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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Finnacan wrote:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>> I also want to mention this. I found the
phrase "With no College to rally</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>> around,..." very interesting. It
indicates, obviously, that the College</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>> is/was intended as a rallying point, a
common ground. That is a worthwhile</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>> endeavor. <BR>> However, that is how I
view THIS mailing list and bard.ansteorra.org. I am at</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>> a complete loss as to what the College
could offer that these things do not.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>> They're certainly more available to folks
in far-flung shires that are just</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>> starting out, moreso than the College I
knew. If we need to spread the word</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>> more about this list and the site, I
understand completely. Better yet, if we</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>> want to call this list and
bard.ansteorra.org the College (or at least incorporate</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>> them) I can see that being viable as
well. I see no need to have a College as</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>> a separate entity. Is there something
that I'm not grasping that the College</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>> could provide aside from formal
statements and meetings that less than half</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>> of us can attend?</FONT></DIV><FONT
face=Arial size=2>
<DIV><BR>> Tell me. I want to know what I'm missing. It's almost Halloween,
and my mind</DIV>
<DIV>> is elsewhere a lot these days.<BR><BR>> If the College can
offer something aside from what we already have, I wanna</DIV>
<DIV>> know about it.<BR><BR>It took me awhile to even understand your
point. Does anybody actually rally around an e-list? I'm on the
White Scarf list, but I don't rally around that. I rally around my
brothers and sisters who I see and fence with and meet with and share things
with. The e-list isn't a real entity. It's just a tool to
support something real.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Consider: A new person joins the SCA. He walks around at night
and sees the occasional circle or party. He joins in the sing-alongs,
learns a couple of dirty songs, and even writes a (poor) sonnet or two. He
occasionally takes part in the entertainment, but he doesn't feel like he's
really a part of it. He's considering dropping this and going back to the
things he really does in the SCA</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>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.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The year was 1981 or so, and he was Lord Robin of Gilwell. The
College is why I'm a bard. Without the College, I would be a fencer and a
fighter and a herald and lots of other things, but I would not be a bard.
How many Robins have we missed because there was no official group at events to
welcome them in?</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>No e-list does this, or can do this. No e-list exists at events, for
one thing. I saw the college hold meetings; nobody off this list ever sees
our discussions here. So while the list is a tool for helping people who
have already joined the bardic community, it cannot in any way help encourage
people to join the community.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The Pelican list does not replace Pelican circles; the Heralds' list does
not replace the College of Heralds. Guilds help brewers, and
needle-workers, and potters and many other artists. Why am I having to
answer, over and over, doubts that a guild could help us?</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>And By the way, there's one other advantage a college has over an
e-list. It's an actual period thing to do. We're part of a
re-enactment society; a re-enactment of period activity is not
unreasonable.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>But over and over again, I come back to the same thing -- the college drew
me into bardcraft. It's why I'm here.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Robin of Gilwell / Jay Rudin</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>