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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I can't describe the level of depression that the
last few days of discussion have brought me.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>People have asked what happened to the old
College. Here's the short answer.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>People started assuming that the college ought to
be, and could be, every good thing possible for every performer, at every
moment. Instead of being respected for all the people it helped, it
was castigated for each person it didn't help, like an audience sneering at each
misspoken word, rather than applauding the overall story.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Look at Kat's story. She described appearing
at a bardic circle, getting help and advice and support and largesse, and no
member of the college jumped up to change things. Why should they?
Nothing was wrong. I promise you that if a college member *had* jumped in
to help, somebody would have complained that we were getting in the way of
Bear's teaching and Sieglinde's largesse.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>In any event, I have never, at my most active in
the College, guaranteed that I would talk to every new performer at any
event.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>So to answer the questions being
asked:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>1. "If there is a College will it give EQUAL suport
to bards in ALL regions of Ansteorra?"</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>No, it can no more do this than any other
institution in the history of the world can. When I've worked with two
bards in my area, and a third one comes up for help, should I say, "No, I'm
sorry but I can't help anybody else from the Central region until I get out to
the Coastal region again"? That is precisely and exactly what is
required by a demand that the college guarantee EQUAL support.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>All the college can do is give all the help it can
everywhere it can, but, no, I do not promise to cut some people off from help
until I make quota.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I can tell you this: as Premier Bard the first
time, I took the Kingdom Eisteddfod out to Bonwicke. As Principal of the
College, I organized a Bardic Colloquium out in Black Lake, bringing in many
teachers to help the bards in the Western Region. A few years later,
I organized the classes for Autumn Fires, again bringing many teachers to the
Western Region. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>A new college will do the same -- it will help
bring teachers and supporters to the Western Region, and elsewhere. But it
will not set up a quota system, and I will help people in the Steppes and
Elfsea more than I help in any other branch, simply because that's where I
live.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>And, according to the original questioner, this
means that the College "should not exist".</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>2. Can I guarantee success, or predict exactly how
it will help people?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>No, I can't. I don't know beyond any doubt
what will happen. All I can say is that I believe banding together to help
each other is worth doing.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>3. Can I tell you exactly what the college will
do?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>No, I can't. And nobody could, unless he were
planning to be a single despotic tyrant. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>A college is a co-op. We will do what we
decide, as a group, to do. Occasionally, that will mean putting on
events. But that will happen when somebody comes to a college meeting with
an event idea, and somebody offers to autocrat it, and other people offer to
come and teach or volunteer in other ways. We will occasionally do group
projects like the Sir Orfeo project and the Nine Worthies project. (By the
way, Michael, the Nine Worthies bardic project pre-dates the Nine Worthies
event, and was not connected to it.) But I don't know what group project
somebody will come up with, so I can't tell you what it will be.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>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.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>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.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>That's part of what the college did befoe.
But no one person can answer Michael's question about what we will decide to do
as a group in the future. That's what "decide ... as a group in the
future" means.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>3. Will there be bards, as Kat documented we had
before, that the college won't manage to help before other people
do? </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Yes. Neither I nor anybody else in the
college will be on call 24 / 7. I won't even be able to talk to new bards
at every bardic circle I go to. If the possibility that somebody gets help
from a non-college member means the college isn't worth it to you, then it won't
be, because we have no ability, and no right, to establish a monopoly on helping
people.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>4. Will some bards slip through the cracks and not
get any help from anybody?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Yes. Nobody is suggesting setting up a grid
across every event, with an college member stationed on duty every thirty feet,
coordinated by computer linkup and cross-referenced database, ready to guarantee
contact with each new performer the instant he or she decides that bardcraft
might be worth trying. That's what an assumption that we will help
everyone requires. And we can't do it.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Each of us will remain ourselves. We will not
be given any super-human powers by the college.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>5. Can we at least guarantee that when there is a
college member present, the college member will talk to the new
bard?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>No, we can't. Sometimes the college member is
somebody who joined just this event, and is still somebody who needs help to
jump in herself. Sometimes the college member is a Laurel there to
watch a specific performer's behavior. Sometimes the college member is
exhausted. Sometimes the college member doesn't recognize that this is a
new bard. Sometimes the college member is sitting next to a new bard she
just brought in, and is foucssed on him. Sometime the college member is
actually (gasp) working on her own pieces and performances right now. And
sometimes we just don't notice.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>6. Can we guarantee that college members won't say
stupid things to people?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Not without barring membership to all newbies and
most others. I sometimes say stupid things. So do you.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Even Mary Poppins was only *practically* perfect in
every way.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>The college will not be perfect, the college
members will not be permanenetly on call, and the college will make
mistakes.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>It will only be a co-operative group, imperfect,
without perfect ability to reach every single person, trying on a part-time
basis to do fun supportive stuff together. If that isn't good enough, then
the college won't be good enough.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Worse yet, people will have the kind of
ridiculous expectation that we must be perfect, like we've been getting
here for the last week. If we can't even convince the *bards*
that an imperfect college is worthwhile, how can we possibly convince the
non-bards?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Can I guarantee that what happened to the first
college won't happen to the new one? No, I can't, because it's already
started.</FONT></DIV></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Robin of Gilwell / Jay Rudin</FONT></DIV>
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