From: corun@access.digex.com (Corun MacAnndra)
Subject: Re: Pennsic Land Allocation
Organization: Express Access Online Communications, Greenbelt, MD USA
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1992 22:33:57 GMT

In article <Bu9z47.2yI@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca> aryk@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca (A.J.S. Nusbacher) writes:

I wrote that the SCA couldn't hire history teachers.

Aryk answers;

>Why not?  There are SCA groups that hire professional chefs to cook their 
>feasts, and who better to teach history than a teacher of history?

I've never heard of an SCA group hiring professional cooks. I'm not disputing
you, I've just never heard of such a thing. To me, half the fun of being 
in the SCA is researching a thing and doing it myself to the best of my
ability. I'm getting to be a better tailor for example, and my KMOAS will
be pleased to know that I'm amassing enough garb that I don't have to wear
my T-shirt tunics to events anymore. ;-) I think that the point here is
not that we couldn't, but that groups in general usually don't have enough
money to spend on doing the events they want, much less on teachers. Of
course, altruistically I'd like to think everyone has the same desires to
learn a thing and teach it to others in the SCA that I do. ;-) Ok, so I'm
just a little idealistic. And as you said later, people will want to spend 
their hard earned dollar on the tings they want, not what you or I want.

You then wrote;

>I was speaking in particular of Pennsic War autocrats.  My point was not that
>there are no good autocrats, but rather that no matter how hard an autocrat
>works, and no matter how good an event he produces, he will still meet people
>who aren't satisfied.

My apologies for misunderstanding that you meant only War Autocrats. Since
you restate in a way that I now fully understand, I can agree with you
entirely. To paraphrase Lincoln, you can fool some of the people all of the
time, and all of the people some of the time, and that's usually sufficient.
Someone will always find fault, especially where it is an inconvenience
to them personally.

[some stuff we agreed on deleted]

You wrote;

>I believe that unless the job becomes less gruelling in future, it will be
>done less well in future because 1. the job will become bigger than any
>possible candidate, and 2. anybody with the ability to do the job will not
>want to do the job, or will be unable to spare the time.
>
>You said above that willingness to take on work should not be a qualification
>for a job--it doesn't imply ability to do the work properly.  Well, if the
>job of war autocrat gets much bigger, it will either need 1. a salary or
>2. an incumbent whose primary qualification is a willingness to take on an
>unreasonable amount of work.

Now we come to the crux of the biscuit. Can Pennsic become less gruelling?
And if yes, how can we help it to become so? And if no, how can we lighten
the burden carried by the War Autocrat? There are many things we as members
of the SCA can do to help the Autocrat, not the least of which is simply
playing by the rules set down by that year's Autocrat no matter how unfair
or ridiculous we think they might be. I think a major problem any War
Autocrat faces is the bad attutudes of people who come looking for failure.
If a thing is going to fail, we should let if fail on it's own, and not help
the process along. A wise man once said we should learn from the mistakes of
others, since we won't live long enough to make them all ourselves. This is
why I am so vocal in encouraging people to send their ideas to the Planning
Committee. I will also state that this should be done in an orderly fashion.
The last thing the Pennsic Planning Committee is, is a democratic body. There
are few actual voting seats, and everything can get vetoed by the Coopers.
But all are welcome to attend. The meetings are open to the SCA, and I will
once again state that Pennsic is becoming less an East/Middle event, and
more an SCA wide event. The whole Knowne World should become involved in some
respect.

[some more stuff we agreed on deleted, so far we're doing well]

>>...When my household ran Security at PWXX we
>>bore the brunt of the actions of a few yahoos from other households who
>>volunteered to take shifts and summarily pissed off the populace of Pennsic.
>>In some cases we removed these people from jobs that would allow them to
>>interact with the populace and gave them something harmless to do like
>>lost and found paperwork or manning the base station radio.
>
>Right, but that doesn't mean that the work shouldn't be delegated.  It just
>means that important work shouldn't be delegated to any old yahoo who asks
>for the job.  As you said before, willingness to take on work does not imply
>qualification for the job.

Quite correct.

>Heck, if work couldn't be delegated, then how would a battalion commander
>discharge his duties?  A ship's captain?  Most to the point:  the mayor of
>a town?

But you weren't talking about work. You were talking about responsibility,
and since we've already agreed that responsibilty can't be delegated, nuff
said.

You wrote;

>The War Autocrat always seems to be miserably overworked, and the job always
>seems to devolve on the same people.

I agree with the first half of that, but please clarify the rest of your
statment. Who are the "same people" you refer to?

I wrote and you replied;

>>I also get the impression that you've never Auto-
>>crated and event or worked with an Autocrat. I hope I'm wrong. 
>
>Glad to be the messenger of hope.  You are wrong.

Thank you for telling me that. Not knowing you I couldn't say one way or
the other, and we've already seen how well I stick my foot in it by making
rash assumptions. ;-) I will say though, that I have read many posts by you,
and you have always struck me as someone with their head screwed on tight,
but not so tight as to prevent new ideas coming in. Experience is a great 
teacher.

>My point in discussing the management of Pennsic War is not that previous
>autocrats have been bad, or good, or anything.  Just that the job needs
>to be delegated and managed better, so that the talents of more contributors
>can be better used, and so that the person responsible can keep the big
>picture in focus, and not have to micromanage the details that are not the
>direct purview of the land manager, the marshal in charge, the chief surgeon,
>the security chief and the merchant director.

Most true. Finding a good staff is half the battle.

>In the end, I think that the Pennsic autocrat ought to be salaried.

Here we're going to have a major disagreement. I think definitely not. If
that happens we could be in big trouble. Where does the money come from?
If from volunteers, then we open up the War to more graft than the federal
government. Also, how does paying a member conflict with the Society's
non profit status with the IRA? I don't know the answer to that. There has
been some talk of hiring a professional security force, but so far nobody's
taking it seriously. I think this is good. If we do that we take away a
valuable lesson that more SCAdians need to learn. I for one don't want to
see Pennsic become just another Ren Faire. It's the closest thing we have
to an international convention, and it may be my idealism showing through,
but I take the SCA on a more personal level that just another club.

Further discussion is welcome from one and all.

In service,

Corun

-- 
===========================================================================
    Corun MacAnndra     |      But what if this hadn't been
  Dark Horde by birth   |        a rhetorical question?
    Moritu by choice    |                            C. Nelson