Re: [Middlebridge] Re: Principality stuff

I had an interesting call from Duchess Sedalia, the Society Seneschal,
last night. At the end of it, I obtained her permission to spread what
I learned, and I think some of you may find it interesting.

Many of you will be aware that Illinois and Michigan have been talking
about going Principality over the past year or so. Then a few months
ago, this got quashed by a belief that Duchess Sedalia had forbidden
the Midrealm to form any more territoreal principalities ( or even talk
about forming some) until either Ealdormere or Northshield goes
kingdom. According to Sedalia, this is not the case. When she became
aware of this belief, she did some checking. She told me that she had
written a letter to the Crown/Kingdom Seneschal in March that said the
Middle should put off forming any new principalities until "Northshield
has reached completion." She says she meant until they go territoreal,
but that she thinks it got interpretted as "until they become a
kingdom." Her Grace Sedalia stated emphatically that she has not and
will not forbid the Middle to form more principalities. In fact, she
told me she thinks it is a good idea, given our size and population.
She is just concerned about not making lots of them all at once. She
would like to see the creation of them spread out a little because of
the time demands it puts on the kingdom officers.

While I had Sedalia in a chatty mood, I asked her about the polling for
Northshield's territoreal status. She said the problem with the first
one was not the poor response rate, but the fact that 25% of the
members of the principality were not polled because of mailing lable
problems. This tended to be geographically grouped, and she wanted to
make sure every area got its say in before it went before the BoD. She
asked me if I had heard when the current polling would be done as she
is looking forward to putting it before the Board for approval.
Unfortunately I have no idea, so I couldn't tell her anything.

Sedalia seemed very open and honest, and very sincere in everything she
said. She told me that while she can't answer all questions (usually
because she doesn't know, as opposed to doesn't want to) she really
wants to communicate with the people of the Society. She said that she
welcomes letters from anyone, and will be happy to reply on questions
regarding national policy (because that is what she covers as society
seneschel) or her own actions. She also said that if people try to call
her and don't hear a message on the answering machine, just a beep of
something, they should leave a message anyways. She has had some severe
phone trouble and had to have the repairmen in to try to fix
everything.

I was happy to find her willing to discuss things, pleased to see her
concern that her words had been misinterpretted, and glad to see her so
eager to correct the problem. Sedalia said she would love to go to
Northshield sometime, especially for the first coronet tournament. I
know that the SCA Inc will pay half her airfare if a group or kingdom
pays for the other half. Maybe the Middle or its people should consider
flying her in to talk to us. After all, if she is going to represent
us, we should make sure she understands how we feel and what we think.

yours, Garlanda
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From: kgriggs@ix.netcom.com (Kevin Griggs)
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Received on Tue Jun 27 18:26:18 1995