ES - Galen gets editorial

[The Hermit]

HEAR!   HEAR!

baron at elfsea.ansteorra.org wrote:

> The following should be clearly understood to be a
> matter of opinion:
>
> Ebeneezer Scrooge once said, "If I could work my will,
> every fool who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' upon
> his lips would be boiled in his own pudding, and buried
> with a stake of holly through his heart!"
>
> And if I had my way, we would never use those much-
> abused words "official" and "unofficial" in the SCA
> again.
>
> In all-too-common SCA practice, some things are
> declared "official" so that other things may be
> designated "unofficial".  And "unofficial" is employed
> to exempt activities from the SCA rules that ought to
> govern them.
>
> "Since it's an unofficial fighter practice," we were
> recently asked, "do we have to wear armor?"  To which
> my question is, is it a fighter practice or not?  We
> wear armor to fight at fighter practice.  Some people
> try to get around this by holding a fighter-practice-
> that-isn't-a-fighter-practice, which they
> call "unofficial".
>
> We recently heard a distinction made between official
> and unofficial deputies.  Most deputies are not
> warranted, but do they have to be members?  Only
> the "official" deputies, whatever they are.  There
> seemed to be some idea that "official" deputies are the
> designated successors of the officers whom they serve
> with.  But that ignores the authority of regional
> officers to appoint successors.  Once again, we
> see "unofficial" used to rescue someone from making an
> either-or decision.  With "unofficial", we can have it
> both ways!  When, in fact, there's no reason or rule to
> require that local deputies be paid members.  (Although
> we certainly encourage everyone to be paid members.)
>
> Once upon a time in the SCA, we had "unofficial"
> events.  _Corpora_ defined what made an unofficial
> event and what qualified as an official event.  That
> went away about a dozen years ago, during the _Corpora_
> re-write during my time as Kingdom Seneschal.  I
> suggested that we simply define what qualified as an
> SCA event, and take no note of things that don't
> qualify.
>
> It's so much easier that way.  The insurance carrier
> doesn't get twitchy.  I know whether to go by "Paul" or
> by "Galen".  I have a clue what to wear.  If it's an
> SCA event, SCA rules apply, it's covered under the
> terms of our insurance, officers have whatever duties
> or responsibilities officers have, etc.
>
> "Unofficial" is a weasel-word, used in the SCA to have
> things both ways.  But if the activity is an SCA
> activity, if people attending expect the activity to be
> an SCA function, if it was promoted in SCA forums, then
> it should be treated as an SCA event.
>
> Let's purge "unofficial" from our vocabulary.
>
> - Galen
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