[Artemisia] Re: comments about volunteering

[yumitori]

I have been taken to task for being 'overly rude' in my response to
the posts laying out the 'responsibilities' of groups who choose to
participate in the planned volunteer 'competition' at this year's
Uprising. Feel free to skip to the bottom of this post if you do not
wish to know why I might have responded in the manner in which I did.

My history with the event goes back to the first one, where I was
soundly thumped repeatedly by the 'oppressive' knights of Loch Salann
and had a great time in the process. Over the years I have provided
many, many hours to help improve the experience of all the folks
attending. There were times when the people in my vehicle and that of
a local friend (who was not even the event steward that year) were the
last ones to leave the site, because we stayed to clean up after
everyone else, including the rest of the Barony, had already gone
home. I was happy to do this, in response to the fun I have had when
at events in One Thousand Eyes and in return for the friendships with
many of the folks from the area.

But whenever I had a concern with how Uprising was running or had a
request for something that I thought would improve the experience not
only for myself but for others, I was brusquely shut down, told that
'Uprising is a local event and those decisions are made by the locals'
and that my opinions had no place in said decisions. Perhaps one would
be tempted to theorize that the acidic responses I received were
caused by my own stellar personality, but I know of numerous others
with much more politic approaches who received the very same caustic
brush-offs. The response to these comments and suggestions regarding
Uprising seemed unique, as similar thoughts regarding events at any
other time or anywhere else in the Kingdom did not generally generate
such hostility.

In years past I have heard folks from One Thousand Eyes brag that
their baronial events for the rest of the year were subsidized by the
monies the group made off the attendance by the populace of the
kingdom at Uprising, and that the rest of us were paying for much of
the local group's play time for the entire year. Since  Uprising is a
local event, and since I'm not a local I'm not allowed to know
anything about such decision, I do not know if this is true. I do not
know if it was once the case, but now the costs of attending Uprising
have been changed so folks are only paying to cover the expenses of
that event alone. But I do know that it is greatly frustrating to told
that one's opinions are worthless because you do not belong to the
special group, but that you should still feel obligated to provide
grunt labor for the event.

At the same time, since Uprising is such a large gathering and since
the Barony of One Thousand Eyes cannot possibly provide all of the
labor necessary to see that it comes off well, finding ways to
encourage outside participation is vital. So here's the 'non-rude'
part -

***

Perhaps it would be a good idea to find ways to encourage volunteer
participation from folks outside the Barony of One Thousand Eyes that
does not make it seem that groups or households are being held
'responsible' for a minimum number of man-hours or which guilts those
who do not belong to the Barony into providing the labor the members
of the Barony cannot.

***

There. Is that better?

-- 
yumitori

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