======================= Grand Council Chronicle ======================= Issue #7 -- March 15, 1995 Contents of this issue: Bertrik: Various GC Issues Cariadoc: Local Groups, Uniformity Galen: Introduction, GC Issues Arthur: Introduction, Methods of the Corporation (tactics) Kwellend (fwd): Chronicle circulation Caroline: Additional Members Chosen and 2 Other Issues Barbary (fwd): GC Issues Myrdin: Centralization/Decentralization, other issues This is the Grand Council Chronicle, the proceedings of the Grand Council of the Known World, a body chartered to examine the structure of the Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc., and make recommendations of changes. The contents represent the opinions of the contributing authors, and do not necessarily represent the official policies of the SCA, Inc. ---------------------------------------- From the Secretary's Desk: A small thing -- if you have a particular subject for your message, that you would like to see in the Contents list at the top of the issue, please prepend "GC:" to it, and use that as the subject line of your message. I've been meaning to mention this for a while; if people send me meaningful Subject: lines, then I don't have to decide myself how to summarize your message for the Contents list. Makes my life just a teensy bit easier, and it means you get to decide how the message gets listed. It's been well over a month, and I haven't gotten any strenuous objections to my original proposals for editing this digest (and considerably more agreement than disagreement), so I'm basically going to run things as proposed. Summarizing those proposals again: -- Board Members will be able to post to the GC Chronicle just as GC members do. However, they do not "vote" (if we ever figure out what that means), since they get the final decision anyway. -- GC Members will receive the Chronicle by email if they have it, and by postal mail if they do not. -- Non-GC members will have full access to the Chronicle, via mailing list, FTP, Gopher, WWW, and postal subscription, insofar as is feasible. -- The Chronicle will take the form of a once-a-week digest of all messages sent by members of the GC. -- The editor can "reality-check" flames, but does not have the power to reject them outright. Hopefully this won't be needed much. -- When messages are clearly redundant, the editor can combine them, but should list all of the people who made the point. If any of them object, their full messages go in. This is mainly intended to keep the volume down; I probably won't bother until and unless we get more traffic. Regardless, this should always be done sparingly, and err on the side of caution. -- For now, I'm not going to bother grouping topics. It would be a significant amount of work on my part, and support for the idea was lukewarm. -- We will allow people to produce summaries of the doings of the GC, but with a few caveats. -- Non-GC members will not be able to post to the Chronicle directly, but members of the GC will be encouraged to pass on any and all useful and relevant messages. I prefer that non-members send proposed submissions to other members of the GC than me, just so I don't have to make all the decisions. -- Reminder: I plan on printing the addresses of all of the original Council members *next week* unless you object. If you have already sent information other than your address to the Chronicle, I will assume that it's intended for general contact distribution, and will include it. -- The GC should, insofar as possible, be self-supporting; *everyone*, but particularly members of the Council, is urged to do a little fundraising to make this happen. -- Justin ---------------------------------------- From: Bart Orbons Subject: Re: Grand Council Chronicle #5 Date: Wed, 8 Mar 1995 03:19:06 +0100 (MET) Hia all again, greeetings from Bertrik with his thoughts on the GC discussions going on. Justin, asks whether we are interested in an automatic polling system... Alltough I don't object to such an automated system, I do see some problem with it... What do we do with the not -electronically conected GC members... I don't know whether simply tallying is easier, in fact.. But, if we find a sollution for the not connected GC-members, I would not object agains an automated system.. Justin Proposes a more fundamental approach to the discussion going on: I really like that... We do need to worry what the society is for, and what the corporation is for, and how these two interact before we can start discussing the subject of HOW we should reform the corporation (or the society). I am realy vary much into favoring the break thte problemin as many sub problems as possible, and then try work it into solutions... But.. Also here I would like to continue stressing the point that we first need to address the internal structure of the GC itself before we can think about restructuring the corporation or the society. But I will get back on that subject... >Author: donna@Kwantlen.BC.CA (Donna Hrynkiw) at CCGTWINT >Bertrik:Re: How to get consensus -- voting and such. >Is a consensus absolutely necessary? Why not just talk about a topic until >it's clear what the hard-and-fast opinions are and then if a consensus >is obviously not going to happen, send ALL the opinions to the Board. Oh, you make a good point... It is certainly an option, but.. I do favor working to a solution, and I want to try to work to a firmer concensus, and then send All the opinions to the board might be considered as an easy way out... And I think we should try harder than that.. But, as I said, If thinks clearly don't work out.. It is certainly an option. I think I would let it depend on the weight of the item under discussion... >Determining when the discussion is either dying or going in circles: appoint >a "chair" or "facilitator" for each major topic. They determine when it's >time to wrap things up and determine the consensus statement. Is a option, I think... But it leans a littlebit to a guided discussion, and requires at least some cooperation of the persons participating in the discussion... (Are two major topics running at the same time? What if the discussion goes to an intermediate option? I can see that this can in some cases leads to confusion... Other people ideas? >Allow only the GC members to directly write in the GC Chronicle. Allow the >Board and IAC members to send their comments to the GC members just the way >anyone else does. Allow anyone to listen, but only GC members to talk. Yes, but... I consider it as a friendly gesture that we consider their words when they say something... Serwyl ap Morgan writes: >STOP!!! >I have a sinking feeling that we are already getting out of >control. Why are we starting on policy discussions when we have >neither a full complement of members nor any agreement on how to >reach decisions? It seems to me that without action on either of >these issues we cannot and should not start with the real work of >the council. Our first priority has to be getting our own house in >order. Thanks god I am not the only one feeling that way... Alltough I can understand the haste that some have in getting the discussion started, I am hoping that we all wanted to build some solid (With that I mean, excisting past the date of jan 1997) organ out of this grand Councel. I would want to see this councel discussing the long term canges needed in the society, and I want that to be something that continues to go on, after the current problems might get settled in the future. We have two year time to get something worked out. I think that a delay of a month in getting ourself well defined, and settling down on a mode of operation. The grand Council needs to get respected as some organ of the society that is a precence. Is usefull, is solid and has a thoughtful mind. I dont consider rushing of in a premature discussion any of the above. Quite the oposite actually. I think it is even harmful for our reputation. I hear someone say: HOW can they advise US. They don't even know hwo they gotten to that advise. So: let me put out an PROPOSAL: We freeze the discussion on the restructuring of the society for a month, and in those four chronicles we start building up a discussion how the GC should function. >3. The Chronicle- I am having some problems with the current [...] >access to quick commenting. To even the playing field, why don't >we go to a bi-monthly schedule? I don't think this a bad idea.. I don't know how many non-email GC members there are (or there will be after completion), but I this might indeed be a considerable problem. Allways being one issue later than the rest is not fair for them... (If the non-E-Mail GC member is living herein europe, then things are even worse: Thereis an average mail time of 3-5 work days within europe. So... Chances are the mail does not reach the person involved before the next GC-chronicle is out allready. So replying with the day, and then crossing fingers you will make the deadline for the next issue.. Not certainly skipping one issue, but almost certainly missing two issues... >7. A suggested list of Priorities: > > A. Bring the GC up to full strength > > B. Set our administrative guidelines > > C. Establish a mission statement YES! Well.. to keep in the spirit of Dani of the seven wells's summary.. again nothing but administrative discussion... But with Reason... Yours in service, Bertrik ---------------------------------------- From ddfr@midway.uchicago.edu Thu Mar 9 22:01:33 1995 Subject: Submission to GC Chronicle Gareth writes: "I think that Cariadoc believes (please correct me if I don't have this right) that if a local group is not serving the needs of its members, that market forces will drive the group (or at least the leadership) into obscurity and that new groups will spring up to serve the needs of those neglected." That is essentially correct. I would add two points. 1. A group may do a good job of serving the needs of some members but not others, in which case the best solution may be two groups. Since they do not have to fight over who is running *the group* there should be less hostility than presently occurs when a members have sharply differing ideas of what they want. 2. I would rely on both market forces and small group dynamics. It is a lot easier to keep track of what everyone wants in a group of 25 than in a group of 25,000. It is also more obvious and more unpleasant when half the members are unhappy with how the group is being run in the smaller group, since you are actually dealing with them in person on a regular basis. We had one seneschal who, during his brief tenure, managed to antagonize about two-thirds of the membership. We had no legal power to get rid of him--but he resigned. The equivalent effect when the Board angers large parts of the membership seems to be slower and less certain. Gareth writes: "I fear that healthy groups are difficult to form, certain beneficial community resources are limited and that without some sort of oversight, it would be too easy for a small group of people to effectively exclude other members from active participation." People form households, which are essentially small groups, all the time. I am not sure what community resources you are thinking of--I would think our main resource is people. So far as a small group effectively excluding others, they cannot exclude others from the Society if the others are free to form their own group. A small group could refuse to play with others if it wants--and can now. It seems to me that the danger of a small group excluding others is much greater with the present centralized arrangement. To take an extreme case, a little over a year ago a very small group--four or five Board members--decided to exclude a majority of the participants from the Society. They eventually backed partway down--but their decision continues to pressure local groups to exclude via the surcharge, whether or not the local groups want to. This is an unusual case, but situations where someone near the top has made a decision binding on people at the bottom without any serious attempt to learn their views have been common in the history of the Society (examples on request). The fundamental problem, in my view, is that the power has to be somewhere. If you give the kingdom or the Corporation the power to control the levels below them, in order that they can keep those levels from imposing on their members, you are also giving the kingdom or the corporation the power to impose on the levels below them. There is no way of giving power only to do good, unfortunately. But putting the power at the lowest level does reduce the ability to do evil. I think Gareth is probably right that we have similar objectives, although, given the diversity of the Society, it is hard to be sure without a very long discussion. In part our disagreement may be based on differing views of mundane political theory. In part it may be based on the different viewpoints we have gotten from our different lives in the Society. As is probably obvious, I agree with Gareth that we might as well start talking now, and let people feed into the ongoing conversation as they arrive. Serwyl ap Morgan reresponds to various of my responses to his arguments which I misattributed to Myrddin (seen from the Maghreb, all Welshmen look similar). I apologise if I misstated what he meant, but I remain unsure why the differences he observes between the SCA and other groups are relevant to the question of whether an organizational form that works for them would work for us. He also writes: "One good thing about the Corporate structure, as much as we may malign it: It keeps us pulling in the same basic direction." I think it far from clear that this is true. There is a lot of diversity within the Society--I think as much (insofar as you can compare such things) as in hobbies that are much more decentralized (compare diversity of dances between us and international folk dancing, for example). And to the extent we have uniformity, most of it does not seem to come from the Corporate structure. The Corporation imposes very little uniformity on how we play the game (more than it should, in my view, but not much). Most of the similarity across groups seems to come from wars, migration, networking--all the ways in which people get exposed to each other's view of how things are done. Of course, I may be misunderstanding what Serwyl means by "pulling in the same basic direction." David/Cariadoc David Friedman ddfr@midway.uchicago.edu ---------------------------------------- From: sir.galen.k@dobharchu.org (Galen Bevel) Date: 08 Mar 95 23:54:02 -0600 Subject: GC Chronicle By way of introduction let me say that Sir Galen Kirchenbauer is a 12-13th Century Teutonic Knight who has spent many years travelling. I have been in the SCA for 11years, held several local offices, done some autocratting and served a term as the kingdom seneschal of Ansteorra. Galen Bevel is a Field Service Engineer for Beckman Instruments living in Houston Texas. He has also spent years travelling, performing what seems like arcane rites on mystical objects such as DNA synthesizers and protein sequencers. A lot of good, basic primary ideas are already coming out of this group, and while I agree that we should not wait for a complete set of operating rules, I do think we need to try to choose a direction for our discussions, rather than taking off in all directions at once. There are enough people in this group for it to become completely unmanagable if too many different discussions go on at once. I believe that three of the basic ideas I have seen put forth so far need to be given priority at this time: 1- We need a full roster of the Council. I mean this in the sense that all of the seats need to be full, and that we need a published list of the members. I would like to know who I am talking too/with out there. 2- I like the idea of getting something like an organizational chart of the society. By this I mean that we need to know specifics of exactly what each corporate officer does to fufill their duties. Perhaps this should/could later be extended on down the ladder to kingdom level officers , etc. We need to know what work is being done know before deciding if that work is worth continuing, or altering. 3- The "mission statement". Simply stating that people in different areas play the game differently begs the question. We still need some sort of idea what game it *is* that they are playing differently. We must have some clear, specific idea of what it is that we are to accomplish with our discussions. When we have sorted through these three items I believe that we will have a more firm basis for discussions on whatever ideas people may have for re-creating or Society. Sir Galen Eadwin Kirchenbauer c/o Galen W. Bevel 9922 Kirkwren Houston, Tx 77089 sir.galen.k@dobharchu.org ---------------------------------------- Sender: arthur dent Subject: By way of Introduction By way of introduction Scott Keyes AKA Arthur The Dented a recent addition to the Grand Council Sends greetings AND a rather long introduction on the theory that its always good to know the people you work with and thier attitudes in general regarding the work at hand.... 1) my three persona 2) an Autobio 3) my general feeling about the society (its a bit long so you may just want to jump to the end...) my Future postings will be brief and VERY topic specific Greetings From Arthur, son of Ron, son of Rayn. I was born in the shadow of the Black Mountain In the marches twixt England and Wales On the 13 day of march in the Year reckoned as 964. My Grandfather Rayn was an honest farmworker who got Lucky. When serving in the Fyrd he took as spoils the Gold rings, hauberk and sword of a wealthy but foolish Welshman... He used this good fortune to become a blacksmith in Hereford. As a clever artificer, he passed his skill to his son Ron, who married the Welshwoman Nest and Built Ronstead, A modest hall and outbuildings in a tiny box canyon on the Northwest slopes the Black mountain about five miles east of Arthur's Stone, and about 18 miles west of Hereford. Near my 17th birthday a Norseman with a keen mind, an excellent sense of humor, and a great deal of martial skill settled nearby. I took an informal service with him and learned a great deal about the world, and law ( which I had already shown facility in) and War. I sailed away from Ronstead in year 984 and after several years of details I wont bore you with made my way to the Known World... It was A.S. XV then as I recall when I fetched up on the shores of Lyondemere in the Kingdom of Caid... Greetings Also From: Arthur of Thornfield styled "the Dented" (For obvious reasons having to do with the condition of his Armor...) I was born in the year of our lord 1464 in the county of Herefordshire under the Shadow of the black mountain, as a member of an ancient but undistinguished family who had resided since time immemorial in Thornfield hall. always considered to be of gentle birth, and since an ancestor and namesake of mine had fought at Agincourt, we had at least the trappings of nobility. We had always contributed our share of members to the various commissions that ran the shire, and for centuries had never missed a the call of the king. It wasn't distinguished service, but it was steady and loyal. Of course there was that gap, early in my lifetime when none of us had any IDEA who of the claimants we could in conscience serve, so we just carried on our local duties, and mostly minded our own business. That changed with Edward's ascension to the throne which was followed by many years when we not only knew who was king, but had one that was also SANE. My bad fortune was to come of age under Richard... who to a few o us was neither tyrant nor blackguard, but crowned King... Lets just say 1485 was a bad year for me, since then I've had no truck with Crowned heads except to give em their due and no more, and shortly there after, after a few years of details with which I shant bore you, I found myself in the Known World in the Shire of Windy Meads of the Kingdom of the West. That would have Been A.S. XXIV or thereabouts... Since then I've moved to the East , had that AOA I'd been dodging forever pinned on me and split my residence twixt Rusted Woodlands, The Marwick-ed, and Occasionally the Swamp..TWO of my ancestors are about, but given the bizarre nature of the known world this doesn't surprise me. And Greeting ALSO from Arthur of Thornfield. born in 1564, former resident of Chipping under Oakwood. Originally of Noble blood and impoverished means. The world became a better place for me when I began business as a messenger for the Younger but wealthier houses... (it had gotten pretty bleak there for a while) and I've since gone from being barely distinguishable from a seadog, to again being fit for noble company... (though I still spend most of my time at a gaming house of modest reputation called "the Innyard". Simply enough... being a messenger I am very well traveled in both the new world and the Old, but I occasionally get lost in between. There are TWO of my less than illustrious ancestors here (it was 1594 when I last saw Chipping under Oakwood, but I have some hopes to return in time for the Autumn Faire) I and my "relatives" here have had discussions about the exact workings of this place called the known world. My great-great is of the opinion that either he's made it to Valhalla or that more likely, tales of Valhalla are distorted travelers stories of this place. My more recent relative is vaguely of the opinion that we've gone "Underhill" and that WE have become the fairie court under the hill... He always was the romantic in the family... Me? I still don't know just why Apples always fall (I've started on a theory though...) Until I can come up with something rational though I'll just keep quiet about this place when I'm back in England and spin tales of Cyclopean Monopeds and the like. they're just as likely to be believed and less likely to get me in trouble... Lastly Greetings from Scott Keyes Raised in NJ, emigrated to LA where he hooked up with the SCA in highschool Majored in Medieval Studies at the University of California at Davis, but but eventually got my degree in history cuz I couldn't manage Latin... I've been a Chief Financial Officer, a member of the Board of Directors, in several cases General Manager of non-profit associations and corporations After a few years of the sort of hassles and headaches we are now looking to eliminate, I moved east to pursue the trade I learned at my fathers elbow and focused on Foxpro Development. I'm now The I.S. Director of a mildly wacky group of folks at a pharmaceuticals GPO. As to me and the SCA: When I was a LOT younger and more naive, I came for the glory. I rejoiced to serve. To give and receive loyalty. I even started with some degree of reverence for "the crown" which lasted about until I learned to trust my own eyes at a crown tourney (video tapes helped too) When I was a little older than that I still came because the people of the Known World are my people. There's a lot that doesn't need explaining within the society because it's shared... even when jaded the gallantry, the romantic leanings, and of course the fact there's not many other places you can casually talk about Njals Saga and "the Cattle Raid" outside of a university lit department , and they aren't as much fun by a WIDE margin. In the end, I come to the Known world for ALL it has to offer. I'd love to play in persona more, but like other dancing, or fighting or other enjoyments its not easy to do alone. I've done a considerable amount of research, woven my own chainmail, done my own leather doublet and delved deeply into the emerging soul of the western world *BUT* I also enjoy a lot of our most UN authentic moments and never forget that it is only a *GAME*, that I have no desire to "go back", but have things I would like to "bring forward"... which is why I would sorely miss our own ANACHRONISMS if they were to go away More especially I'd miss out on the people I sometimes hear about excluding because they aren't interested in working THAT hard on authenticity. I've noticed that when I volunteer to clean up and stay at it till 3am , or work from 6pm to midnight Friday to set up an event and come back at 8am Saturday to finish, or spend a few hours working troll, , that few people think to ask for a "blue card". I am an active and contributing member to the Society. I look forward to the day when I can in good conscience be a member of the SCA inc. as well. It'll be cheaper and a LOT more convenient. I'll post GC business specific stuff soon THOSE I'll keep short... With pleasure at joining the Council And a Wary (and experienced) eye to our mighty and crucial task Scott Keyes Who is often known to his friends as Arthur The Dented Arthur The Dented or Arthur The Dented ---------------------------------------- [Approved by Justin; this is from Kwellend, who maintains the mailing list.] From: vnend@Princeton.EDU (D. W. James) Date: Sun, 12 Mar 1995 11:04:18 EST Subject: Re: SCAGC-L Someone in the latest digest asked how many people were subscribed to the list. Listproc currently reports 154 addresses subscribed. David [Plus five or ten who are getting it by postal mail. -- Justin] ---------------------------------------- Sender: arthur dent Subject: Methods of the Corporation(tactics) [The following is several messages from Arthur, edited together by me. -- Justin] * Methods of the Corporation (tactics) ** REVENUE The services the corporation provides is primarily mailing lists and insurance coverage for events, I believe we should tie our revenues to our services instead of subsidizing the corp with "membership" taxes ** The Mailing List (FUTURE) The mailing list is a, if not THE primary corporate asset... In my opinion, it could easily be used to provide more DESIRED services for those on it, and more revenue for the SCA Inc. WITHOUT tieing it to membership... EXAMPLE 1 A Medieval Yellow Pages... While only a Kamikaze pilot would suggest SELLING the membership list, OFFERING as an additional service to those on the mailing list (for additional cost of course), a publication which has a FREE but minimal listing to, say, anybody who's rented booth space at a certain number of SCA events, but which of course SELLS more eye catching ad space to merchants, would be a service valued by MANY merchants, and MANY members. The fact that it would provide revenue at BOTH ends (from contributing merchants, and recieving members) is NOT incedental... EXAMPLE 2 INTEREST SPECIFIC interregional publications: a newsletters for for SPECIFIC interests (such as Fighting, Dancing, brewing, Illumination, autocrating, seneschalate, Marshalling, exchequer, feastocrating, archery, and others NOT TO MENTION things like VIKING QUARTERLY, and other time/place/personna specific,ones for Celtic,Saxon,Norman, Scots,Islamic, or French personna of the 9th/12/15th or whatever period... THIS IS DESIREABLE BECAUSE: 1)It furthers the educational goal of the SCA by getting information from those who have it SPECIFICALY to those who want it. 2) By providing inter-regional Forums it fosters the sort of inter-regional peer groups (yes, in both senses of the word) and common cultures/communications that bring us together more effectively than any structure/legislation ever could. 3) It would provide needed revenues for the corporation in exchange for services to those on a mailing list in a manner more likely to provoke a profound "thank you" than another revolt. THIS IS EASY BECAUSE: 1) The research is already being done, but being of specific, rather than general interest it winds up either unpublished, or published in a general interest LOCAL publication of whose subscibers only a handful give it a passing glance... 2)The corp need merely find an editor, offer the options as check-boxes on membership/subscription forms, and Like mosts busineses, pay for submissions used+ out of house production costs. Assuming that they keep it simple (B/W copies on folded paper, like most local newsletters) the corp should be able to keep a reasonable skim and still offer subscriptions at low prices ( annual cost of $10 TOPS for quarterlies as a saddleback est.(probably more like $5, and $15-20 for monthlies) 3) There SHOULD BE no technical problems with this from the database/label production end. I'm a proffesional Foxpro Developer and there is no GOOD reason this should be AT ALL difficult which would bring me to my next topic... ** The Current Mailing list (Technical Issues) Subject: For GCC #7 Date: Tue, 14 Mar 1995 07:26:24 -0600 (CST) What's next? I agree with Justin that the GC has a "real danger of never getting enough momentum to go anywhere". First order of business: get up to full strength. Is there any report on the progress of picking the rest of the members? (I am not exactly disinterested in the outcome of this.) While you wait for that (I hope not long) I think you could start collecting various game plans of what you want to do once you "officially" start: what topics, what subcommittees, etc. Once you have a full complement you can chose from among the possibilities. Barbary de Folo / Julie Watkins / julifolo@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu PS: good comments, Justin, on how/why we stick together and the (non-)success of the central administration dictating the game to kingdoms. ---------------------------------------- From: Michael G. Potter (Sir Myrdin the Just) Re: Centralization/Decentralization, other issues email: potterm1@iia.org I am still trying to decide just how centralized the SCA is right now, but there are some areas that I believe should remain centralized. 1. The Board of Directors Although there may be a better way to determine Board membership than is currently being used, I like the idea of having a group that can make decisions on the broad direction of the SCA and to be the ultimate group to appeal decisions to. I also feel that this central group serves as an important check and balance to the decentralized nature of the SCA. 2. Membership services I believe in a centralized membership list. I feel that is important that all paying members receive TI and that it would be inefficient for each kingdom to maintain their own subscription mailing lists for their kingdom newsletters. Rather than create a new "mailing list" administrative person in each kingdom (I don t think that it could be easily added to the duties of the Chronicler, especially since incompatible computers are often used and the office changes hands fairly often). The centralized list also makes it easier to track such things as growth, renewal rates, and provides a resource that can be used to send out mass mailing to all members when this is needed. It also is an asset that can be rented out to earn money for the corporation to help to fund corporate activities (I m not a huge fan of junk mail, but I find that if the advertisements are for items that I m interested in, suddenly it s not really junk mail to me). The membership list could be improved by adding "non-paying" members to it. This would be especially useful when a mailing to all participants of the SCA is needed. 3. Insurance Although I have often heard that many kingdoms feel that they could obtain insurance for a lower cost, I feel that by having a central purchase of insurance, the average cost per member would be lower. 4. Martial and Heraldic standards The Society-wide minimums for armor and weapons provide a good grounding for the martial activities in each kingdom. The heraldic database is an excellent example of a fee based service that serves all participants. These are just the items that I feel strongly about keeping centralized. In my work as an auditor, I see the power of "empowerment" or moving decision making to the lowest level possible (decentralization), but I also have seen the real need for review and supervision by a centralized organization and the leverage that one centralized organization for administrative items (such as the membership list) could provide. Other issues I am worried about discussing issues now before our roster is complete. Although Justin feels that we have not produced all that much paper (comparing it to a day s output in the Usenet newsgroup on the Internet (believe it or not, 'Rialto' isn t that common a word)), I think that the total may have already exceeded 100 pages. That is a lot to wade through, and I m worried that excellent discussion topics such as Cariadoc s decentralization proposal may not get the attention they deserve. The Usenet newsgroup may produce much more, but I do not have a vested interest or responsibility for what is posted there and I can skim read it selecting only those subjects that appeal to me. I feel that I must read every page of the Grand Council Chronicle. In case someone wants to mail something to me, my address is: Michael G. Potter 121 Westview Terrace Rochester, NY 14620 I have discovered that there is another Michael G. Potter' in the Rochester phone book. That isn t me, and I don t have my own number in Rochester, so please use the method below if you want to phone me. My job is so high travel that calling 201-455-2815 and leaving a message is the best way to reach me. If you have access to the internet, finger potterm1@iia.org usually results in where I currently am including the phone number. ----------------------------------------