What do you feel the Barony does well?

All that being said, what Carolingia really does best is Rise to the Occasion. When the populace wants something -- whether its a commedia del arte troupe, a kingdom level (or even worldwide) event, or thrown weapons practice -- they make it happen. We are good at being determined to get what we want as individuals, without compromising what other people in the barony may want. We work well together and we play well together. The cantons, which in some places function completely independently, work well with the parent barony. The different groups within the barony settle their differences amicably and without rancor. When called upon to do something, either by the royalty, a neighboring group, or by ourselves, we are capable of pulling together and doing it. Carolingia is famous in The East -- and the whole of the world -- not because of the efforts of the few, but because of the efforts of many, many Carolingians. We feel pretty lucky to live here, and we'd like to give something back to the barony.

-- Doing Period Seriously. That doesn't mean the mythical authenticity-police thing, but rather that, IMO, Carolingia does better than anywhere else I know at following *my* guideline for authenticity: "Everyone should be as period as they conveniently can". It leaves a lot of room for interpretation, which is intentional -- I don't think there is a single one-size-fits-all standard appropriate for the SCA, and everyone has their own priorities. But I think most people here take the idea of period seriously, and make a genuine effort. That's a real strength, especially in the aggregate.

-- Experimentation. While Carolingia has a lot of traditions, we don't have nearly as many sacred cows as many places do. When someone suggests a new idea, the response tends to be, "Sure -- go for it". That helps prevent us becoming boring, and I think keeps things far more lively. And I'm quite proud of the number of ideas that started in Carolingia, which have since become commonplace in the Society.

-- Mixing Energy with Experience. The combination of the Boroughs (providing a constant influx of new enthusiasm) with a large pool of old hands gives us a distinctive character, a sort of creative tension that helps us produce more cool stuff than most places can manage. Many SCA branches are basically the same people year after year, which can lead to a certain staleness. Carolingia is many things, but stale is rarely one of them.

We provide a good environment for activities and events to occur. The barony places minimal restrictions on who can autocrat an event, what type of event they can do, or what activities can occur at that event. As a result we have a tradition of many interesting events covering a wide range of activities.

The guild structure provides a good support structure for many arts and science activities. Although individual guilds and activities may go through cycles of activity and inactivity, in general there is plenty to do. Almost anyone who wants to organize an activity or meeting, can. And Carolingia supports and produces performance arts like no where else.

I think Carolingia has a reasonable balance in its "patriotic fervor" if you will. People can choose to act as Carolingians and support Carolingia as an entity, or choose to act independently and can make that choice for each activity. It is not an all or nothing proposition.

Carolingia provides an environment for independent growth that is relatively rare in the SCA. You do not have to be a member of a household, apprenticed to someone, or squire to someone in order to do things here or in order to receive recognition. Now households, squires, apprentices and proteges can be excellent and useful things, but I like it that it is not *required* in order to be someone in Carolingia. Many of the "homegrown" Laurels (ie. never apprenticed to someone) I know of come from Carolingia. Homegrown peers are unheard of in some other parts of the kingdom.

Due to Aquel and Johanna's hard work, I think that at the moment the barony is, for such a large group, a relatively welcoming and encouraging place. Aquel and Johanna demonstrate their personal interest in the people of the barony, especially those entering or leaving. I would like to see this welcoming and friendly attitude continue in the next baronial coronet(s).

In summary, I think Carolingia is a fabulous place to be and I love it here.

Theater is one of my own particular activities, and I've heard repeatedly over the years how other groups cannot conceive of doing full-length Shakespeare plays as SCA events, by and for SCA members, or of doing truly improvisational commedia dell'arte performances the way i Sebastiani do. The Waytes have attained a level of skill and professionalism that makes them set the standard across most of the kingdom (and beyond, via Pennsic). The Poulet Gauche strives for higher and higher levels of authenticity and total immersion each time it's held, and does so without leaving people behind but rather meeting the challenge of the rising bar. Carolingia was one of the first groups in the East to develop archery as a group activity, and still there are always Carolingians in the top of every kingdom archery list; similarly with thrown weapons (but you'd know that better than I). Hurley is a very recent example of an activity that (within Carolingia) came out of nowhere to becoming some people's main area of involvement, and to a level where we're challenging the people who developed it first.

It's not so much these activities in particular - and there are so many, many more (look, I left out dance as a Carolingian activity!) - but the *number* of them that most impresses me. Sure, individual activities wax and wane in number of participants and level of involvement, but there's always so many that are at a high level at any time. That's what makes Carolingia truly amazing, by my lights.

The vast number of guilds and groups encourages people to play in every area that they find of interest and is one of the greatest strengths of this Barony. Travel to other baronies and listen to their activity list, most of which occurs on one night and includes fighting/fencing and dance and a bit of sewing on the side. The do not have the wealth of knowledge and activites that we do. Revel in the fact that we do have this many activities!

In general, we'd like to continue the same confident pace of the group while continuing to encourage new activities and diverse events. Yeliz is keen on making sure we keep the various Baronial champions up to date, and perhaps sponsoring some new ideas to involve other non-martial groups more - maybe more A&S opportunities. Marian brought up the period Olympics in Council, which sounds wonderful. We had already been discussing a sort of decathalon idea, and finding a period reference is great.

We love the variety of Carolingian pursuits; to us, the diversity of activities is what brings so many people together. We'd try not to change anything that people think is going well, but we'd like even more people to have even more fun! The Baron and Baroness can act as the focal point to get communication flowing between the barony's groups, and that could bring interesting new things.