Good Gentles of Atenveldt,
The seneschal sends greetings and a hope that you will take a moment to read and respond to this message.
In the last two years, we have faced significant struggles in the COVID environment. Through that, and with every passing day we ask ourselves, “What next?” We wonder when things will return to some semblance of normalcy and we can greet our brethren in ways that we are familiar.
The truth is, none of us know what will happen in the future or how long this calamity that is our worldwide pandemic will last. We can’t know whether things will get worse or better or whether they will ever “go back to normal.” What we do know is that we have continued to treat our challenges as though they were temporary or would change any day now. We acted and made decisions in the moment to the best of our ability while still trying to look to the future and enjoy plans and ideas.
Through all of this time, the seneschal’s office now and through my predecessor, the crowns and their predecessor has communicated in a variety of ways. We’ve had meetings, created FAQ’s, posted in social media spaces, sometimes met in small groups here or there, and through it all have done our best to seek information, opportunities, options and preferences.
I will continue to hope, as I do every day, that by the time you read this, something will have changed and set things to right. But if they haven’t, we have created a poll to help us understand how you all prefer to approach the future. This is not a commitment to any type of democratic tally of preferences, but can certainly help guide the decisions of this office whether now, or (in all hope that this is not so) still an occurrence dealt with by my successor or the next several sets of royals and the Kingdom Financial Committee.
Please, if you would, take a moment to refresh our understanding of your needs and wishes by completing the form. We ask that you only do so after reviewing the SCA Policy proposals and options listed here: https://www.sca.org/?s=covid. Our first question is whether you are answering as an officer or as a participant. It’s important that you have the opportunity to approach this from both places, so please don’t hesitate to add a note if you answer one way based on the duties expected of your office and if you have differing opinions if you were answering from a place free from those responsibilities.
Many thanks,
Nichelle Whitewolfe
Seneschal, Kingdom of Atenveldt
