[Steppes] Calendar changes/Principality

[KiheBard at aol.com]

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[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
In a message dated 10/03/2002 1:30:01 PM Central Daylight Time,
Hrldsmn at aol.com writes:


> As to the Principality office situation, it would be no different from the
> regional officer situation. They would simply take the place of the
> regional
> offices. Ergo, if we have trouble filling regional offices there will be
> problems filling principality offices.
>

With all due respect to His Excellency Edwin, it is my opinion that the
"prestige factor" would greatly increase the interest level -- perhaps not so
much as *before* Ansteorra proved to itself that fully-functioning regional
structures improve the overall experience. (Don't know about the rest of you,
but I for one have not noticed quite the level of personal burn-out in our
Kingdom officers that I was seeing before regional officers were given most
of the hire/fire workload...)

Of course, the strongest improvement we could make as a Kingdom to increase
the interest in non-local offices might be expanding the total number of
members (presumably thereby increasing the number of individuals willing to
spend the often thankless hours & days & months working behind the scenes
because they believe in the organization they are supporting).  Reducing the
workload / increasing the "fun factor"  couldn't hurt, either.

Pre-emptive hijackings of "local" events by Kingdom functions are not
particularly good in the whole mix of the discussion about trying to re-work
the schedule of events...

When considering the range of related issues, I must strongly suggest that
the definition of "official event" may need to be reconsidered.  If lasting
changes and Kingdom-level awards can only be taken or bestowed at "official
calendar" events, could we gain significantly by LOOSENING the requirements
for calendar listing? Now, I offer with this comment that the idea might
require a two-tier calendar:  roughly defined, "major" events retain rights
to "free" Black Star ads and consist of X number of events per barony with x
per smaller local group, "minor" events get a one- or two-line listing /
short blurb giving minimal contact information (paid advertising required for
anything above and beyond),  Adjustments for "de facto", "Kingdom-expected"
events could be made -- say, one event per Barony or maybe Region with
traditionally high-attendance or particularly significant events might be
given a special exemption (e.g. Steppes Warlord or Twelfth Night, Stargate
Yule, Wiesenfeur Yule, etc.)

One thing that absolutely MUST be remembered in this context is that
Ansteorra is far less compact geographically than some "older" Kingdoms
against which we are sometimes compared.  There really should be major
consideration given to travel times and the culture that has grown under the
existing calendar rules.

My zwei pfennig f{u"}r diesem Tag...

Amra
merchant, bard, al-Sayyid