Meetings, marshals, and more friends.

This weekend my family and some of our household traveled south yet again for our semi-annual pilgrimage to Elfsea in order to attend The King's Roundtable, also called "redtape" by those of us who have, or do hold office within the society. Free, and divested of any medieval trappings, it is, as it always has been, a  chance for officers at all ends of the kingdom to coordinate about the next six months worth of activity.

Trust me, the meetings, thought productive, are every bit as boring to the uninitiated as they probably sounded at first. Frankly, I'm not holding back any information out of some security based sense of loyalty to the SCA. Rather, I just don't think you need to hear the highly repetitive litany of "okay, so lets  go around the room and introduce each other" and then that moving on to "And what do we want to see next reign that we didn't see this one?"...

I love my kingdom, I really do, but we do SO put the "Creative" in Society for Creative Anachronisms just a little too much some times.

From a fictional standpoint, there is one observation I have for anyone who could even possibly be holding a meeting in the foreseeable future.

Bring an agenda!

You think I'm kidding? Just get one or two motor-mouths in there with you, especially ones who have rank and/or precedence over you, and see how much talking you actually get in.

This isn't a slight on anyone... trust me, a meeting is as much corporate culpability as it is productivity. That being said, I did watch more than one sitting officer get walked over by well meaning, but dominate personalities in the room, and it just wasn't a pretty site.

Moving on...

As expected, news of the rapier peerage vote at the BOD filtered into the Greater Officer's meeting, and I have to admit I was a little surprised at how that turned out. In summary, the proposal to create a 4th peerage was voted down heavily. Furthermore, the BOD, in its public statements, heavily suggested that peer-level combatants in rapier be elevated to the rank of Knight. Anything past that is speculation and interpretation.

More to the point, today, our own crown posted the following.

Unto the Populace of Ansteorra!
We acknowledge that our populace has many questions about the ruling on the additional peerage and subsequent rule changes. At this time We are seeking clarification on these items and wish to have a full understanding before addressing this with Our populace. We politely request that any discussion by Our populace on this topic remain civil and courteous.
With appreciation,
Lochlan and Michelle, King and Queen of Ansteorra
Sven and Antigone, Prince and Princess of Ansteorra

So, yeah, the topic is far, far from over.


I'm frankly not looking forward to the future on this topic. Emotions aren't running high, they are overflowing like lava from the top of a volcano, and I am really worried about who is going to get hurt when final decisions are made.

More locally, word from society is that the society minister of Arts and Sciences will be asking for more "quantitative" numbers regarding the arts. I'm not "thrilled" with having to put qualities and numbers to something like A&S, but I can understand the need to have "something" more than "good" and "bad" at the upper levels of leadership.  There are a few guilds locally who are rather resistant to giving any accounting of themselves beyond past-tense "we met" type reports. I'm not inclined to pick any fights, but something like this is a culture shift.. and if nothing else, Mooneschadowe embraces change very slowly.

Somewhat tangential to that, I managed to get final word on my archery authorization, I am now officially the marshal for the group, meaning we can once again start holding practices. It will be good to shoot some more, that is for sure.

On another official note, I got to sit in on the herald's decision meting, which was quick and painless, truth be told. The plenary meeting following lunch was also good, with some enthusiastic conversations being had on several topics. It looks like I might be roped into some projects within the college, but I am not opposed. While I am not an officer, I'm certainly not opposed to helping "the system" when we have common goals.

Finally, I have to say (but without compromising any private details) that the highlight of the weekend was making a lot of new friends, and building on old relationships. These, truly, are he building blocks of the society.

His Lordship Ivo Blackhawk
Minister of Arts and Sciences, and Marshal for Archery
within the Province of Mooneschadowe,
Companion to the Order of the Star of Merrit
and Freelance Consulting Herald
within the Kingdom of Ansteorra
"Long Live the King!"