2003-12-12 - 3:22 p.m.

Wow, 22 days without an entry...you'd think I've been busy or something.

Well...I have been, but that's beside the point.

Being Golden Dolphin Herald is almost over. The files are gone, the "Golden Boy, the Sentinel of Service" suit is folded up and put in the back of the closet, and about all that is left is cleaning up some final paperwork and the official turnover at 12th Night.

I'd like to believe I've done a good job. No, I wasn't perfect, noone ever is, but I'd like to believe my mistakes were from a sense of wanting to make things better and easier for the customer(submitter) as opposed to the "Heraldic Cabal".

How'd I do? Ehh...at least everything got handled correctly, if it got to my door. The USPS lost more submissions than they should have, chalk that up to "Rule #1 of being a Submissions Herald, rent a PO Box", I guess.

Most of what I sent up got registered. As I expected, my armory skills were adequate to the task, but my name skills, not so much. Still, though, most names got registered, even if with changes for authenticity. Good enough for me, mostly.

By and in large all of my returns were accurate and correct. Noone made a successful appeal against my decision, and the two that were made both showed that I was correct. That's good, I guess.

I wish I'd had more staff, but that's what I get for being out in Dinwiddie.

I wish I'd been able to make the electronic commentary work better, but chalk that up to "best laid plans of mice and men". Hopefully Alisoun will be able to take what I've started and make it stick.

She has an advantage I didn't...she has more time to mess with that stuff.

So what did I learn? In terms of Period Naming or Armory, not much. In terms of politics in the SCA, more, but still not enough. In terms of insight into myself, plenty.

It'll be so nice to be able to go to an event and say "Why yes, I'm doing nothing more than fighting in the tournament and helping mop the floor of the feasthall after the event" again. Two years of being too exhausted from work between events to actually *enjoy* the events has taken it's toll.

Next year it's time for the Inner Stick Jock (and/or Wire Weenie) to come out and play. Maybe with some metalcasting and papermaking thrown in for completeness, but that's what I wanna do.

Of course, that'll last until about, oh March, when I start doing the "Okay, what can I do to help?" bit again.

Which, really, is what this is all about right? It's not about the recognition (although it is nice to feel like folks care about what you're doing), it's not about the people (although most of them are nice). It's not about the endless arguments over why we do what we do and how we should do it (those aren't nice, but hey, it keeps me busy). It's about being able to say "Wow, I did this".

So, in short...wow, I did this.

And hey, if this all had gone according to the *original* plan, I'd just be getting ready to step *up* to the job, rather than just stepping down...seeing as how the original plan was to understudy to the Golden Dolphin soas to learn the job before doing it. Unfortuantely, noone else volunteered (well, not completely true, one other person did, but he backed off as soon as my candidacy was established as serious).

So, in short (yeah, I know, too late)...it's over Jim, stick a fork in me I'm done, hasta la vista, so long and thanks for all the fish.

(Hey, it's what Golden Dolphin Heralds eat).

One other benefit of stepping down, I won't have to explain "No, I don't have a Golden Dolphin, I'm the Golden Dolphin Herald" anymore. Now I'm just plain Lord Gorm, simple Viking seaman who happens to play rapier on occasion too. There's something appealing about that.

See ya all on the field starting in February, if not sooner :)

�

previous - next

�