[Bards] So let's quit sitting on the sidelines and get dancingalready

Michael Silverhands silverhands at sbcglobal.net
Sat Nov 4 08:36:11 PST 2006


My cousins,

I put this to you: we now, at this moment, have a college of  
Ansteorran bards. Every bard in Ansteorra who will go out there and  
encourage the bardic arts is a member. We already have our officers:  
the Premier Bard, and the Deputy KMoAS (Bardic). We already have our  
newsletter (this elist, and the web site at <http:// 
bard.ansteorra.org/>).

If some folks feel that we need a formal structure, "articles of  
incorporation" if you will, then I suggest something along these  
lines. This is *very* informally written. I leave it to other  
wordsmiths to reword it to be stuffier^H^H^H^H more technically  
correct, if it needs tinkering.

----- begin -----
Statement of Purpose
* The Ansteorran College of Bards is an informal guild whose members  
practice and promote the bardic arts in the Kingdom of Ansteorra.

Officers
* The officers are the Premier Bard and the Deputy Kingdom Minister  
of Arts and Sciences (Bardic).
** The Premier Bard is the spokesperson for the bardic community.  
Their job is to communicate with members of the college to determine  
their needs, to anticipate their needs, and to communicate those  
needs to the Kingdom officers. It is also their job to travel the  
kingdom promoting the bardic arts by performing, teaching, speaking  
about bardic, and encouraging local bards to do likewise.
** The Deputy KMoAS (Bardic) is the spokesperson for the Kingdom and  
the corporation. Their job is to communicate with other Kingdom  
officers, especially branch seneschals and event planners, to promote  
bardic activities at events, especially the Kingdom Eisteddfod.

Members
* Anyone can be a member of the Ansteorran College of Bards. To be  
one, say you are one, or display the insignia of the College in  
whatever form (belt favor, banner, etc.). The insignia is "Or, a  
mullet of five greater and five lesser points within the frame of an  
Irish harp sable".
** The duties of a member are to communicate with the officers of the  
college, and to personally work to promote the bardic arts within  
Ansteorra. They can do this by many ways, for example (but not  
limited to):
*** perform bardic at events
*** attend branch meetings, perform bardic at them, and encourage  
newcomers to talk to them about the bardic arts
*** host bardic circles -- at events, at practices, at demos or in  
your own backyard
*** teach classes in bardic, either formally or informally, in a  
class setting or one-on-one -- it doesn't matter, as long as teaching  
and learning are getting done
*** put out a call to other bards when their assistance is needed,  
such as to hold classes or bardic events
*** answer the call put out by other bards, within the limits of your  
abilities and resources

Resources
* To facilitate communications among the members and the officers,  
there is an email list (bards at lists.ansteorra.org) and a site on the  
world wide web (<http://bard.ansteorra.org/>). All official  
communications of the college shall be made there.
----- end -----

There. What have I left out? There should probably be more, but  
that's a slippery slope. The more rules we write, the more we stand  
to be bound by them. I suggest we say as much as is necessary -- and  
no more.

In my mind, the Premier Bard is to a territorial noble as the Deputy  
KMoAS (Bardic) is to that branch's seneschal. They have different  
jobs; one is on the "roleplay" side and the other is on the  
"business" side, but the "play can't go on" without both of them  
working at it as a team.

I personally don't feel the need for a great deal of structure or  
formality. If someone else does, great: go for it. Do whatever makes  
you happy. But what would make *me* happy is what we've all been  
already talking about: getting off our collective duffs and actively  
working in this kingdom to promote bardcraft. No one of us is an  
island, nor can be very effective on our own. But to bond together, I  
really feel that not much more than the above is needed; that, and  
the willingness to stand up in a crowd and say "I am a bard of  
Ansteorra!", and have someone else stand up and say "Hail and well  
met! So am I!".

Your thoughts?

Michael

p.s. To act -- to stand together -- we just have to *do*. I said this  
earlier in jest, but I think it's ringing pretty true:

"To be is to do. To do is to be. Doo be doo be doo." Who knows, I may  
use that as my motto. :-)



More information about the Bards mailing list