Headspace

Part 1

and 2

For Scadians this is worth listening to though not terrific in itself.

The SCA Grand Council had gotten an assignment to ponder “Pay to Play” structures, their relevance and possible applicability to the Society. Let’s just say at the beginning that this didn’t please yours truly one bit. Couple of clarification letters were forwarded to the Kingdom list and our current representative being the kind she is, commentary was asked from Drachenwaldians. Here’s what we sent as commentary.

Unto Mistress Ariel do Lord Dubhghall and Baroness Mór send their
greetings.

Here are comments regarding the issues being discussed by the
Grand Council.

1. ‘Pay to play’ as a means of developing loyalty to the SCA as
organization

> We have discussed the fact that people develop loyalty to their
> local group, their household, their Kingdom, but not the
> Organization. Why is that?

Loyalty grows from belonging to and being a participant in, and
namely a participant with rights. From our Aarnimetsian/Finnish
point of view the inclusion of the members to the SCA, Inc. is
very limited. An average member has little say in the matters of
the Society. Quite often even getting heard is extremely
difficult, not to mention having a “vote”.

It would seem that the more a person is involved in the decision
making of the group, the more loyalty is felt towards it. Thus
often the strongest loyalty is first to one’s household and to
the local groups in ascending order. This is only natural. The
more I’m a member, the more it is “my group”. The high level SCA
organisation is so far away that it is difficult to develop
loyalty towards it.

This said, so far it would seem that the affiliate system is
working quite well in Aarnimetsä. As an example, the canton of
Humalasalo was not doing very well five years ago. At that point
it was decided to remove the local membership fee and to put all
effort into recruiting new people, getting them on a mailing list
so they could be kept in the loop, and arranging a variety of SCA
related activities. The SKA affiliate agreement coming into
effect finalised the success of the plan: the new SCA membership
system could be effectively communicated and explained to the
people, and it was obvious how being a paid member not only
brought benefits (like event price discounts) to the individual
but it also supported the local group (the canton), the barony
and the whole SCA. Today of all the Aarnimetsä cantons,
Humalasalo has the most paying affiliate/SCA members!

We believe (Mór having been the seneschal of Humalasalo for
several years during this process) that the key to getting paid
members is communal thinking. The membership fee needs to be
affordable and it needs to benefit both the one who’s paying and
the society they are supporting. To get the benefits of a
communal feeling (”loyalty”) to all levels of the hierarchy, the
membership must address all of the levels. In the affiliate
system:

1) The benefits for the individual:
- Discounts of event fees, in stores etc.
- A paying member has influence in the bureaucracy of the canton
(as per the Finnish law regarding non-profit associations).
- The member knows they are supporting the local group,
i.e. canton, see below

2) The benefits for the canton:
- The canton gets a set part of the fee as per their own choosing
(Humalasalo takes no membership share, some other cantons may
take a small share).
- The canton’s influence regarding the decision making in the
affiliate society level (SKA) depends on the amount of paying
members, so by paying for a membership, a person supports the
local canton in this way too.
- Due to the affiliate system in Aarnimetsä, a canton doesn’t
need to put resources into collecting the membership fees,
upkeeping a registry of the members etc. since SKA does all
that and publishes the baronial newsletter.

3) The affiliate association level
- The affiliate society collects the fees and uses them to
provide services (bureaucracy, newsletter, a Finnish insurance,
shared rules and regulations, important SCA events such as the
Baronial Investiture and Kingdom level events etc.) for the
cantons and their people.

4) SCA, Inc.
- Gets a share of the membership fees as agreed.
- Provides the main frame for the whole of the Society.

As a huge improvement to the old system, not only is the
membership fee much more affordable in relation to the local
economy, and easier to pay (since the affiliate society handles
all overseas money transfers), the system also grows loyalty
towards all levels of the system (also SCA, Inc.) by having the
membership shared between all levels and the said levels
co-operating in a rather seamless manner. All levels provide
services that in the end benefit the members.

In the Finnish affiliate organisation the costs for the society
are reduced by handling the functions as volunteer work. This is
possible when the membership bureaucracy is handled not on the
international but on the local level. Since in the affiliate
system most of the services are handled locally, this might be a
way to reduce the costs, since in the SCA Inc. Corporate budget
the office and salaries are the two most prominent expenditures.

2. Tiered membership

> The tiered membership is a useful thing to consider as well…a
> membership level for students perhaps, for people who want to
> come and watch, those that want to participate at certain
> levels…so that the people could pay for what they use. What
> should come with these tiers?

What does this mean then? What would be the levels of
participation? In normal SCA-officer jargon the levels refer to
Society, Kingdom, Principality, Barony etc. If this is the
meaning here, wouldn’t this have an adverse effect to the stated
intention? “I play to participate only at my barony level, so I
most certainly won’t do anything in the Kingdom” as opposed to “I
can participate on local, Kingdom, Society wide levels as the
situation develops”.

Or are these tiers intended to be such that at the cheapest
levels one can’t participate to the in-Society hobbies? Which
hobbies would these be and how would they be chosen? No fighting?
No dancing? No listening to lectures or participating to
workshops? We have found that the in-Society activities are very
important to the people. It benefits the whole Society that there
are many participants, including both people willing to teach and
people willing to learn. Membership fee requirements for
participating would hinder this. More regarding ‘pay to fight’
and thoughts on ‘pay to receive awards’ in the next section.

One possible way to read this would mean different fees for
differently ranked individuals. This promotes the idea of awards
as a kind of a caste system instead of associating the awards
closely with the contribution to the Society. If there was any
sense of justice in the thing, hardworking peers would be paid
for their attendance wherein a newcomer student would pay the
highest price. This would however add a very unpleasant feature
to the award system and also discourage new members from
joining. If it was done the other way around, it would in fact be
punishing those who have done most for the society! We view the
award system as something that should inspire the recipients and
others to continue to serve the Society, not as a rank that
perhaps cannot be bought but should continuously be paid for ever
since.

3. ‘Pay to’ models in the SCA

> The different “pay to…” things in different Kingdoms should
> be considered too. Some are pay to fight, some are pay to
> receive awards, same are not. How does this impact
> things…should it be consistent across the Organization?

Absolutely not! The kingdoms of the SCA differ vastly in their
culture, regarding the things that are appreciated, and how
business is conducted. While we may be able to appreciate that
in some kingdoms it indeed is perfectly legitimate to expect
people to show their commitment first and foremost by purchasing
a membership, it is entirely out of the question in these parts
(Perhaps all of Drachenwald; in any case it applies to
Aarnimetsä).

Here the participants are expected to contribute to the Society
first and foremost through their effort. Helping in events (quite
often not a small deal), working as officers, etc. This ethos is
something that we also try to teach to and inspire in our new
members (who are quite often students of various degrees with
limited financial possibilities). If we tell people that they’re
welcome to pay and help, that doesn’t sound too good for the
newcomers. “Come and join us in this shared effort and enjoyment
of living the medievalish dreamworld” is much more beckoning than
the alternative.

Regarding ‘pay to receive awards’. The idea that we’d teach
people to work in this Society that has a set structure (awards)
for recognising hard work and effort in service to the Society,
and would then consider them un-eligible for that recognition had
they not made a financial contribution to the Society is quite
appalling. This is contrary to everything we consider the SCA
spirit to be.

For the landed gentry granting the awards, this would also be
quite a hassle. In addition to the merits of the possible
recipient they would also need to consider their membership
status. And what of the people who fail to remain members at some
point? Would it lead into situations where granted awards would
have to be nullified as the recipient wasn’t eligible for them
per regulations? Surely a ‘pay to be awarded’ system would only
have effects adverse to the awarding system’s desired function.

As for ‘pay to fight’, the waivers are no longer required from
fighters here and thus the membership card is unnecessary for the
functioning of the in-society combat hobby as such. If this kind
of a thing would be implemented, it would appear to be ripping
off the fighters as opposed to other in-society hobbies. It might
also encourage the false idea that fighters make their
contribution only through their combat prowess and financial
support of the society.

To us it seems that not only ‘pay to play’, but all ‘pay to’
structures mentioned so far are detrimental to the hobby and
would create negative effects.

In Service,
Dubhghall and Mór from Aarnimetsä
mundanely known as Henri and Maria Laine

Again something that’s been lingering quite a while in the drafts section…

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It’s been a while since I was last abroad, so the last weekend was good in that sense too. I had a major part of my summer holidays as an SCA trip as we attended the Coronation of Alaric and Nerissa. We made the trip easy for ourselves and left Tampere on thursday to have a bit of fun in Helsinki, shopping and seeing family there, we then set to the airport Holiday Inn to be able to catch a little more sleep than if we had to leave from Tampere on Friday morning, a good beginning imo.

The flight landed to Hamburg and as we drove out Me and M were whooping about the local flora (trees and freely groing hay on the roadsides) as well as the local architecture that is beautiful to the extreme. Autobahn is a magnificent idea, especially if one happens to be blessed with driver such like our’s (hi J) who surely knew how to operate there.

Event as a whole was magnificent. The site was kewl and it was nice to get to see people I normally have only internet contact with. Made new friends too and got to see how our southern cousins handle events. Got to be proud on how we Aarnimetsians handle things and so forth.

One could have gone on and on about the event, but now sufficient time has passed that I don’t much remember the details. But it did show the major strength of the SCA, the international nature. It left this feeling that it would be great to go abroad again and already we’re making plans. Should probably really make an effort and look into how to travel with all the essentials. Here in home we pack our car so full, that there’s no hope in travelling like that to events that one needs to fly in. So, the planning shall include sleeping arrangements B&B seems like the most recommendable one. How to travel with the fencing gear and so forth. When just tripping like this time it was relatively easy, but when going with all the necessary stuff it is going to be a lot harder gig.

Great news, now if only our Kingdom’s own rules would get to be published, not that the lack of them would have kept me and maestro from engaging to this kind of fun on our own, but it is a great thing and it would deserve to grow to fully recognised part of the society.

In Aarnimetsä, we had an event and what an event it was. Talvi-ilta (Winter Eve) was celebrated now for a fourth time and the event was extremely nice for me. This was not only because of the people -nice people being the key ingredient for great event when I’m concerned - but also that everything went well. Talvi-ilta has grown from a small local one to a midrange event and has its own established traditions. Tourney was fought between Humalasalo and everyone else, we lost but I was still proud of the boys especially when Max spoke so very nicely to them. Archery competition was there, but this year the period skiing had to be left out.

One of the highlights was that we had now for a third time a storytelling contest in this event. Four years ago we sat in a ring and yapped about how we should have more program in the events, how they improve the atmosphere and all that. Three years ago I arranged the first of these Winter-eve storytelling things, that seems to be coming an institution of its own.
This year when Finkku wasn’t there people (at least a few of them) were somewhat disappointed as there would not be the next installment of his continuing adventure story in the low countries, last one having been left at a cliffhanger, our hero chatting up with drunken, feather-free cockerel and the beast’s thirteen best buddies awaiting to become cock alá vin sans his heroic efforts. Last year besides that, there was one entry that made it to be called a story, Adrian’s excuse at not telling a story then and promises of this year (Medium of dance would require prepared other people to allow him to make it). (Note: Last year, 14 entries, stories, songs and poems)

This year the competition had a bit fewer entries, but boy what entries they were. There were among others the joke-stories, one of which was adapted to a form of a “viking story”, from five line blonde joke by Cousin-Fergie (and of course delivered to the point, we MacÉbhearáirds do like our voices and practice a lot ) , there was a ghost story, there was Aisopos story fitted to Aarnimetsä, there was an actual viking story by a lady in her first event, Mikael Rantzow had translated a period poem from Provence, adapted it to Aarnimetsä and delivered it in most fitting and inspiring style, but this was not all. There was a play. Now in Aarnimetsä, there used to be plays performed in events and now we seem to have that again. They made it as a humoristic story, fable style, self-written and performance was amazingly good. To make it period all the actors were male, though the authors of the piece were ladies, much fun was had by all. Last bit of the contest was Adrian’s, as he explained that last year someone had caught him in a bit too good mood and with an all too well oiled tongue, but let none say that he wouldn’t keep his word and then Adrian, Birgitta, Erland and Johannes danced a story from Ferrara, a dance called Merchanzia that translated roughly as going to market. I have always scoffed at the idea of dancing theatrics and thought that balets really do need the libretto, but these four showed us how it should be done. The story was easily read from their dancing and it was fun I tell you.

The entrants of the storytelling competition provided everything I had hoped for when we started having these. Good easy go stories thought up at the spot, well thought out and researched period material, great atmosphere element for the evening. It also provided more. People came to do everything I had hoped for and more. I personally was most impressed with the danced story, but enjoyed every entry I followed (was out having a smoke during one of the stories, bad luck there)

So to those who were wondering on the outcome of the competition part of storytelling. All entries were applauded and liked a lot, but those that received special recognition from baronial hand were:

Sahra, A story of a Viking wife
Birgitta, her part as the market going lady in the dance Merchanzia
Mikael Rantzow, Knight’s Poem
The whole thespian crew, a play by Eleanora & Eleanora

Needless to spell it out, but I’m damn proud of everyone who attended the competition and made it great as well as of the people who allowed room for these performances all through their feast.

Looky looky what was on the net. Picked this one straight out from the meme-creator’s journal

1. What is your SCA name? (You don’t have to write the full name, just your first name if you want.)

Dubhghall MacÉibhearáird

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On Drachenwald forums there was something the poster expected might land her into trouble, which I doubt. On the forums one finds the two versions of the East Kingdom University one a full event and the other one something covering the same in only five minutes.

Almost as good as the bit about getting your peerage based on life experience from the nearest non-accredited crown. Is it a joke, find out.

Haven’t really been writing too much. Mainly because so much has been happening and so little at the same time. It has been hectic at work and as I haven’t gotten around writing there, haven’t really gotten around writing at all.

Sorry, and J thanks for reminding me of that.

We had a very laid back midsummer, had a great walk(2 actually), enjoyed good food and got around some gaming. Gaming good. Otherwise we’ve been around. We were at a nice wedding lately, a family occasion and it sure was nice to see their happiness. This week we’ve been at the movies.

Mission Impossible was one of my favourite series as a kid and I even if I remember fairly little of it these movies leave me somewhat cold. It is not that they’d be bad, the III had great moments, good actors, nice lines, good locations, but for me it just didn’t make it. Don’t really know why. M liked it better than Alias, but for me it was the other way around. Alias good. Mi:III not quite as good. I guess I like to see more scheming, planning wit and ‘Human Intelligence’ when I watch agent stories. We all have our preferences, I’m though quite not certain about mine.

Tonight’s movie though was a completely different story. We’ve both grown up as X-Men fans and the movie was really good one. Of course the storylines are somewhat different in the movies but generally it seems to work. In this latest installment what they got spot on was Logan. Exactly has he should be. The man was well represented. Other nice things included the way they handled Jean in her… other variety. The way they had redesigned the story was brilliant and I really liked the visualisation.They handled Hank pretty well too, and I’ve always liked him a lot. I liked Kitty pretty well, but let’s say that there was some room for improvement in that corner. Callisto and gang…. rraur.

Baddies were good throughout the line. Magneto, his and Charlie’s background, Raven and… They even brought in one of the Marauders which was a welcome decision in my view.

Things they did less well on were there too. Take Rogue, I mean really, she wasn’t like that she got more spunk dammit and of course Storm fer Fuck’s sake. There werer good lines, nice FX, but Berry just didn’t deliver. No excuses anymore.

Anyways, it was S P L E N D I D and B R I L L I A N T

What about other things We’ve been to SCA Coronation, which worked. The event didn’t have a good hand dealt to it. I mean the autocrat sick, head cook really sick, location a school and so forth and so on. But it worked the modern school transformed amazingly well into a medieval hall (Got suspension of disbelief), The feeling was nice and I’m kinda hopefull about our new royalty. It is nice to see adults on the throne every once in the while.

I’ve been working for the SCA-office(Secondary Principal Herald) to a degree. It seems to work well as a “shared office”. We both are quite happy with the arrangement, I guess

I have projects
a) Learn to write: I’ve made a good start, but have to admit that it is still a long way to the actual skill. Fluent medievalish writing. This has one part to do with the SS-rule I live under, and no it is short for Societas Silvestris our heraldic mendicant order. The rule quite clearly states that those who are ignorant of letters shall not remain so, and I’m at least making an effort.
b) Learn to make clothing: I’ve hamstered cloth for variuous things and mabe one of these days it turns into clothing, maybe
c) Cut and thrust, Godo is almost done with the swords, I’ve found manuals and remain in (the view of those near to me) irritatingly excited about it, it is finally happening.

d) Number of other projects, that I’ll hopefully get to write more about in the future.

Outside SCA:
Tomorrow we leave to Turku, wedding game goes on A and S on sunday. Other things on sat. Main intrest for me, relaxing with the best wife in the world. Been more in contact with my family lately, there was the wedding, we’ve been seeing them and this week in addition to the normal contact Mum send me absolutely lovely nameday card and pressie. Hugs mum! Today there was also good news that little sister E with her pet seal L (Sorry, maybe the association relieves when it’s written out) is safe and sound back at home (I sighed with relief) as are Murre and his wifey. Luvely picks of them already and probably I get to hear a lot about it real soon.

Summer goodness, best wishes for all of you

Innostuin kuluneena jouluna askartelemaan lahjoja ihan omakätisesti. Tuo lähti siitä, kun M ihastui kesällä erääseen leikkikeskiaikaan sopivaan kaulakoruun, jota juuri silloin ei ollut mahdollisuutta hankkia ja korua jonkin aikaa katseltuani kuvittelin kykeneväni itsekin sellaisen tekemään. Kyseessä oli kuningatarketjuna tunnettu malli, eli vähän kiehtovampi tapaus kaulaketjua. Leikkikeskiaikailun piirissä sitä on alkanut uskoa, että kaikenlaista voi oppia tekemään, ainakin aina voi yrittää.

(jos anoppi sattuisi tänne tämän päivän aikana, niin eteenpäin ei tarvitse vielä lukea, kiitos)
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Eli katsaus kaikkeen siihen mistä olisi oikeastaan pitänyt kirjoittaa jo hyvän aikaa sitten.

Kävimme pohjoisessa päin oleilemassa appivanhemmilla ja osallistumassa pieneen SCA-tapahtumaan. Ennakkokäsitys tapahtumasta ei ollut kauhean hyvä, mutta osoittautui onneksi täysin vääräksi. Tapahtuma oli nimittäin harvinaisen hyvä ja feast vielä odotettuakin parempi. Ennakoitu aikataulu, joka tuntui hyvin vaikealta muuttui paikan päällä todella toimivaksi ja meidän lisäksemme muillakin tuntui olevan hauskaa.

Melko odottamaton veto tapahtumassa oli feastin pää- ja jälkiruokien väliin sijoitettu tauko, jonka kohdalla mentiin vanhan musiikin konserttiin. Konsertti olikin sitten jotain sanoin kuvaamatonta (yritän silti ). Alkuun paikalle käveli kaveri, joka lauloi Laudan, 1300-luvun ylistyksen joka oli tuttavuutena jotain käsittämättömän upeaa. Laulussa kuului välimerellisiä vaikutteita ja Veikko Kiiver paitsi omasi häkellyttävän äänialan, osasi totisesti koristella lauluaan hyvin inspiroituneella tavalla. Capella pro Vocale jatkoi sitten tästä huomattavalla osalla Palestrinan messua ja sointi oli sanalla sanottuna jumalainen. Oli jotenkin huvittavaa, että konserttiin oli otettu mukaan Bachia viola da gamballa ja sitten kamarimusiikkia 1700-luvulta, jälkimmäinen toden näköisesti siksi, että esiintyjinä oli konsertin järjestäjän oma oppilas-yhtye. Ensimmäisessä häiritsi lähinnä se, että ao. ilta ei tainnut olla soittajan parhaita. Kitaran teknisen puolen kautta tulkittuna, virheitä tuntui olevan aika paljon ja tekniikka ei vaikuttanut aivan riittävältä. Nopeammassa osassa musiikkia tämä olikin sitten jo varmaa. 1700-luvun fagottimusa, oli hyvin esitettyä, hauskaa ja täysin kontekstiin sopimatonta, mutta kevensi mukavasti musiikillisesti aika raskasta kokonaisuutta.

Perheaika pohjoisessa oli mukavaa, meille esiteltiin appivanhempien rotary-proggis, liikennepuisto ja appiukon masiinaa räpellettiin joukolla. Ehkä siinä jotain saatiin aikaiseksi. Tässä on ihan mukava odotella tulevia 85-päiviä, kun taas mennään.

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Sunnuntaiposliinit, eli ne viehättävämmät kahviastiastot, joita otetaan esiin ja käyttöön juhlistamaan tilaisuuksia silloin tällöin, värittivät sitten maanantaitamme. Pysähdyimme kotimatkalla Kokkolassa tervehtimään Annia ja Liniä, suunitellen pikaista poikkeamaa. Neideillä on varsin upea luukku käytössään, siinä on jotain menneiden aikojen viehätystä jo itsessään ja uskomattoman paljon tilaa. Persoonallinen sisustus sitten todellakin tuo tuosta parhaat puolet esiin. Tuo nimenomainen päivä, talviloman ensimmäinen maanantai oli kuulemma käytetty siivoamiseen ja kuten saimme huomata leipomiseen. Tuoreet laskiaispullat, Linin kauniit pyhäastiat ja neitien loistava seura piristivät kummasti matkapäivää. Lyhyeksi suuniteltu stoppimme venyikin sitten jossain määrin pidemmäksi.

Kotona oltiin aika myöhään, vaikkakin ihan kohtuullisen ajoissa.

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Luonnollisesti tuollakin reissulla ajomatkat käytettiin pelaten. Jezebel taisi olla siinä vaiheessa vielä erityisesti päällä, vaikka en nyt mene asiasta valalle asti. Jezebelissä on räiskynyt ja sekä hahmo että maailma ovat onnistuneet jälleen kerran kehittymään eteenpäin. Kirkolliset aspektit keskeisessä proggistelussa ovat viime aikoina nostaneet päätään, eikä romatiikkaakaan ole ilmeisesti päässyt liikaa puuttumaan.

Muuten olemmekin sitten keskittyneet Clarityyn, joka on peleissä hauska uusi tuttavuus. Clarityn lähtölaukauksesta M kirjoitteli ropeblogiimme varsin edustavan entryn, pitäisi varmaan ottaa itseään niskasta kiinni ja tehdä jatkosta oma entry. Clarity on tarjonnut hienon mahdollisuuden tarkastella asioita uudesta näkökulmasta. Toimiva Hawkwood hahmo on mukava tuttavuus.

Roolipelirintamalla meillä oli lisäksi intensiivinen peliviikonloppu Annin vieraillessa taas meilläpäin. Koska täälläpäin kirmasi muuan tähtisusi, lykkäsimme pelin alkua hieman ja olimme sosiaalisia porukalla. Pikku-hukan kanssa heitettiin huonoa läppää yhteiskunnasta ja roolipeleistä. Oli hauska jakaa vieraan inspiroitunut innostus edistyvästä proggiksestaan. Tuollaiset ovat aina hyviä hetkiä. Kun peliin sitten päästiin kiinni, ei siitä tahtonut tulla loppua laisinkaan. Aamun pienten tuntien jälkeen unta palloon, mutta herätessämme Mn kanssa pelin jatkaminen tuntui ns. hyvältä idikseltä, ensimmäisen setin jälkeen käydessäni aamusavuilla heräsi Anni, jonka ilme oli näkemisen arvoinen, kun häneltä kysyttiin huvittaisiko tuota peliä vielä jatkaakkin. Jatkoimme suurimman osan sunnuntaita, sitten päätimme jättää tuleville tapahtumille niiden arvoisen tilan ja lykätä ne seuravaan pelikertaan. Tuostakin voisi pitää tehdä ropeblogiin tarvittavat muistiinpanot.

Roolipelien kanssa on siis viimeaikoina ollut aivan tuhottoman inspautunut olo, olisikohan tuokin jotain kevään vaikutusta.