[Sca-cooks] SCA-Cooks pot luck at Pennsic

[Stefan li Rous]

  Brangwayna replied to me with:
> StefanliRous at austin.rr.com writes:
> <<Another part of the notice said that the A&S tents would not be
> available for such activities this year. Apparently they had some
> problems with this last year.>>
>
> I checked with the A&S folks for Pennsic about this.  They said there 
> is no
> problem with scheduled meetings being held in the tents, such as email 
> list
> get-togethers.  They are cracking down on impromptu use of the tents 
> for parties.
Thank you for the clarification. This was not clear from the message I 
saw. Perhaps I missed the phrase "impromptu". I would consider the 
Cooks list get-together more of a party than a meeting.

As I think I mentioned, I can see a good case for not allowing eating 
or parties at the A&S tents whether for an official group or not.

>   I quote from the email sent to me by Chai'usun, who is in charge of 
> class
> scheduling:
> "evening roundtables or discussions still fall under the heading of
> "classes," and that meetings, royal courts, or similar public
> gatherings will also be
> allowed.  What we will not do any more is allow private individuals or
> households to use A&S tents for parties, no matter how sedate."
Hmmm. still doesn't say the cook's get together would be allowed since 
it isn't really a meeting, roundtable or discussion, although those do 
take place then.
>
> In fact, I wrote to Sir Edward, Chai'usun, and Dame Catriona with 
> comments on
> the changes, shortly after they were posted.  Sir Edward simply 
> referred me
> to the other two.  Chai'usun explained their reasoning to me, using
> statistics from previous years.  I've paraphrased them below:
> - Over one quarter of the teachers who ask for limited classes never
> pick up
> their sign-up lists to know who signed up and who didn't, so presumably
> they
> actually take anyone who shows up and waiting in line to sign up was
> meaningless.
Bzzzt. Nope. It certainly is possible that a teacher meant to pick up 
the list and was running too late for the class to pick it up on the 
way. Afterall the class signup hasn't been located near the class 
tents. But this is (or is supposed to be) a Society based on honor. If 
I didn't get by to pick up my sheet and I had more than the assigned 
number waiting, I would simply ask who had signed up for the class and 
who hadn't. So no, even when not picked up the sign up procedure is 
*not* meaningless.
> - Over half the classes that had sign-ups didn't fill up the available
> spaces; since there was still space left in those classes, again,
> waiting in line really didn't have an effect.
Yes, but half did. Very few people sneak into Pennsic. But we still 
have to always have those medallions on us at all times.
>   - Of those people who did take attendance from their sign-up lists, 
> one
> third of the people who had signed up never showed up.  There are 
> probably people
> who saw the list was full and didn't go to the class, when they could
> probably have gotten in if they'd been there.
Yes, but it helps judge what the chance is of getting into the class if 
you do show up and you sign up and have a number higher than the 
cutoff. For a class of 15, if I'm number 18 or 20 I may show up. If I'm 
number 25, I know not to bother, unless I'm going to "audit" the class.
>
> In any case, she said that last year, only 17% of the classes (170 out 
> of
> 1000) were set up as limited classes, so it really doesn't affect very 
> many
> classes,
Hmmm. Then perhaps I just take a number of these. I usually have one or 
two every two days or so.
> but sign-ups used the most volunteer hours at A&S point.  So
> logically, I can see their point...
Yes with the problem of getting volunteers I can understand the 
concern. These folks are also the place to go to ask questions about 
the classes though, so they serve in more than one way. But yes, 
perhaps the number of folks needing to be there at one time can be 
reduced.
>
> Dame Catriona, oddly enough since this is not her normal demeanor, 
> simply
> said they thought long and hard about this and if I want to know more 
> about how
> A&S works, I should volunteer for them.  I can't read that as anything 
> but
> "since you haven't worked here, you don't know what you're talking 
> about".
I can see her point of view, but you don't have to be "inside" the A&S 
establishment to know whether it is working or not. If you attend 
enough classes you will know where some of the problems lie. An insider 
may have a better idea of some of the intricacies and difficulties of 
implementing a particular solution, but again solutions and ideas can 
come from without as well.
>  As I said, that is NOT what I expected from her, and my husband, who 
> knows
> her better than I, was also very surprised.  I can only assume that 
> she was
> already tired of hearing complaints about changes before they'd been 
> tried.
I can sympathize with her and in my message I said that while I don't 
think this is the solution, I'm willing to see how it goes.  Maybe the 
ones who agree with this change are just being quiet but I wonder how 
much she talked to folks other than her staff about this change.

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****