Beginning Baronial Questions

By the time you read this article, Cynnabar's first "Should We Become
a Barony" meeting of 1996 will have already occurred. But in case it
hasn't, and for those of you who couldn't make the meeting, this is
what I hope will happen on July 1st.

This meeting is to go over what steps we, as members of Cynnabar, feel
we need to do to become a Barony. This has nothing to do with what the
Kingdom wants - their needs are relatively simple, and do not concern
us at this time. Mainly, our Shire needs to decide, as a group, the
answers to the following questions:

What are the pros for us if we become a Barony?

What are the cons?

What kind of Barony do we want?

What will the roles of the Baron/Baroness be?

Do we desire term limits?

Do we want Baronial Awards?

Should the Baron/Baroness hand out Cynnabar Tabards?

Can they appoint defenders/champions?

When and how often do we have a Baronial Court?

I could go on and on with these kind of questions, and actually, that
is our job at these meetings. We need to think up these questions, brainstorm
about them, and discover answers that the group, as a whole, can accept.

How ever, the July 1st meeting will not be about answering those
questions, nor is it about asking them. For our first meeting, we
will determine an outline for the remainder of our meetings so we can
discuss the Barony issue. We need a method to determine more of the
above questions - brainstorming might be a valid method. How long
should we spend brainstorming? Then we need to discuss what we thought
up. How many meetings do we want?

Since we will most likely have one meeting a month on the Barony
subject, we will have plenty of time to think about the above
questions and determine our own individual and group answers. I
encourage everyone to talk about this subject - the more we talk
outside the meetings, the more we will accomplish during them. Also,
if you have net access, feel free to use the cynnabar@umich.edu
mailing list for conversation. Topics discussed on that forum will surely not
remain there they are important enough!

Finally, you will notice that not once did I ask the question: Who
should be the Baron or Baroness (or both) of Cynnabar. To me, this is
the very *last* question we should ask. I suggest that we first
determine the qualities of the people we want as our Baron and
Baroness. Once these qualities are determined, the choice of
who to fill these roles should be clear. I look forward to seeing
many of you at these upcoming meetings!

Last Updated: 28 June 98
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