May Missive

Greetings to all,

I am very grateful to Master Ealdred for his tireless work as our Kingdom Seneschal over the past two years. I have been his deputy for a little bit over a year and he has been an amazing inspiration for how to do the job. I plan to continue his good work at increasing community and education for the Kingdom. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if there is anything that you need from me or the office.

This month I wanted to speak on community and communication. It is great to be Northshield. However, we share a struggle that is common with many volunteer organizations right now. The calendar is busy and there are many competing activities. Time and money are always a concern. We are a large kingdom with many small groups. We are a community and we need to help each other and not see events as a competition between groups, but rather an opportunity to engage with each other as one kingdom. A rising tide lifts all boats; it is a cliche, but it is true. As each small group succeeds with great events, success and joy builds across the kingdom.

Ideally, I would encourage group seneschals to post their yearly event plans to the Seneschal’s email list and Facebook page to start the conversation. Post to the Kingdom Facebook page/email list and tell us about your moots and practices so that we can play together and support each other. We can look at potential calendar conflicts before they become an issue of making people choose between two good options. Also, I would love to see more groups co-hosting events to lessen the volunteer burden.

I know the last couple months have been hard for us all. I have been cheered by the fellowship and enthusiasm that the kingdom has shown during this time. I love the enhanced online community and communication tools that have been utilized to maintain our connection. I hope that we can continue to utilize these tools in the future to share, collaborate, and build.

In service,

Alinore