[Northkeep] Demo, party of 1, your table is ready...

[Marc Carlson]

>From: Robert Stewart <skerritheviking at yahoo.com>
>Exactly what do you mean by you get what you pay for?  Anwyn has a point;  
>We are a non-profit >public education association.  According to the Fed 
>Gov't, this means we do not just educate SCA >members, we educate the 
>general public.  That is how we maintain non-profit status..

I'm glad you feel this way about it.  The SCA needs this sort of enthusiasm. 
  At one time, I even agreed with you (although I phrased it a little 
differently, focusing on the great opportunites to help educate the public 
about the Middle Ages).  Then I learned differently.  Hopefully you won't 
have to deal with the same sorts of issue.

These days I volunteer to do the sorts of things I've done so far because 
Northkeep is a community that I feel I owe certain obligations to.  I'm ok 
with that.  I also know that most people _don't_ feel that way, and that's 
ok, but I have found that it's wiser not to build expectations regarding 
others based on those community obligations.  In general people will give 
their time and efforts to stuff they think is fun or interesting, not stuff 
that is boring and un-fun.   Demos seem to fall into this latter category 
for most people, based strictly on observations.  And since this is a 
volunteer organization, there's no reason they HAVE to do these things.

If this seems cynical, I'm sorry - it is.  If you would like to discuss this 
in person sometime, I'll be happy to continue this anytime.

As for myself, I actually gave my word some years ago that (and I paraphrase 
here so as not to offend people) I would never do another SCA demo ever 
again.  I'll teach, I'll help out at Dionadair because its more than just a 
demo - if it gets MORE demo-y I'll have to rethink things, but really that's 
it.

M/D

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