[Artemisia] Positive steps; plus the Bog of Bureaucratic Absurdity ; -)

[Xplex at aol.com]

In a message dated 4/18/2007 3:04:18 P.M. Mountain Daylight Time,  
artemisia-request at lists.gallowglass.org [Bethoc] writes:
 
>>As far as the sign in and out of the youth center.... I wish.....  we've 
tried to implement that as well.. 
[...] 
I know who their parents are, and I also know what activities they were  
involved in that might have earned them a signature in their pages programs,  etc. 
<<
 
Yes, I can imagine that the sign-in/sign-out thing would be much more  
difficult in the context of an SCA event -- especially a large, outdoor one. I'd  
think it might be more workable for some activities than others, but there are  
certainly some situations where it's just not practical, due to families  
coming and going, and kids doing a bit of this here, and a bit of that there...  
And it's easier to patrol, say, a church building where Girl Scouts are  
congregating, than it is to patrol the grounds of a large park area...
 
There's definitely appeal to the "free range kids" aspect, too...  :-)  I'd 
think the "education" approach, combined with the "buddy  system," is probably 
the best bet, under those conditions, so that  families and kids know what to 
watch for, and how to deal with situations that  arise, and so that the kids 
have some backup.
 
As for the IDing of kids -- it was easier with Girl Scouts, because  they're 
not doing garb, and they don't care if they're all wearing pretty much  the 
same thing! :-)  I think we pondered the tabards and favors approaches,  as 
well, and came to similar conclusions... but it's sorta floating around  in the 
Arrows' Flight sub-conversational ether at this point :-) , so maybe  something 
workable will occur to someone, one of these days! And yes, getting  the kids 
to put up with whatever it is (or better yet, be enthusiastic  about it!) is 
the challenge! :-)
 
=====
I should clarify, on the other point:
 

 
>> it wouldn't take much to prove it wasn't you. less of  course the person 
who stole your identity looks just like  you.<<
 
You're correct that the exact examples don't apply directly  here (for 
instance -- no, a bad credit report shouldn't have any effect in  this context). The 
examples are more cautionary tales about systems gone awry,  in real life 
experience -- for each of the examples, whereas it should be,  as you indicate, a 
straightforward matter to fix errors, it all too often turns  out to be a 
surprisingly bothersome pain in the neck. 
 
Especially if you have to sleuth out what's on your "record," in the first  
place, before you can fix it, which would be the case if the only returned  
data is a mysterious "fail." The "pass/fail" aspect of the thing, as  announced, 
is what has me the most concerned, for that reason.
 


Having been through an incredibly frustrating attempt to correct an  
identity-related problem before, myself, where it really *shouldn't* have taken  much 
to resolve the problem, but it turned out to, anyway -- and since I  know 
people who are stuck in similar Bogs of Bureaucratic Absurdity :-P ,  also not of 
their own making -- I no longer assume these kinds of systems  function in the 
well-managed way one might reasonably suppose they  would.
 
Sigh...
 
I just figure the most constructive time to mention  these past real-life 
experiences of adverse effects is now, while the  planning is still in the works, 
when such things can be more easily taken  into consideration. (Partly 
because, for me, it makes me nuts when people  wait to pipe up until after the fact, 
to tell me all about how I did  something all wrong, instead of contributing 
their input at the time,  when it could have made a difference! :-P :-)  )
 
CJ the Jaded ;-)



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