SR - A Question Concerni
CAB
cab at spaustin.zilker.net
Tue Jun 23 10:40:10 PDT 1998
RE>SR - A Question Concerning Principality 6/23/98
A couple of years ago, there was a discussion about making principalities. I
wrote the up a letter that addressed all the reasons that people gave for
dividing up Ansteorra. I saved this letter and I would like to send it back
out. (Some of my numbers may be out of date due to the fact that I did my
research about 2 years ago.) At the bottom I discuss the fact that the last
time this was brought up - people seemed to think that we did not a have a
choice. That we would eventually be a principality anyway. Well, I say that
we do have a choice. Two years ago, I wasn't willing to sit by quietly and
watch anyone divide up my kingdom, and I have no intention of doing it now.
It is not a forgone conclusion that we will break into principalities. ONE
STAR - ONE KINGDOM!!!
Crystal - Proud Ansteorran
Sept 7 1996
Fellow Ansteorrans:
I would like to take some time to address this Principality issue.
Pros and Cons
I have heard a number of reasons in favor of dividing the kingdom into
principalities, but so far I have not heard one reason that is convincing.
Each and every reason has a solution that does not include dividing the
kingdom and in many cases, the alternative solutions are better than the
principality issue. Below I will address each reason that I have heard and
give my my counter arguement.
Reason: The Kingdom is too big geographically.
Counter: Refer to the map on http://agn.physics.montana.edu/SCA/index.html
You can see from this map that geographically we are about the same size as
most of the other kingdoms.
Reason: We have too many groups.
Counter (1): I found the number of groups for each kingdom and each
principality in the Known World. There are 11 Kingdoms and 5 Principalites.
Number of Groups per Kingdom: 13, 30, 33, 41, 42, 42, 43, 62, 75, 88
>From this, our 42 groups, falls directly in the center of this spread. This
hardly seems to indicate that we have too many groups.
(Number of Groups per Principality: 6, 11, 20, 25, 29. Note: I did not
include the groups in the principalities in the Kingdom numbers. Also note,
that I found the most up to date #'s I could, these may not be completely up
to date. )
Counter (2): From what I can tell, in some areas we have huge areas of land
and only one group, which leaves many people 45 min to an hour from the center
of their nearest group. In other areas like Houston, there are 4 separate
groups. Maybe we need to address this issue seperately.
Reason: We have too many people.
Counter: Then why are a number of our baronies and shires having trouble
simply maintaining their minimum membership requirements?
Reason: There are so many groups that small groups can not get space on the
calendar . In order for all the events to take place there are 3 events every
weekend. Dividing the Kingodm will make it easier for smaller groups to hold
events.
Counter (1): First, this is not a very good argument, because dividing the
kingdom will not make one bit of difference. Let me try to explain why. Lets
say that on a given weekend 300 people plan to go to events in Ansteorra.
Each person has their own reasons why they choose a given event. (Reasons:
their friends are going, their interest is there (ie fighting, archery,
A&S,ect), ect.) Now here is the question. If we put lines on a map, will
this change which events people go to? I think that people will still have
the same reasons for going to given events and the map will not matter.
Counter (2): This 3 events per weekend does not make sense. By my
calculations: there are 42 groups and 52 weekends a year. If there were 3
events per weekend, 12 groups would have to hold 3 events a year and the other
30 groups would have to hold 4 events a year. Speaking member of a shire for
the past 5 years, I know that most small groups (all ~ 30 of them) are not
doing this many events, so who is "hogging" all the dates??? Maybe we should
address this problem seperately.
Reason: The regional officers are not getting enough recognition, and as a
principality officer they would have more recognition.
Counter: So lets recognize the regionals more, for that matter, we need to
recognize all the officers more. I do not think that putting new lines on a
map will make a difference, we simply need to raise the awareness of the
populous on this.
Reason: The crown can not make it to all the events that they would like too,
so they would like to have more royalty to go around. (IE: with principalitis,
there would be "extra" prince/princes to attend other events.)
Counter: One solution to this probelm is to move Crown tourney to right after
Coronation. Then let the Prince and Princess go to different events than the
Crown. This will give up to 4 events that can be covered year round. (This
is what is currently done in some of the other kingdoms, and seems to work out
well.)
Reason: It is too expensive for the crown to travel the whole kingdom.
Counter (1): So don't try for the Crown if you can't afford it. (This sounds
harsh, but it is part of the oath that everyone who fights in Crown Tournement
takes.)
Counter (2): If this is honestly a continual problem, let us, as a kingdom,
support the crown more. We can easily raise money via raffles, auctions,
special events, ect.
Perhaps, I am missing something here, but I have not been convinced that we
must divide our home up.
My feelings on dividing this kingdom.
Let me tell you two stories, the first happened just two weeks ago, these
really personifies my feelings.
1) At Gothic Wars, a man stood up that said that he had lived in a number of
kingdoms and that he had just been in Ansteorra for 2 weeks. He said that he
had been so impressed with this Kindgom, the people, and its spirit that he
wanted to swear fealty to the kingdom that night.
2) I spent several months living in Calontir and although I am not anyone
important, but people there did not think that. They thought I was someone
important because I was an ANSTEORRAN.
I think that this is very important. These examples show how people outside
our kingdom see us. It is great!!! People are really impressed by what we
have. How can we just let that go?
For the last 20+ years, this kingdom has grown, acquired a rich history, and
developed a family of people that makes this an incredible place to live.
This is the place that I look forward to raising my children and I want them
to be part of this great kingdom. But now someone wants to take that away
from them.
And as for the idea that creating Pricipalites does not change the kingdom, I
do not believe this for one second. There are people who are too ambitious
for us to allow them the easy opportunity to try to be "a bigger fish by
making the pond smaller." Ambitious people will jump at the first opportunity
to change a principality to a kingdom, for their own "glory".
Populus Opinion
At Stargate Baronial, a meeting was held to let people talk about how they
felt about this idea.
What I heard from the people there, upset me greatly. Not because people were
for this split, but because they believed that they had no voice in this
matter. What I heard was: "The King/Kingdom Seneschal/BOD has decided that
we should split, so we should just accept it, quietly."
I can not tell you how strong my reaction to this statement was, every time I
heard it.
1) This is a recreational group. The King/Kingdom Officers/BOD can NOT do one
thing that the populous does not allow, regardless of any rules. Isn't this
the same kingdom who stood up to the BOD just a few years ago about a
"technical" matter (no pay--no play). We told them that this was OUR game and
that we were going to play it with or without them, and we won. It is time
that the populous stand up again and say "NO, you may not carve our home into
pieces".
2) We are Ansteorrans, and as such, I can not believe that any Ansteorran
would "quietly" accept a threat to our kingdom. And this is how I see this
proposition. This is a threat to the very kingdom that we live in.
The phrase that best describes my feelings is
"ONE STAR -- ONE KINGDOM"
--------------------------------------
Date: 6/23/98 9:38 AM
To: CAB
From: southern at Ansteorra.ORG
Greetings All,
I don't want this to sound like a direct response to Gilli's question,
as it isn't. I first asked this question a few weeks ago in Fynnon Gath
and I don't think that I got a valid answer. So here's the question:
what reasons are there for not creating a principality? I keep hearing
people countering the arguments being made in favor of the principality,
but I've yet to hear anyone give a reason against creating a
principality.
Pendaran
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From: "Martin, Brian" <bmartin at origin.ea.com>
To: "'southern at ansteorra.org'" <southern at Ansteorra.ORG>
Subject: SR - A Question Concerning Principality
Date: Tue, 23 Jun 1998 09:32:54 -0500
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