom calendar deputy is also retiring after a wonderful period of
service to the kingdom. Big thanks to Mistress Genevieve de Courtanvaux for
her efforts, and to Baroness Susanna Nightegale de Caldwell, who has been
selected to succeed her.

I am grateful to all of the deputies during my tenure for their dedicated
service, from the waiver secretary, Katerine Bontemps, to the MoC who cares
for our future, Lady Silvana Corwin, to HL Ahlanna a'Becket, the Social
Media deputy, to Lady Zahira de la Sara, the Media deputy, and the many
others who have helped in ways both large and small. I also want to thank
to Don Martin Malone and Sir William Cameron de Blakstan for their amazing
service with regards to the kingdom website and the seneschal's webpage
(especially the Crown Tourney sign-up form); and my boss, Society Seneschal
Master Antonio Giordano da Sicilia, who provided invaluable guidance and
support. And last, I would like to thank my touchstone, my communications
director, she who has kept me sane, my wife, Mistress Sara Penrose. I could
have not have done this job without her help at every turn.

I have some final thoughts to leave you with - in this day and age, with so
much turmoil and strife in the world around us, I would ask that we all be
compassionate and kind to one another. We are all a second family. It is
only when we try to understand and truly listen to one another that we will
grow genuinely closer and form the bonds that make the SCA such a special
and wonderful place. We are all responsible for protecting the SCA and
making it into a place that is worthy of our dreams and ideals. Fight with
your last breath to keep the Dream alive.

Lastly, I share with you this quote from Theodore Roosevelt, which has been
with me throughout my life, provided me direction when I needed it, and
given me courage when mine began to fail:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong
man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The
credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is
marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who
comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and
shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great
enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who
at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at
the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his
place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know
victory nor defeat.”

Be well, my dearest Ansteorra.

Modius