Southern Region thoughts

Well - it hasn't gone away yet - and I suspect it won't, but I also don't think it will go anywhere short-term.

It is a little disconcerting that the powers that be behind this are content to disregard some facts, and then use other facts from a less successful poll to push their concerns.

The number of people that voted, in total, in their recent poll was 79.

Of which a total of 20 were from Stormhold or its groups. We were not told which way those 20 voted.
However, following the meeting when this first came up, we had in Stormhold, the following are the results that I passed along - quite detailed as you can see (in italics below).

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Hi guys - busy personal life leading to delays, but here are the numbers.

Question: "Is a SP something that SH needs to pursue and work towards at this time?"

In Favour - 7 members, 0 non-members (made up as follows:)
Members present in favour - 6
Members proxies in favour - 1
Non-Members present in favour - 0
Non-Members proxies in favour - 0

Against - 27 members, 5 non-members (made up as follows:)
Members present against - 15
Members proxies against - 12
Non-Members present against - 2
Non-Members proxies against - 3

Abstentions
members present - 2
non-members present - 1

# of Peers involved 11 (9 against, 1 in favour, 1 abstained)
Members - present - 5 (4 against, 1 in favour)
Members - proxy - 5 (all against)
Non-Members - present - 1 (abstained)

Very clear mandate to me as Baron (official or unofficial as you like it).

In service.

Hanbal
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At this stage, I still stick with the mandate I was provided by our populace.

Whilst there is quite a bit of regional identity within the Victorian groups, I don't see much at all within the region, except for the GSG.

I still have yet to see what advantages will be experienced by the Victorian Groups.

I had discussions with various peoples at Rowany Festival this year, both as a Peer of the realm, Baron of Stormhold and a free thinking SCA person - most of these discussions were with people from outside the group, and the general consensus was that the push was from a small frogs, big pond syndrome - make the pond smaller, the frogs see themselves as bigger.
I do see some of this as well.

Not only would the region need to be strong, but the Kingdom as well, if such a move was to occur and be healthy for the Kingdom.

And we are still young. We haven't been a Kingdom for even 10 years yet - so I'm really not sure what the rush is.

Anyhow - for the moment, I will sit to the side and listen to the discussions, supporting my people in their endeavours to discover clear answers to basic questions (which are not forthcoming or clear when they do).

The Lion sleeps - but beware ye who prods it too hard with a stick.