Legless at the AGM
Mar. 22nd, 2007 12:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
king_pellinorBit slow getting some things blogged here, let's see about catching up.
On 10 March we had the first meeting of my LARP group's Executive Committee
I've never been to an Exec before, but on being persuaded to stand for Treasurer before Christmas I found I had to go. I then found that I was being proposed to chair the meeting, presumably on the basis that as I was new to it I could do it impartially. Certainly not knowing anything about most of what was discussed helped me stay a bit detached.
From chatting with people I'd got the impression that Exec meetings could be very fraught. The constitution is full of standing orders, and the minutes are very formal, but people in the society tend to be very enthusiastic about things and the two don't seem to reconcile well, so I was expecting lots of heated argument rather than cool discussion. However, everyone was very polite. Almost invariably people put their hands up if they wanted to speak, waited until I asked them to before saying anything, gave way if they thought I'd come to them too early and in fact it was someone else's turn, and so on. There was one occasion at which one person got a bit fed up, but he went outside and cooled off so there was no adverse impact on the meeting. And whenever things got too serious, someone would make a little joke at just the right time to lighten the mood (important for a eeting that started at 11.30 or 12.00, and went on until after 6.00).
It was very interesting seeing how people react to old issues which have evidently come up time and again. In some cases it looks like people just need to vent a little - I know the Secretary next to me kept urging me to move things on through irrelevancies, but I preferred to give people a chance to talk even if it wasn't adding much, just so no-one left feeling frustrated. I know a talking shop gets a bad reputation, but I'd rather than than railroad things.
There was one issue that obviously divides people a lot, and that was the question of how much one should use the Internet in a LIVE role-play society. There are clearly many people who really don't like the level of on-line interaction that goes, on, and they were heavily represented at the meeting; conversely, there are obviously a lot who do, as they engage in the stuff, and they were very much under-represented. I'm very glad a non-committee member of the society was there to inject a note of restraint, as in retrospect I could see that part of the meeting going horribly wrong -in the sense of personal opinions over-riding the interest of the bulk of the membership. Luckily all ws saved, and of the drastic measures proposed only a minor and very sensible one was seriously considered. It'll be interesting to see how this progresses, but I would very much like to make sure I keep the perspective I got from that comment.
Afterwards we went to someone's 21st birthday party at a pub, which was great fun and involved far too much talking about anime (which I only really know about second-hand, but that's more knowledge than I normally have when talking about something) and generally having a good time. Then off to some sort of nightclub for the sort of loud music and dancing that I deplore in modern youth :-) , which was a very refreshing change and very enjoyable, though being their in chinos and brown Oxfords I did feel slightly out of place :-). I ended up with a bloody nose at some stage, which I'm fairly sure is due to someone's elbow (possibly mine) being waved around too enthusiastically, but it stopped bleeding pretty quickly and didn't hurt much, so never mind. To bed on the President's settee.
Then to adventure at Guildford branch on the Sunday.
We went out on a nice simple mission, but unfortunately we were a bit short of fighters and, surprisingly enough, people didn't take well to Guisbourn' assumption of command. So he basically decided to have nothing to do with most of the party, and just to let them hang themselves while he muttered darkly - he has very little patience for fools.
So we bimbled along, covering from dragons every now and then and beating up the odd monster, until we came to a cave with some dark elves in. In goes Guisbourn, not really caring whetheranyone follows (he had a knight with him, and the party was nearby) and gets his legs cut from under him by a trap and bopped on the haad by an elf. At this point I would have been kicking myself if I hadn't been playing unconscious: not only had I not bothered to wear my head armour that day, on the grounds that no-one ever hits me there, but I'd understood (from the elves) taht the trap was a pit so I couldn't defend myself, whereas I found a few seconds later (when the referee turned up) that it wasn't so I could've.
Anyway, the party made a complete SNAFU of the ensuing fight, despite there being three physicians there, and I ended up having unhealable legs. I therefore got left behind in deathsleep while the rest of the party finished the mission - apparently there was then some debate about whether to pick me up again, but luckily people did.
Anyway, that then meant a huge medical bill to the Vleyborian church. However, the Primate is so impressed by my devotion to her church (and the 150 crowns she'd had from me over the lst couple of months) that she's going to see about paying for me to have some work done on my lands, so it's not actually such an effective cost after all. Hurrah, and Praise be to Vleybor.
On 10 March we had the first meeting of my LARP group's Executive Committee
I've never been to an Exec before, but on being persuaded to stand for Treasurer before Christmas I found I had to go. I then found that I was being proposed to chair the meeting, presumably on the basis that as I was new to it I could do it impartially. Certainly not knowing anything about most of what was discussed helped me stay a bit detached.
From chatting with people I'd got the impression that Exec meetings could be very fraught. The constitution is full of standing orders, and the minutes are very formal, but people in the society tend to be very enthusiastic about things and the two don't seem to reconcile well, so I was expecting lots of heated argument rather than cool discussion. However, everyone was very polite. Almost invariably people put their hands up if they wanted to speak, waited until I asked them to before saying anything, gave way if they thought I'd come to them too early and in fact it was someone else's turn, and so on. There was one occasion at which one person got a bit fed up, but he went outside and cooled off so there was no adverse impact on the meeting. And whenever things got too serious, someone would make a little joke at just the right time to lighten the mood (important for a eeting that started at 11.30 or 12.00, and went on until after 6.00).
It was very interesting seeing how people react to old issues which have evidently come up time and again. In some cases it looks like people just need to vent a little - I know the Secretary next to me kept urging me to move things on through irrelevancies, but I preferred to give people a chance to talk even if it wasn't adding much, just so no-one left feeling frustrated. I know a talking shop gets a bad reputation, but I'd rather than than railroad things.
There was one issue that obviously divides people a lot, and that was the question of how much one should use the Internet in a LIVE role-play society. There are clearly many people who really don't like the level of on-line interaction that goes, on, and they were heavily represented at the meeting; conversely, there are obviously a lot who do, as they engage in the stuff, and they were very much under-represented. I'm very glad a non-committee member of the society was there to inject a note of restraint, as in retrospect I could see that part of the meeting going horribly wrong -in the sense of personal opinions over-riding the interest of the bulk of the membership. Luckily all ws saved, and of the drastic measures proposed only a minor and very sensible one was seriously considered. It'll be interesting to see how this progresses, but I would very much like to make sure I keep the perspective I got from that comment.
Afterwards we went to someone's 21st birthday party at a pub, which was great fun and involved far too much talking about anime (which I only really know about second-hand, but that's more knowledge than I normally have when talking about something) and generally having a good time. Then off to some sort of nightclub for the sort of loud music and dancing that I deplore in modern youth :-) , which was a very refreshing change and very enjoyable, though being their in chinos and brown Oxfords I did feel slightly out of place :-). I ended up with a bloody nose at some stage, which I'm fairly sure is due to someone's elbow (possibly mine) being waved around too enthusiastically, but it stopped bleeding pretty quickly and didn't hurt much, so never mind. To bed on the President's settee.
Then to adventure at Guildford branch on the Sunday.
We went out on a nice simple mission, but unfortunately we were a bit short of fighters and, surprisingly enough, people didn't take well to Guisbourn' assumption of command. So he basically decided to have nothing to do with most of the party, and just to let them hang themselves while he muttered darkly - he has very little patience for fools.
So we bimbled along, covering from dragons every now and then and beating up the odd monster, until we came to a cave with some dark elves in. In goes Guisbourn, not really caring whetheranyone follows (he had a knight with him, and the party was nearby) and gets his legs cut from under him by a trap and bopped on the haad by an elf. At this point I would have been kicking myself if I hadn't been playing unconscious: not only had I not bothered to wear my head armour that day, on the grounds that no-one ever hits me there, but I'd understood (from the elves) taht the trap was a pit so I couldn't defend myself, whereas I found a few seconds later (when the referee turned up) that it wasn't so I could've.
Anyway, the party made a complete SNAFU of the ensuing fight, despite there being three physicians there, and I ended up having unhealable legs. I therefore got left behind in deathsleep while the rest of the party finished the mission - apparently there was then some debate about whether to pick me up again, but luckily people did.
Anyway, that then meant a huge medical bill to the Vleyborian church. However, the Primate is so impressed by my devotion to her church (and the 150 crowns she'd had from me over the lst couple of months) that she's going to see about paying for me to have some work done on my lands, so it's not actually such an effective cost after all. Hurrah, and Praise be to Vleybor.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-22 05:00 pm (UTC)I bet your scalemail would have gone down well if you'd worn that though :-)
(By the way, I will reply to your email tonight if I get a chance, my character's been half written for days)
no subject
Date: 2007-03-23 11:52 am (UTC)