[MR] Various posts and complaints about CA at Pennsic

[Rupert Gaddy]

In just a few hours I have gotten several private communications and see one
post to the list about CA and Pennsic.

All of these have been pretty bitter, but I fear the bitterness is
misdirected. I am going to try to be nice here and not go off on a rant, but
I am really upset with some of the folks who have emailed me and probably
some others that reacted the same way but did not post or email.

Some people say I am too blunt and need to be more political to get my
message across, so I am going to make every attempt not to go off here like
I really would like to do. I ask your indulgence and forgiveness if I fail
to accomplish this.

 Good Gentles I ask you to consider this fact of life. As people we often
tend to go off on the powers that be, the Crowns of various kingdoms
including our own, and others without ever going off on ourselves.  I ask
your indulgence as I go off a bit on the CA community of Atlantia, but I can
and have certainly applied these same things to myself.

It is MY fault that I did not read the posted CA conventions closely enough
that I made an erroneous post. It is MY fault that the arrows that I have
will not meet the conventions at Pennsic.  If indeed I had been planning on
going to Pennsic this year I should have read the conventions when they
first came out and not today, (but since I only planned on making my arrows
available to whoever needed them I can at least plead a certain defense). It
is MY fault that I did not communicate with the Crowns and others while the
CA conventions were being decided upon.

My point is this good gentles: Lets look at ourselves for a minute. The
Crowns of the Kingdoms involved in any interkingdom event have a lot to do,
not only in regards to that event, but the usual things in a reign. The
focus of most events is heavy combat and that is where most of their energy
goes. The same is true for the Warlord and the KEM.

Unlike most of you, I have sat on war councils and I know what is involved,
so I may have more fault in my failure to communicate with the Crowns than
any of you.

Rightly or wrongly the focus on the heavy fighting scenarios is a reality,
and it means that many other areas come afterwards for consideration.
Rapier, Target Archery, and Arts and Sciences conventions must also be
worked out. This means that unless someone is reminding the Crowns about CA
that it often gets backburnered or even forgotten.

Now, time for self examination, my brothers and sisters.... How many of you
archers going ballistic communicated with the Crown about CA conventions
when the War conventions were being discussed?  How many of you contacted
our Kingdom Earl Marshal or his deputy the Kingdom CA marshal?  How many of
you contacted our Warlord? How many contacted the Captain of Archers?

While in an ideal world, all of these gentles should have been concerned
with the CA conventions, the lack of input from the archers, including
myself, probably left them thinking that whatever was ok and that you did
not care.  With all they have to do, especially pre Pennsic, and with the
whole APD thing coming down from the top, it probably was very easy to
ignore something that people were not talking to them about!

I do remember several posts by Sir Tnek the captain of Atlantia's Archers,
and I know he has tried to build a email list of all CA participants in this
kingdom. I know that many others received his posts and emails, and probably
most of you ignored them.

As a former Captain of Archers for our kingdom myself, I remember the
frustration of calling for ideas, suggestions and concerns and not getting
any replies, or at best a few complaining letters.

 My next soul searching self evaluation: How many of you actually READ the
CA conventions when they were first published and saw the problems that
existed?

I have already admitted that I did not do so, for if I had, I would have
communicated with the Crown and the Warlord at once to point them out. My
only excuse is that I knew Pennsic was out for me this year, and I was
working hard on the APD issues. Most of you do not have that excuse.  I at
least caught the society rules problem and worked to have it corrected, but
how many of you had taken the time to read the society rules lately? Why was
there no notice of the problem with the golftube length from any of you?


You folks want to be mad at someone? Start with YOURSELVES.

 I have never communicated with a Crown of Atlantia that I did not get a
response from. Sometimes I had to send more than one email or phone call,
but I have always gotten a response.  The KEM usually responds to me or
catches me or I catch him at an event.  The Warlord has returned my
communications. I simply can not believe that these folks are part of a
conspiracy to somehow make life difficult for the CA folks.

I am just a no-body lord with no office in Atlantia, and yet I get responses
and concern with CA issues when I communicate with our officers, so I know
that they are available and listening. True I have been around for a long
time, done a lot,  and may be more noticed then some of you, but how do you
think I reached to point I got noticed....certainly not by being quiet and
just complaining...true I do my share of complaining, but I also try to put
out some effort to solve the things I am complaining about...for example
this post.

Do you folks ever wonder why rapier has gotten along with far fewer problems
and the Order of the White Scarf is a polling order and so far superior to
the Yew Bow award? I venture to say it is because THAT community is
organized and communicates with each other and the powers that be.

Yes it helps that they are a distinct weapons form while "in theory" CA is
just one of the weapons in heavy combat, but in reality lets face it, the CA
community is not just another weapons form, the rules are just too
different, so it is somewhere in limbo....

In my humble opinion, you folks that complain about this aspect need to do
one of two things....either get your act together and form a CA guild (I
tried that years ago, and we had three people with enough interest and
energy to even respond) which can speak with some authority to the Crowns
and other powers that be, or petition the Crowns and the KEM to become heavy
archers with full contact and appropriate armor and become more like the
rest of the heavy combatants, so that you will have as much input as the
greatswords and spears that have to work through different conventions in
various wars.

I have been a CA participant and CA marshal for many years, I have served as
Captain of Atlantia's Archers, I have been the Kingdom Archer Marshal, and I
think I can safely say that based on this long experience, CA's rather
unique position and conventions in our kingdom simply DEMAND that in order
to be considered you must communicate with others or be ignored. If you are
not communicating then you have NO right to complain.

While on the subject of common complaints by the CA community.....The same
goes for awards....

NO there are not very many Sea Stags ever given for CA.....I can only think
of three over all the years I have been playing, (there may have been one I
missed recently) but how many of you are recommending people?

I don't think a Kraken has been given for CA, but I may be wrong, but how
many of you have recommended anyone?  How many of you are going to the Crown
and saying you know I watched so and so today and was amazed at what he or
she did for the war effort with that bow?

I know of no Peers in Atlantia who were made for their work in CA, but again
who is sending in recommendations for someone???  You want someone with a
Mistress or Master to be advocating for the CA community.... you want
someone to mentor and help others obtain peerage for what they are doing in
the CA community?.....  then organize and send in enough letters and
recommendation to have some made, or quit complaining.

Which brings up another point....all of you complaining about the APD
ruling....how many of you WROTE the BOD about how you felt on this issue?
How many of you have followed up that first letter with additional comments?
How many of you have discussed it with the Ombudsman for Atlantia to the
BOD?  I can answer that question, too darn few of you!!!

Yes, it is easy to sit back and pass the blame, it is harder to look at
ourselves.

If anyone has a right to be upset it is ME...because I HAVE done all these
things except communicate with the Crowns when the CA conventions were being
decided and not reading the Pennsic conventions closely enough...and yet I
am not going ballistic and bitterly complaining that everyone is out to get
CA. (OK I think there are probably some folks who would love to see CA
disappear, but thank God they are more disorganized than even the CA
community).

All of you that have written complaining that our kingdom does not care
about CA or those of you who have at least thought that thought, I challenge
you to let the powers that be know that YOU care about it.  If they see
that, then you might have a chance of changing the things you are
complaining about.

I challenge you to form a CA guild to speak with a voice to the Crowns.

I challenge you to send in recommendations for awards instead of complaining
that there are not any being  given.

I challenge you to request that the Yew Bow be made equal to the White Scarf
award.

I challenge you to find the people in the CA community that you would like
to see as peers and to write letters to the principle of the various orders
and to speak to the other peers about them and at least have some folks
watching what they do.  We are never going to have peers made for the work
they are doing in CA unless the CA community is advocating for them instead
of complaining.


But most of all I challenge you to get away from the "us against them"
mentality that has crippled CA in this kingdom for so long!!!

Only when you have done all these things will I listen to you complain and
moan without responding in the manner of this post.

In fact if every CA person in this kingdom will meet the challenges above
and there is still no action, then I will agree to join your ranks of
sitting back and complaining and playing poor me.

If you want to part of the game, JOIN the game.

I have tried to be "nice" but I am probably failing to be as "politic" as
many would like me to be. I apologize if I was a bit blunt, especially since
I have at times felt the way some of these gentles I have taken to task feel
about CA. I have tried to grow beyond that point and assume my part of the
responsibility for things not being as I would like them to be and to work
to change it not just complain about it.  I hope we all have room for
growth.

To borrow from the Bard (only slightly out of period) "the fault, dear
Brutus, lies not in our stars, but in our selves".


Ld Rupert the Persistent