sprd-out-grps-msg - 5/4/10 Suggestions on making SCA groups (Baronies, Shires) spread out over large geographical areas, work. NOTE: See also the files: new-groups-msg, households-msg, fundraising-msg, travel-funds-msg, largess-ideas-msg, Baronial-Lead-art, recruitment-msg. ************************************************************************ NOTICE - This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday. This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter. The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make no claims as to the accuracy of the information given by the individual authors. Please respect the time and efforts of those who have written these messages. The copyright status of these messages is unclear at this time. If information is published from these messages, please give credit to the originator(s). Thank you, Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous Stefan at florilegium.org ************************************************************************ Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] [OT} Questions about groups that cover large geographical areas Date: Mon, 03 Dec 2001 16:28:52 -0800 From: "Laura C. Minnick" To: CC: "Mark.S Harris (rsve60)" "Mark.S Harris" wrote: > > I have a question for anyone who has lived in a Barony or group that is/was > > over a large geographical area. How did you keep people involved in the > > group at large, when it was difficult for them to come into the population > > center very often; but want to stay apart of it as opposed to starting an > > insipient group of their own? I would love to hear of all the different > > things you all have known of, because I have had quite a few people that > > this question applies to in our group during my 5 months as Hospitaller > > and have no examples to fall back on. Try forming more Cantons. Last I knew, you only needed three people to form a Canton- they are still part of the Barony, report through Baronial officers, have support of the Barony for having events and such, can borrow money from the Baronial coffers. They can also hold meetings on their own, and do SCA stuff, without having to drive alot. Talk to the hats and the seneschal about it- it may be the perfect way to keep people involved without cutting them off from civilization. 'Lainie Date: Mon, 03 Dec 2001 19:27:55 -0800 From: "Laura C. Minnick" To: Susan CC: Stefan li Rous Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] [OT} Questions about groups that cover large geographical areas Susan wrote: > Thank you, our biggest thing right now is that they really aren't areas who > have the numbers now to support being a Canton and would prefer to remain > part of our Barony. If they get more active though, it might be the way > they want to go. OK- I have a couple of minutes here, so I will give you to better advice ;-). I was a Regional Seneschal, and also a Principality Chatelaine, so I have a few tricks up my sleeve, especially since the Pr of the Summits has LOTS of outlying areas... 1. Always remember that you don't HAVE to have a branch to do SCA stuff! You can do household things, or just a few friends working on a project together. Only diff is, it usually doesn't go in an official newsletter (Kingdom/Principality) and you aren't covered by the SCA insurance (actually, most of what we do is not covered by the insurance, but that is another matter). Suggestions- someone can call up a couple of friends and have an informal cooks' night, sewing night, 'try-to-put-up-the-new-pavilion-in-the-yard' party. This works well in you have a couple of people relatively close together. 2. This is really a challenge for the Baronial officers- a good thing would be for them to put on a 'travelling road show', and go visit some of those outlying areas. Maybe the Herald could hold a special heraldry night once a month that is not in Tulsa, but out in one of those valleys, or whatever. Get the local person to get a place to meet- a pub or pizza hall, and then put in the Baronial newsletter something like "The second Monday this month the Herald will be on pilgrimage to the Valley of Podunk Pigs. He invites you to join him there for an evening of teaching, consultation, and as many pig puns as we can think of." And the Arts officer, the Marshal, whatever. Rotate so several of the outlying areas get attention, and space them so it does not unduly inconvenience the officers (though I believe that it is the job of the officer to be inconvenienced!) 3. See if you can get the B&B to do similarly. Many places encourage the hats to hold 'open house' so they can have an informal way to greet their populace. If they were to occasionally go on progress, this might be a nice way to encourage participants. And the hats can also see what the difficulty is if they actually have to drive it themselves sometime! 4. Think about a 'meet in the middle' evening- a not-quite-prime-time council meeting. One of the Cantons of the Barony of Adiantum (Eugene Oregon) is about 40 miles away, and they have a once a month meeting in a small town between, so the travel burden is shared. It doesn't solve the whole problem, but it does help a great deal! Principality of the Summits covers Southern Oregon. There's several river valleys, and two mountain ranges. To drive from the northern border to the southern border where the mountains divide us from the West, involves six mountain passes and about four hours of travel. And that is just west of the Cascades- the east side is much bigger. Tiny timber towns, mostly, full of poverty, heartache, and drugs. Some of our shires hang by a thread. But hang they do- for many folks the SCA is their hold on having a life with promise. Many of them never get out of their local shires, but they keep plugging away... Let me know if you have any questions, and if I can think of anything else, I'll drop off another note. I'd be happy to help with whatever I can. 'Lainie (Elaine de Montgris, alphabet soup+) Subject: [Ansteorra] Re: And Miles to Go Before We Sleep Date: Tue, 4 Dec 2001 16:08:20 -0600 From: "Jacque" To: In response to the question about large land areas: The Western Region has dealt with the question of lots of land and few people for almost 2 decades now. It sometimes seems as if the adversity has just drawn us that much closer as a family and we have a very unique style and way in which we do things out here. In particular, the areas around Amarillo (Adlersruhe) have faced the greatest challenges. One idea that has been suggested is to hold web meetings. If you are two here and two there, network and do it that way, or even an SCA style chat room to take care of business could help. Make your house the local gathering spot for those not having computer access. (Great excuse for a revel!) Then plan regular get togethers well in advance so that everyone can make plans. Rotating places always helps. No one likes to be the ones to drive forever all the time:)) Mistress Ulrica...Way Out West Western Regional Seneschal Date: Sat, 31 Oct 2009 10:40:07 +0700 From: JL Badgley Subject: Re: [Lochac] lonely in Gisborne To: "The Shambles, the SCA Lochac mailing list" <<< We've just had some folks join up in Gisborne, New Zealand. ?The nearest active group to them is Cluain, which is several hours away. The registry is pretty bare in that neck of the woods, but maybe we've got an east coast lurker or two for them to play with ? ?Anyone ? Tamara SCANZ Registrar >>> Greetings from the North! In dealing with this problem ourselves, several things appear to be helping. 1) Finding more members (we are fortunate in that we had a good core of 5 right from the start). 2) Electronic communication. E-mail, but also chats--instant messaging does a great job of bringing people into real-time communication. Phone conversations for the same reason. 3) "Virtual" meetings. An extension of the above. The Barony of the Far West has had some success with Virtual Courts. With some trusted people on the ground, and regular visits, I would offer that other things (authorizations, etc.) could be done virtually as well, but it should probably be reserved as an extraordinary measure, nonetheless. We even recently had our baroness join our event virtually (wi-fi + video chat) when she ran into passport problems and couldn't make it down. Not that this should be something to strive for, but it can help in these times. -Ii Katsumori Incipient Canton of the Golden Plains Palatine Barony of the Far West Kingdom of the West (Bangkok, Thailand) Edited by Mark S. Harris sprd-out-grps-msg 4 of 4