2022-02-26 Future of the Barony

Future of the Barony
Discussion held at St Sebastians 2022-02-26

Present: Þorvaldr inn Suðreyski, Ed Braythwayte, Bess Braythwayte, Rudiger de Alder, Mark of Plymouth, James Orlando, Griete van Groningen, Florence of Knightsbridge, Melissa Wijffels, Nathanael d’ Averanches, Christine Bess Duvaunt, Trudi (Ildhafn), Don & Glen (Whangarei), katherine kerr (Southron Gaard)

Immediate problem: Ildhafn having officer trouble for man years. Of six mandatory officers, three need replacing immediately, one soon, and another in June this year. Only one officer (Reeve) has a term going into next calendar year. Ildhafn, exclusive of Cluain, has about 30 paid members—small to maintain a barony, smallest in Lochac.

General thoughts

• Paid up members may or may not be a good indication of active members. Many SCAdians only become members because it is required for officer roles. Real question may be why new people aren’t filling roles
  • COVID-19 brought up repeatedly as potential cause
  • Problem existed prior to COVID-19, however
• Similar problems exist across many organisations, particularly voluntary ones. The only sucessful strategy is having a shadow officer serving under each officer, providing crucial training and making the process less frightening
  • May exacerbate current problem in the Ildhafn context as no one would then be able to leave office! Too few people

Organisational options

• 1 Barony, 1 Canton (status quo) – B&B + 6 officers + 3 officers
• 1 Barony, 2 Cantons – B&B + 6 officers + officers + 3 officers
  • No one likes this option
• 1 Barony (upper North Island) – B&B + 6 officers
  • Does away with three officers
  • Could be done via Zoom meetings
  • Very likely to have significant banking issues (already causing trouble in both Ildhafn City and Cluain)
  • Could bring everything under SCANZ (001, 002, 003), but then all signatories would need to physically sign paper during changeover
  • Potential issues with households having baronial officers + SCANZ
  • Would destroy individual identity of the two groups
    • Several members of Cluain reluctant to leave identity
    • When Ildhafn was formed, Cluain was ready to go Shire. Formed together with Ildhafn so there would be sufficient numbers for Ildhafn to go Barony
    • The initial understanding between the two groups was that Ildhafn would stand on its own, fielding its own officers – B&B come from either group
    • Joint leadership is hard to achieve in practice – no mechanism in SCA to ensure that officers are coming from both Ildhafn and Cluain. Potential for voices of the populace to be overlooked
    • (an aside) this ‘two equal halves’ situation is not standard in the SCA. Apparently Cluain isn’t supposed to have its own bank account? Nonstandard situation has repeatedly caused trouble for reporting to Kingdom
    • Arrangement has worked until now
  • A couple people from Ildhafn stress that the Barony is currently operating without a full set of cutlery due to COVID. Lockdowns have put significant psychological strain on everyone in Auckland; this effect cannot be understated.
• 1 Barony (North Island) – B&B + 6 officers
  • Has someone asked Darton before bringing this forward?
  • Suggested in jest by someone in Darton
  • B&B need to be able to travel to an event for the day. Distance between Ildhafn and Darton would potentially be an issue
• 2 Shires – 6 officers
  • No B&B
  • Could be nice to have fewer officers
  • Some issues with this—groups may lose names/heraldry
  • Groups which go from Barony to Shire do not return back to Barony elsewhere in the Knowne World. Do we anticipate that Ildhafn will never be active enough to be a Barony again?

Principality

• Insulae Draconis went Principality with 95 members & no baronies
• Could be an option in the longer term

Dormancy

• People are stressed, but others have put their hands up to fill all current officer openings
• Officers tend to put too much pressure on themselves—expectations high despite the catastrophe we are going through. Need for more self-compassion
• Cluain feels that it should be consulted on any decision. Dormancy in Ildhafn with activities as described will add burden to Cluain’s officers
• To maintain Cluain, all we need is Reeve, Seneshal, +1 officer. Willingness to keep Cluain council minimal and send extra folks to serve in Ildhafn for the interim
• If Ildhafn is planning to run practices, online catch-ups, and potentially even events, this is not a dormant group. Dormant groups are supposed to do nothing – no practices, no meetings, no recruitment
• A member of Ildhafn with 30 years volunteering experience says that every single time they have seen a group “take a break” or go into dormancy, it has never come back. Strongly recommends that if anyone has any energy, don’t stop!
  • Things have already stopped in Ildhafn in some respects—12 months no events
  • Some events have been occuring online in small groups
    

Filling officer roles

• Could consider mentorship to get new people into officer roles
  • Kingdom Exchequer does this-- 1 year apprentice, 2 years in role, 1 year mentoring
  • Again, not possible with 25 people
• Some people very burnt out. Easy to assume other people feeling the same as you are and try to protect them from stress
• Some work can be reduced by using the regnumator for creating Barony/Canton officer contacts. Done automatically
• Several people in Ildhafn have been told not to apply for roles in the past
• Many people didn’t know there was an issue
  • Vacant roles in Ildhafn were only announced once
  • People were not aware of how dire the situation was
  • At least one member of the Ildhafn Council didn’t know there was any danger of going into dormancy
  • Lack of context in these nominations (if someone doesn’t put their hand up, we’re going into abeyance/dormancy)
  • Announcements came at a bad time (more lockdowns)
  • Combination of unfortunate circumstances

Recruitment

• Best way to get more officers
• Recruitment has been minimal in Ildhafn for some time. No LARP, no Uni, etc in two years
• A new member says they had been in the reenactment scene for 5 years and had never heard of the SCA
• Online recruitment never tried – could be good to experiment during Omicron wave
  • Mordenvale & Borderscros have virtual tavern nights, very successful
  • Ireland has just had first in-person event after two years
  • Virtual events may be a good way to help bring some of Ildhafn back together. Good appetite for this from atendees from Ildhafn
  • Kingdom has its own Zoom account which could be used for this purpose. Contact Þorvaldr to use

Short term

• Consensus that filling officer roles and continuing status quo probably best option for the short term
• Cluain willing to supply extra officers to Ildhafn in interim
  

Medium/long term

• Combined Cluain & Ildhafn numbers have been holding steady at 50-60 for the last 7-8 years
• If groups want to split in future, should not merge
• Some members of Cluain aspire to eventually be their own barony
  • Rudiger keen to have border wars and the loser gets the Bombays
  • May be unlikely to happen any time soon
  • Southron Gaard experienced huge bump in numbers after lockdown. Potential for significant recruitment after COVID
• 5 members required for Shire/Canton, but 10 sustainable
• 25 members required for Barony, but 50+ sustainable
• May be worth exploring alternate group structures (potentially allowed via experimental SCA rules allowed us via SCANZ). Would take years to implement
  • 2 groups with ceremonial B&B a favored option (City of Ildhafn-Cluain?) if group size remains small