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Harvest festival
Oct. 22nd, 2012 11:02 amI had a great time with Marian cooking a feast for Harvest festival (about 60 people). Marian is a fabulous planner- we had no rushing around the entire day. However, after being on my feet for nearly 12 hours I'm exhausted (and so is she). So I was really disappointed to come home and find a scathing email about not just the event but every bite of food. However, everyone else has told us how good it was (not that I take any credit, I was just a minion doing what I was told). I had a small taste of most things and I don't understand the complaint so I'm just going to chalk it up to someone who doesn't understand the medieval palate and the work that goes into preparing a feast and running an event.
It has sparked a dialogue on the list but not too much flaming.
His original post:
"I wanted to express my feelings about the recent festival I attended today and night. I borrowed an outfit for myself and my lady a few days ago and anticipated going to a great festival. I have to say that I've never been so insulted so much in the period of one day as I was today at your festival.
People were very cold and distant to me and my lady. No one wanted to speak to us but instead stuck their noses up at us as if we didn't belong. While outside with my lady one of your lady members went out and was talking crap to a man then she admitted she was being a bitch and was in a bad mood. This same woman went around giving out cupcakes to everyone she knew but ignored the Newcomers, us. Throughout the day there was far too much down time between events. I was extremely bored the entire time spent at your harvest festival. Later that night one of your people made an announcement to the whole group about some newcomers while warmly presenting them a gift for newcomers. We told her we were newcomers also but she said she'd get to us next time. The food was bland at times and had a horrible taste at other times. I tried to go and talk to people but most ignored me. One lady came to our table and inquired as to how we felt about the event. I informed her of my extreme dissatisfaction but she had a very cold attitude toward me. She stated we were not newcomers at all so weren't entitled to anything. How many of you have seen me at ANY of your events? She then told me we had to try to talk to people, that they had to warm up to us. She then ignored us to discuss the project of a 12 year old which was a further slap in the face. I told her how did you expect to get new people into your group if you treat them this way and do you want it to remain stagnant without new people coming in. She stated that the person who normally greets new people wasn't there.
Don't even bother to apologize for this insult. You announced that you were happy to have the other newcomers there, presented them with a gift but totally ignored us. I had planned to join your group but after this NEVER WILL!!!"
The truth is a little skewed in his email and unfortunately, the queen literally meant she would get to them later in the event but when she called them up they had left. Conversations with the people he described in his email indicated a rather different conversation but interpretation is everything. The crabby woman who later gave out cupcakes had been in a car that was backed over by a dump truck three days previously, she was in pain and yes, cranky but understandably so.
I posted but it didn't do any good because he'd already left the list.
"How unfortunate that you felt so unwelcomed at our event.
Allow me to introduce myself and tell you how I spent my day. My name is Mauera Cethin and I've been in the SCA since 1998. I joined the SCA three years after being in a car accident that has left me with a permanent and often debilitating back injury. I don't believe we met because I was in the kitchen for 11 hours yesterday helping to prepare the feast. Marian and I started the prep work for this feast by canning food donated by the Barony over the last few months. Very little of what was served was commercially prepared and Marian planned the menu around the donations. She also went out of her way to provide gluten and dairy free options for those who needed it. Most of the menu was prepared from scratch to the specification of redacted period recipes. Medieval recipes are a bit like a foreign cuisine, you develop a taste for them or you don't, but they almost always taste a bit odd to a novice palate. Marian made pie crusts from scratch, enough for probably twice as many people as we served; we made the extras into the pie crust cookies. She started cooking Friday. She was in the kitchen before 9:00 yesterday. Together we, with a handful of helpers, worked all day to prepare lunch and dinner. We ate after you did at lunch time, to make sure everyone had a chance to eat. We missed all the classes that were provided and the court during dinner. We made sure dinner was ready on time and set out so the servers could easily take the food to the tables. Then we waited for you to eat so that we could feed the food that came back from your table to ourselves and the kitchen crew (Truly! We kept no food in the kitchen to serve to ourselves). But honestly, we were so tired we didn't feel like eating. Instead we spent another two hours cleaning the kitchen before we could go home and rest. We did this because we love our barony, we love to serve, and we enjoy watching people enjoy the fruits of our labors. I have no complaints about how I spent my day and I am not asking for validation from anyone for my voluntary service.
Today I will be taking it easy and taking some meds so that I can move. I know Marian will do the same. Thursday, Marian is having surgery for a herniated disc.
I am not going to offer an apology because I can think of no way I could have done more to serve you.
I hope you will reconsider your words and your vitriol. No insult was meant by anyone in the Barony, of that I am sure.
Mauera"
I tried to be gentle but help him to understand the work that went into the "bland" and "horrible" food. If you can't appreciate the offering you at least appreciate the service that goes into it. Apparently, this is a foreign concept. However, this message was insulting, rude, and horribly upsetting to me (and Marian, I think, but I won't speak for her). It's going to take me a while to get over the insult and forgive the ignorance. However, since I could have done nothing more, I have to assume it was mostly his issue.
Today, I should be at work but I over did it this weekend and my back is too cranky to sit in a chair for 8 hours. So I'm laying in my recliner, on the floor, and in bed today trying to appease my back. *sigh* One of these day's I'm going to figure out where the middle road is instead of the extremes.
It has sparked a dialogue on the list but not too much flaming.
His original post:
"I wanted to express my feelings about the recent festival I attended today and night. I borrowed an outfit for myself and my lady a few days ago and anticipated going to a great festival. I have to say that I've never been so insulted so much in the period of one day as I was today at your festival.
People were very cold and distant to me and my lady. No one wanted to speak to us but instead stuck their noses up at us as if we didn't belong. While outside with my lady one of your lady members went out and was talking crap to a man then she admitted she was being a bitch and was in a bad mood. This same woman went around giving out cupcakes to everyone she knew but ignored the Newcomers, us. Throughout the day there was far too much down time between events. I was extremely bored the entire time spent at your harvest festival. Later that night one of your people made an announcement to the whole group about some newcomers while warmly presenting them a gift for newcomers. We told her we were newcomers also but she said she'd get to us next time. The food was bland at times and had a horrible taste at other times. I tried to go and talk to people but most ignored me. One lady came to our table and inquired as to how we felt about the event. I informed her of my extreme dissatisfaction but she had a very cold attitude toward me. She stated we were not newcomers at all so weren't entitled to anything. How many of you have seen me at ANY of your events? She then told me we had to try to talk to people, that they had to warm up to us. She then ignored us to discuss the project of a 12 year old which was a further slap in the face. I told her how did you expect to get new people into your group if you treat them this way and do you want it to remain stagnant without new people coming in. She stated that the person who normally greets new people wasn't there.
Don't even bother to apologize for this insult. You announced that you were happy to have the other newcomers there, presented them with a gift but totally ignored us. I had planned to join your group but after this NEVER WILL!!!"
The truth is a little skewed in his email and unfortunately, the queen literally meant she would get to them later in the event but when she called them up they had left. Conversations with the people he described in his email indicated a rather different conversation but interpretation is everything. The crabby woman who later gave out cupcakes had been in a car that was backed over by a dump truck three days previously, she was in pain and yes, cranky but understandably so.
I posted but it didn't do any good because he'd already left the list.
"How unfortunate that you felt so unwelcomed at our event.
Allow me to introduce myself and tell you how I spent my day. My name is Mauera Cethin and I've been in the SCA since 1998. I joined the SCA three years after being in a car accident that has left me with a permanent and often debilitating back injury. I don't believe we met because I was in the kitchen for 11 hours yesterday helping to prepare the feast. Marian and I started the prep work for this feast by canning food donated by the Barony over the last few months. Very little of what was served was commercially prepared and Marian planned the menu around the donations. She also went out of her way to provide gluten and dairy free options for those who needed it. Most of the menu was prepared from scratch to the specification of redacted period recipes. Medieval recipes are a bit like a foreign cuisine, you develop a taste for them or you don't, but they almost always taste a bit odd to a novice palate. Marian made pie crusts from scratch, enough for probably twice as many people as we served; we made the extras into the pie crust cookies. She started cooking Friday. She was in the kitchen before 9:00 yesterday. Together we, with a handful of helpers, worked all day to prepare lunch and dinner. We ate after you did at lunch time, to make sure everyone had a chance to eat. We missed all the classes that were provided and the court during dinner. We made sure dinner was ready on time and set out so the servers could easily take the food to the tables. Then we waited for you to eat so that we could feed the food that came back from your table to ourselves and the kitchen crew (Truly! We kept no food in the kitchen to serve to ourselves). But honestly, we were so tired we didn't feel like eating. Instead we spent another two hours cleaning the kitchen before we could go home and rest. We did this because we love our barony, we love to serve, and we enjoy watching people enjoy the fruits of our labors. I have no complaints about how I spent my day and I am not asking for validation from anyone for my voluntary service.
Today I will be taking it easy and taking some meds so that I can move. I know Marian will do the same. Thursday, Marian is having surgery for a herniated disc.
I am not going to offer an apology because I can think of no way I could have done more to serve you.
I hope you will reconsider your words and your vitriol. No insult was meant by anyone in the Barony, of that I am sure.
Mauera"
I tried to be gentle but help him to understand the work that went into the "bland" and "horrible" food. If you can't appreciate the offering you at least appreciate the service that goes into it. Apparently, this is a foreign concept. However, this message was insulting, rude, and horribly upsetting to me (and Marian, I think, but I won't speak for her). It's going to take me a while to get over the insult and forgive the ignorance. However, since I could have done nothing more, I have to assume it was mostly his issue.
Today, I should be at work but I over did it this weekend and my back is too cranky to sit in a chair for 8 hours. So I'm laying in my recliner, on the floor, and in bed today trying to appease my back. *sigh* One of these day's I'm going to figure out where the middle road is instead of the extremes.
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