[Sca-cooks] OT- Input request from SCA BoD/politics

[Robyn.Hodgkin at affa.gov.au]

Every social club or group has politics.  Here in Australia we have the constantly evolving example of the metal weapons movement, especially in Brisbane.  There the groups constantly burst apart and re-form into new groups. The difference with the SCA is that we are big enough that when a "split" happens, the group continues.

I have to admit I have tended to take a rather flippant view about those people who leave the SCA because of politics:  They leave not because of politics, but because they tried playing and weren't competent at them. Cynical and a bit cruel I know - but the reality is that you can spend 20 years in the SCA without having politics touch you. You can be a productive, useful, active member of the society, even become a peer, and still have politics not affect you. But if you choose to step into the arena, then you risk getting bitten.

I suspect most people in Lochac would view me as a political animal: it is true that I do get involved in politics at times _when something that is important to me is being discussed_, and it is also true that I usually end up "winning".  I haven't always been right, and haven't always won - however I have always believed in my cause and I don't do things that are against my principles. But when it comes to things that don't affect/bother me, I am happy to sit back and let others worry about them.

But I saw terrible politics in the St Vincent de Paul society I was in too. None of the politics I have seen in the SCA compare to that "christian" society, where a friend of mine ended up homeless because of the politics of the group.  There were terrible, painful politics in "Antioch" which tore people's lives and personalities apart.  The SCA just doesn't rate a mention compared to them.

Kiriel