[Bards] Just a few words (really good words

Manners, Tabitha tabitha.manners at okstate.edu
Tue Nov 7 07:08:50 PST 2006


I can't agree more.  With everything else going on in life it is
difficult to keep up with the volume of posts from this list and I am
reluctant to respond on many topics until I have read and understood the
previous discussion.  I am sure I am not the only one.  A person-person
discussion at least allows a set reference for what was covered and if I
arrive late the major points can be summarized quickly.  There are also
so many non-verbal cues and tone inflections which cannot come across an
e-mail list that help in understanding one another clearly.  This is a
great place for tossing around ideas, but we definitely need the other
meetings as well and perhaps for those who can't make those meetings a
summary of what was concluded at each meeting or the major points made
could be made available somehow whether on list or through a contact
person that is made known to the bardic community (if you want
information on what happened at _____ meeting, contact ______).  I'm
just thinking aloud on this right now, but I thought I would throw it
out anyway.

Liliana Byrnes (who is over a hundred posts behind in reading since last
Thursday) 


**SNIP**
>>C. I can't tell anything from the lurkers on this list.  Quiet people
at a
>>meeting are at least nodding or frowning, clearly excited or clearly
>>bored.
>>At the end of a meeting, I can have a sense of what the group as a
whole
>>believes, so even the people with nothing to say have been counted and
>>considered.
>>
>>D. Yesterday I asked people to tell us whether they want an extension
of
>>the
>>kingdom structure run by kingdom officers or a co-op run by the bards
>>themselves.  To date, we've gotten responses from Willow, Saundra,
>>Michael,
>>Alden, and Maggie.  By contrast, once any major point has been debated
at
>>a
>>meeting, we can ask for a show of hands on each side.  Everyone
present
>>will
>>express an opinion.
>>
>>E. Discussions at a meeting are much more effective.  I have only been
>>able
>>to express the surface here, and have spent *many* hours doing so.  In
a
>>one
>>hour meeting, people would get all the answeres about the old college
they
>>want -- answers that I don't have time to write down, and that I would
not
>>put in an archivable form in any event.
>>
>>E. I'm not advocating meetings instead of this list; I'm advocating
>>meetings
>>in addition to this list.  The meeting plus the list is bigger than
the
>>list
>>alone.  Why isn't that obvious?
>>
>>F. We have been worried about whether certain regions will be left
out.  I
>>think it's an equal concern whether the people who don't spend hours
on
>>the
>>Internet get left out.  We don't want this to be just the Central
Region,
>>or
>>just the Southern Region.  I'm even more concerned that it doesn't
become
>>just the E-Region.  Lots of bards can't, or won't, be part of this
list,
>>including both of my apprentices.  That's why we can never afford to
>>depend
>>on this list as the college's primary means of communication.
>>
>>G. I teach graduate statistics, and the following is a crucial
statistical
>>point.  People on this list are, in at least one behavioral aspect,
>>different from the rest of Ansteorra's bards.  It is an elemental
result
>>of
>>statistics that a self-selected group is inherently unrepresentative
of
>>the
>>population.  I don't want to discuss it with just the singers, or just
the
>>old bards like you, me and Willow.  We would get a "consensus" that
>>doesn't
>>represent the entire body of kingdom bards.  For the exact same
reasons, I
>>don't want us to consult just the online bards.
>>
>>Robin of Gilwell / Jay Rudin


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