Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1992 10:54:55 -0400 
From: David Schroeder <ds4p+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: Kingdom Timing (& DML)


Greetings unto Peder and other good gentles reading this missive,

Many thanks for some hard numbers about Nordmark to help me understand.
You've indicated that:

>Being Nordmarks List-minister, I think I've a pretty good idea of our
>barony's demography, especially since I've kept records of all members
>for the last 6 years.  My interest was piqued by your questions, so I
>checked the records, and found 616 active SCA "participants" in Nordmark
>where by active I regard persons who fulfill one or more of the
>following conditions:
> 
>        a valid membership in SCA, Inc.
>        a valid waiver on file
>        a valid Authorization card
>        participation in a tourney in the last 365 days
>        subscriber of the baronial newsletter

This sort of growth and enthusiasm is a wonderful thing, and I fully
understand your desire for *local* royalty and the problems associated
with trying to communicate over water -- but my impression is that you
folks still have a lot of things to work out (language issues, issues
of coordination with the groups outside of Sweden, figuring out which
elements of the traditional U.S.-centered SCA "rules" can be relaxed,
if any, and so forth) that might be better to work out *before* rather
than after going kingdom.  I dearly want to see Drachenwald become a
happy and *stable* addition to the ranks of SCA kingdoms -- not an
illustration of the superstition that the number 13 (you'd be the
13th kingdom) brings bad luck.  (Is 13 a superstitious "bad" number 
in Sweden, by the way? ;-) ).

Another "unfortunate" circumstance is that Nordmark "needs" to be a
principality itself and needs to "grow" strong and healthy baronies 
within it.  It would make me a lot more confident about your long
term success if there were some way the transformation of one
very large barony into a number of smaller, more local baronies
could be accomplished before you become a kingdom (trust me,
becoming a barony can often lead to problems...).

It's too bad the "Principality of Nordmark" couldn't be created and,
a joint and senior administration (a proto-kingdom leadership) be
established for the "Combined Principalities of Drachenwald and
Nordmark" (like Alsace-Lorraine) so that some of these growing
pains could be worked through before rather than after the fact
of going kingdom.

Still, I'm sure that over time you'll do just fine -- after all,
in the "old days" the East and Atenveldt and the Midrealm formed
with much fewer people and survived their *own* growing pains.
It's just that my understanding of the "modern" guidelines for
becoming a kingdom (again, much more tradition than law) look
for a sort of stability that you folks don't have yet.

Best of luck with your efforts -- have FUN with it -- Bertram

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
Bertram of Bearington                                      Dave Schroeder
Debatable Lands/AEthelmearc/East               Carnegie Mellon University
INTERNET: ds4p@andrew.cmu.edu                         412/731-3230 (Home)
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      "He indulged in every excess, yes in each licentious whim..." 

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