Dear Folks 
I have always felt like a Steppes person. Where I lived now is only a 
couple of blocks from the first Baron's home. I was greatly involved 
in building the Steppes into a Barony. I would like to point out a 
few things. 

Groups are about balance. You have the off the wall people on one 
side. I being one of those. And you you have the solid down to earth 
people on the other side. When you are in balance things work right. 
If the off the wall people take over you have chaos and if the solid 
careful people take over you have stagnation. Both groups are needed. 

All systems have the nature of going to entropy. As we grow older and 
trier we are less interested in change. We embrace entropy. We want 
the status quo. Do to many years of decisions the Steppes balance has 
shifted to entropy. Many of us are tired and we have seen too much 
and what the younger people want to do seems to much work or just 
plain boring and dull. We have gotten bored with each other or over 
the years we have had problems and we don't want to work with each 
other. In primitive tribes that live in jungles their leaders have 
the responsible of putting the tribe back together by declaring that 
it is time for the tribe to please the Gods by dancing. Of course 
like us they are tired and mad at their fellow tribesmen and they all 
say "No". The leader must be strong enough to get everyone up and 
doing things. After the dance the tribe is renewed. Energy has been 
put into the system and entropy is overcomed. For the Steppes to turn 
around we need to put energy into the system. We need a leader that 
sees the need for us to do things together and can be stubborn enough 
to overcome our tiredness. 

I will freely state that in last five years I have been an entropy 
person. I have not added to the energy. I was surprised at the effect 
my sons had with their little gaming tent. Only a few people were 
involved but it seemed to touch many others. The same thing with the 
Ladies Pavilion. There seemed to greater energy around it. The effort 
put into the Bard's pavilion at 12Th night brought them to life and 
there was lots more energy at the event. The "Fairy Tale" theme of a 
couple of years ago made the event more alive. We need leadership 
that will have creative visions and help us have more things at our 
events and in our group. And help us get the energy up to be excited. 
When we are looking for new Baron or Baroness we need to look for 
someone with a lot of energy and someone who is stubborn enough to 
overcome our. "I don' want to do it. I'm tired."

On another point:
I have been looking at Baron Thomas in the Austin. His barony has 17 
active guilds. Every night has something on it. Most have more than 
one. They would have more,but they are have trouble scheduling. They 
have a demo a month that recruits 6 people and of that 6 usually one 
stays. The Baron maintains a very period court and many people play 
persona. The guilds provides many things for the Baron to give out 
and everyone seems to believe in and take part of the idea of the 
Barony. The energy and friendship is wonderful. Their Baronial guard 
is interesting. Yes, it is a fighting unit,but mainly it is a service 
organization. I know that we must do things our way, but we might 
look at some of active groups in the kingdom and out and see what 
they have done.  
Just some thoughts
willow


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