From: ds4p+@andrew.cmu.edu (David Schroeder)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: I am still bewildered
Date: 8 Nov 92 06:07:14 GMT
Organization: Doctoral student, Industrial Administration, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA

Good gentles (and most especially William de Corbie),

Thank you for an enlightening, expressive message, William.  You and
others have made the point about Swedes specificially and Europeans
in general being more like team players than rabid individualists,
and I think you in Drachenwald will have an opportunity to find 
your own identity as a kingdom withOUT having to leave the SCA.

For many years after reaching kingdom status Calontir had a very
strong common culture (in part due to painful aspects of their
split from the Midrealm) that has only now 'relaxed' (which may
or may not turn out to be for the best).  People from the heartlands
of the States, like the populace of Calontir, are perhaps the most
homogeneous and most 'team oriented' of any subset of Americans.
Calontir also tried to conscientiously adopt an 'identity' as an
Anglo-Saxon Kingdom, and put in place the organizational elements
(the like Hyrd and Fyrd fighting orders, the Witan as their prime
council, and so forth) necessary to support that aim.  Thanks to
such efforts, and to the inspired creation of the awesome Calontir
Shield Wall, I'd put forward the case that Calontir has the highest
esprit-de-corps of any of the twelve kingdoms.

Ealdormere is another 'homogenous' territory.  Some joke that the only
thing Canadians have in common is thankfulness that they're not from
the States, but I do think the mundane citizens of Ontario and the
SCA populace of Ealdormere do share a common world view in many ways.
Ealdormere also has a strong esprit-de-corps and is forging a stronger
and stronger regional identity.  Those common bonds will help them 
when they become their own kingdom someday.

AEthelmearc, my own 'home' and the likeliest area to go kingdom shortly
after Drachenwald, is a more chaotic collection of less homogenous people.
Still, we share common bonds from being not 'East Coast' and not Midwest.
We're a land of the between, a proud and fiercely independent assortment
of groups that are in isolated areas like the vast empty center of
Pennsylvania or distant West Virginia as well as in 'Second Cities.'
In Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh is a Second City to Philadelphia and
in New York, Buffalo (along with Rochester and Syracuse) is a second
city to the Big Apple. The four baronies anchoring AEthelmearc are
in Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse--with baronies likely
to join them in West Virginia and perhaps Central Pennsylvania.
In a way, we're united--now--by the realization that we ARE not
and NEED not be *second* to anybody.

One interesting way of describing things is to say that Ealdormere
functions as Scotland to the Midrealm's England while AEthelmearc
acts as the Eastrealm's Wales. 

                       *  *  *  *  *

So I think you WILL have an opportunity to craft your own 'model'
of kingdom in Drachenwald in the years to come.  Were I in your
position I would base your new kingdom on the later Holy Roman 
Empire where power was more decentralized than in most SCA 
kingdoms.  Otherwise you Swedes, with your greater numbers and
your ability to work together effectively for common goals will
end up controlling the offices and direction of the new kingdom
to an even greater degree than the American military personnel
seem to do now.  That would be good for the 'Kingdom of Nordmark,'
but not the Kingdom of Drachenwald.  I'm sure you're already
sensitive to this possibility and are thinking hard about ways
to make *everyone* feel a valued part of the new kingdom.

In closing let me repeat two familiar phases.  The first is "The amazing 
thing about the SCA is not how poor our 'authenticity' happens to be, but 
that we're as authentic as we ARE given our romantic/fantasy origins."
The second is "What is rewarded is what you will get," meaning the way
we set up our formal and informal reward structures has quite a lot to do
with the way people with act and the places they'll concentrate their time.

The first phrase means our glass is at least half full, not half empty,
and the second says you should be careful to make sure you're rewarding
the behaviors you *want* rather than the ones you *don't* want.

Thank you all for your patience reading these words, good friends.

I'll look forward to continued comments on these issues!

My best -- 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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