[SCA-BMDL] Fwd: [SCA-AE] A missive from TRH Timothy and Gabrielle

[Krista Cogan]

Hello Debatable Lands, see below for a missive from our Prince and Princess:

Know this, my friends: our King and Queen, our Prince and Princess, the
Baron and I, and the Baronial officers, and so many others, are all
committed to keeping this amazing hobby of ours bright, interesting, and
inclusive for all.


~Baroness Hilda

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: <taylor2011 at windstream.net>
Date: Thu, Mar 16, 2017 at 7:20 PM
Subject: [SCA-AE] A missive from TRH Timothy and Gabrielle
To: discussion at aethelmearc.org


Unto glorious AEthelmearc do Timothy and Gabrielle, Prince and Princess
send warm greetings,

Prior to moving here, the SCA had lost much of its magic for us.  Once we
got to AEthelmearc, we found ourselves once again enjoying all the wonders
that the Society has to offer.  But we understand that isn't the experience
that everyone has here.  Like any large organization it can be easy to feel
left out or left behind if you aren't part of the "in" crowd.  We have
always endeavored to treat everyone, regardless of rank, with courtesy and
kindness, and are pleased that so very many of everyone in this kingdom
does the same.

However, with many thousands of members, sometimes personality conflicts
arise.  Members with different ideas of how things should be compete with
one another and typically, one comes out on top.  This can cause many fine
people to become disillusioned and leave, taking with them a little piece
of our magic.  We have solicited for ideas, and continue to do so, as to
what we can do to bring people back into the fold.  As you can imagine, we
recieved quite a bit of feedback.  There were many ideas, many of which
(big surprise) were in direct conflict with one another.  Setting those
aside for now, there was one large, over-arching theme, the cliquish nature
of the organization makes our warm welcome, while not the sole exception,
far from the norm, even for people whose first experience with the society
is in Aethelmearc.

There are several steps we would like to implement to try and correct this
situation.  First and simplest, for the duration of our reign, we would
welcome those with Peerages into the Grant level order meeting along that
track Knight/Gage, Pelican/Millrind, Laurel/Fleur, Mod/WS.  Further, we
invite those who have the equivalent Grant level award from other kingdoms
to join us in our order meetings.  We welcome PMs discussing this matter,
as we will be considering adding this to kingdom law. These members have
valuable contributions, and why should we exclude them simply because they
have not had the good fortune to spend their entire SCA career in
AEthelmearc?

Second, and more difficult, concerns the single largest facet of the
cliquish nature of our organization.  There is no polite way to say this,
so we will be blunt.  There are more times than any of us care to admit
that some of the more strong willed members of our polling orders can
effectively and thoroughly block someone who is deserving of recognition in
perpetuity.  We clearly don't know every personality conflict, we haven't
been present at every conversation where someone spoke rashly, or when a
sentence was taken out of context.  In the past, We have given awards to
gentles we are familiar enough to recognize that they have been blocked
unfairly. As King and Queen, we had that right, and as Prince and Princess,
we soon will once again, but not everyone is afforded the opporunity to
correct injustices they perceive.  So we would ask our citizens this: if
you feel someone has been unfairly victimized in this fashion, make your
best case to us.  We certainly will not gr!
 ant all of these requests, but we will honestly listen.  It is easier to
go into an order meeting and discuss a candidate if we understand some of
the background and personality conflicts before people voice their
opinions.  Just please do this prior to our order meetings, so we have time
to look into the background, and your case.

Finally, we want to see members of our polling orders actively fostering
others.  If you are a knight, or would like to be, go out and train newer
fighter, whether they are your squire or not.  If you are a Laurel or a
Fleur, whey wait for an AEcademy?  Run a workshop or a guild. In short,
mentor people.  We should be shepherds, nurturing folks as they grow,
rather than serving as goaltenders keeping them out of our Orders.

In service to AEthelmearc,

Timothy and Gabrielle
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