[Bards] Just a few words (really good words

[Jay Rudin]

Michael Silverhands and I have exchanged:

>> What the few of us who want a college should do, for the next
>> couple of months, is spread the word about the idea of a college,

> Tell us what that idea is first, please.

The idea is for the bards to meet together regularly.  I've said that many 
times.  I think good things grow out of people getting together regularly, 
and I don't know which of thousands of possible things will happen.

If I wanted to be as "political and exclusionary" as some people have 
intimated a college must be, then these questions would have specific 
answers: "I want to make the college hold the following events", or "I want 
the college to memorize the following twelve Latin hymns".  But I don't want 
to dictate policy.  I want us to get together, in mutual support.

Meetings.  Actually getting together.  Just like I keep saying.

But you want to know what would come out of those meetings.  I don't know. 
"I can't explain why bards meeting regularly in mutual support at events 
with lots of venues to perform will help.  I just know that it will." 
(Robin of Gilwell  10/31/2006)  If I knew, we wouldn't need the meetings. 
People will say things.  This will spark other things.  We'll see each 
other's faces, break bread together.  More collegiality.

> Listen to... what? Answers to the question "Should we have a
> college?" as the first talking point? How can anyone give an informed
> answer to that question until the framer of that question (that would
> be you, Robin) tells them why they might want one, and what that
> means, and what a college would do for them that they can't do for
> themselves (or at least tell them how a college would do a better
> job)? Specifically, unambiguously and clearly.

I have answered this specifically, unambiguously and clearly, more than 
once.  I want us to have meetings, regularly, all over the kingdom.  That's 
what I want.  Please stop acting like I haven't said this.

Meetings lead to collegiality, spread of ideas, special projects.  I have 
said this too.  I don't know what projects it will lead to, because I don't 
know what ideas other people will bring up, or which ideas will grab enough 
of us that we will jump in on them.

If we have meetings, we will get to know each other better.  Some of us 
might start bring food or drink, and they might turn into parties.  We'd 
have discussions about ideas.  We'd see each other's faces, we'd be able to 
clarify misunderstanding instantly.

>> What do I want from the college?
>> A group presence.
>> A sense of belonging that is more definite than "all the Ansteorran
>> bards already form a community, kumbayah".
>> A structure to make it easier for us to develop group projects like
>> the Sir Orfeo, Nine Worthies, and Crowns of the Sable Star projects.
>> A group body ready to take classes on the road.  (Yes, many of us
>> are ready to do so.  But there is at present no group of people
>> ready to do so as a body.)
>
> Ok, that list is a start. Thank you! :-)
>
> But I don't see anything there to challenge the idea that folks could
> do all of those things without creating a formal political entity (a
> college), and might be better served without one.
>
> I'm open to the idea! Truly! I just don't see it, given the reasons
> that have been put forth so far. And I would like to see these
> questions answered. I want to know what the idea is before I choose
> to embrace it.
>
>> The functions of the college aren't something that a few of us will
>> decide on in advance and tell everybody to do; it's what the
>> college decides to do, month by month.  Maybe soon the "function"
>> of the college will be to set up another Sir Orfeo project .  Maybe
>> at another time we'll be organizing a trip out west with lots of
>> bards bringing lots of classes.
>
> Those all sound like *very* cool ideas!
>
> Please tell me again how an informal group of interested and
> motivated bards can't do that now? Or how a college could do those
> things better, and how that would be different (and better) than an
> informal group etc.?

We'd meet.  That really is the answer.  Getting together is step one of 
every project.

"Having a college gives us a time and place to encourage it.  If I want to 
hold a bardic event, I'm alone in a room.  There's a lot of legwork and time 
just to find out if anyone's interested.  But if I'm in a college meeting 
and I suggest it, I have an autocrat, a bunch of committed teachers, and a 
large group of people excited about it within three minutes.  (This is an 
actual example, and how we came to hold the Bardic Colloquium in Black Lake 
in 1988.)"  Robin of Gilwell  10/25/2006

"Master Cadfan came to the College with the idea for the Orfeo project.  Sir 
Orfeo is a period poem that takes roughly thirty minutes to perform.  We got 
volunteers in Ansteorra and Calontir, split in into six sections, and 
performed it as a relay three times, using a total of nine bards from each 
of the two kingdoms." Robin of Gilwell 11/2/2006

"Then a college appears, and people ask him if he'd like to join the College 
of Bards.  Suddenly he sees himself as a member of the club.  He has the 
blue sash and everything.  He attends some of the meetings, and gets to know 
who the bards are.  People assume that they will help him, and he starts 
thinking it's his job to help other performers, too.  He's a Bard."  Robin 
of Gilwell  11/1/2006

>>   Somebody suggested badges indicating expertise.  I have no
>> interest, but if enough people want to do it, then they can.
>>
>> But step one is to talk to more bards and find out if they want a
>> college, and what *they* want a college o do.

> I disagree. Step one is to define what you mean by a college. Then
> you can ask folks if they want one of those things.

My first image is a group of people who get together to talk.  Things will 
grow out of these meetings that nobody planned.  I don't know what they will 
be.  I want to go around talking to people about what they need.  How can I 
responsibly make a more specific proposal if I haven't done that yet?

That's a serious question.  As near as I can tell, you, Alden and Finnacan 
are upset with me because:
a. You're afraid it will be too exclusionary, and
b. I  don't want to give final answers without talking to more people.
C'mon, guys, it can't be both.

But my proposal remains exactly what I keep telling you it is: we get 
together regularly, in mutual support and collegiality.

"Having a college gives us a time and place to encourage it.  If I want to 
hold a bardic event, I'm alone in a room.  There's a lot of legwork and time 
just to find out if anyone's interested.  But if I'm in a college meeting 
and I suggest it, I have an autocrat, a bunch of committed teachers, and a 
large group of people excited about it within three minutes.  (This is an 
actual example, and how we came to hold the Bardic Colloquium in Black Lake 
in 1988.)"  Robin of Gilwell  10/25/2006

"When the College had meetings, ideas were exchanged among a bunch of people 
at once.  Just as the same piece has a greater effect when fifty people are 
listening than when three are listening, the same idea has a greater effect 
when fifty people are listening."  Robin of Gilwell  10/25/2006

"I feel like I'm trying to explain sex to a virgin, while sitting on a 
perfectly good bed.  I can't explain why bards meeting regularly in mutual 
support at events with lots of venues to perform will help.  I just know 
that it will."  Robin of Gilwell  10/31/2006

" I suggested that we would have greater collegiality if we officially 
banded together, met regularly in fellowship and mutual support, and did 
things together as a group."  Robin of Gilwell  10/31/2006

"Then a college appears, and people ask him if he'd like to join the College 
of Bards.  Suddenly he sees himself as a member of the club.  He has the 
blue sash and everything.  He attends some of the meetings, and gets to know 
who the bards are.  People assume that they will help him, and he starts 
thinking it's his job to help other performers, too.  He's a Bard."  Robin 
of Gilwell  11/1/2006

"Here are a few examples.  Somebody came to a College meeting from the West, 
asking for help, when I was Principal.  I asked if she could autocrat an 
event.  We talked for a little bit, until several people had volunteered to 
go out and teach, and somebody had volunteered to organize classes, and the 
rest of the event was put together.  A few months later, a lot of us went to 
Black Lake and had a day of classes, followed by a feast and evening of 
performances.

"Master Cadfan came to the College with the idea for the Orfeo project.  Sir 
Orfeo is a period poem that takes roughly thirty minutes to perform.  We got 
volunteers in Ansteorra and Calontir, split in into six sections, and 
performed it as a relay three times, using a total of nine bards from each 
of the two kingdoms." Robin of Gilwell 11/2/2006

"My recommendation is that we get out there and talk to people, have two or 
three meetings (I've volunteered to sponsor one at Twelfth Night in the 
Steppes, but we shoudl have several others) and try to get the word out to 
as many bards as possible."  Robin of Gilwell 11/06/2006

"What officers would we need?  Probably only one -- to coordinate meeting 
times and places. "  Robin of Gilwell 11/06/2006

" A.  Yes, of course a meeting will reach more people.  We have around a 
dozen participants, and only about half that number deeply involved.  Back 
in the early eighties, when the kingdom was one third its current size, we 
never had a meeting that small."  Robin of Gilwell 11/07/2006

"I'm advocating a series of meetings and informal private conversations, all 
over the kingdom.  I hope people get together out west.  I hope they get 
together up north. "  Robin of Gilwell 11/07/2006

This is the answer I've given each time you ask, and it won't ever change. 
Step one is to meet regularly.  In those meetings, either we will come up 
with step two, and the college flourishes, or we won't, and it quietly dies. 
I think it will flourish, because I think bards enjoying speaking out in 
front of others.

But that's the proposal.

Robin of Gilwell / Jay Rudin