ANSTHRLD - On Laurel

Timothy A. McDaniel tmcd at jump.net
Thu Apr 26 23:12:07 PDT 2001


Sorry to go on at length about stuff related only to me, but I have
some experience with the Laurel office, and some CoA popularity (I did
get one "Help us Daniel wan Kenobi, you're our only hope", though I
say it who shouldn't), so I want to help with the situation.

I should explain why I posted the Laurel request / idea here.
"Wouldn't it be neat if we had the Laurel office back in Ansteorra"
would be a lousy reason.  Ansteorra alone has more than enough work
that needs doing.

It's just that there aren't many CoA candidates 1) who are interested,
2) who are obviously capable, and 3) who I'd support.

So that's why I'd like to help a team of experienced and good heralds,
and the way in which I want to help would imply at least some other
people in Ansteorra, preferably in Austin or nearby.

Now, I think *I* would do badly as Laurel as the office is presently
constituted:
- I dither.  Further, I tend to be hard-assed on borderline rulings.
- Work has been crushing for months.  I do software development, and
  sometimes we're told that we WILL release a new product on ${DATE},
  regardless of whether it's possible.  I think it should lighten up,
  but I can't guarantee that it won't get worse again.
- I work much better with structured flowcharted tasks with firm
  deadlines.  To be honest, consider my Arbalest fiasco.  Arbalest's
  consulting and problem-solving is not structured and there was no
  hard visible deadline like missing an LoI or LoAR.
- I live in a two-bedroom apartment.  Laurel has circa 20 filing
  cabinets.
- Laurel needs a sizeable local staff.  I Don't Get Out Much.
  Half the barony probably couldn't recognize me in a strong light.


Jaelle of Armida came up with a job structure idea that I like (after
I discussed my preferences and the Ansteorran CoH way (our motto
should be not "Constare" but "Many Hands Make Light Work")):

- Laurel Sovereign of Arms: admin.  Currently, Laurel is admin + armory.

- Pelican Sovereign of Arms: name rulings, as now.
  Mari nic Bryan is one obvious candidate.  She manages large
  informative LoCs each month even with a heavy work schedule.
  I've not noticed a problem with her being decisive (bohzemoi,
  decisiveness is not her problem).

- <Armory> Sovereign of Arms: armory rulings.  "Clarion" used to be an
  SCA King of Arms; for that reason I'd suggest absconding with that,
  with apologies to Mistress Zenobia of An Tir, currently Clarion
  Herald.  (If she wanted to take this job, I'd bow out at once.)
  One copy of all armory forms since 1992 are in binders, and many
  previous ones are scanned and on CDs, so <Armory> needs a couple of
  shelves plus sources instead of an empty garage or two rooms.

- "George".  George would keep the files, handle packets, collate
  commentary, send commentary and forms to Pelican and <Armory>, scan
  armory forms.  Papershuffling.

I think I would like to work with a George office.  I actually like
papershuffling; I even wrote a KWHS paper on it.  I would like to
devote much time, work willing, and I think I could make a lot of
processing suggestions.  I'd be willing to travel to meetings, and
even to weekend work sessions in Dallas or Houston.  However, I still
have the problems of
- work pressure and local staff.  There'd have to be other people who
  could help and carry the load at need (and browbeat me into getting
  things done at need).
- space.  Now, Mari has a house, and she's 10 minutes away from me.
  But Mari also has four cats, and I'm mildly allergic, though there
  are some allergy treatments available.

So I dunno.  Dither, dither, dither.

Any other office structures come to mind?  Ideas?  Can we move
Houston and Dallas closer to Austin?

Daniel de Lincolia
-- 
Tim McDaniel is tmcd at jump.net; if that fail,
    tmcd at us.ibm.com is my work account.
"To join the Clueless Club, send a followup to this message quoting everything
up to and including this sig!" -- Jukka.Korpela at hut.fi (Jukka Korpela)
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