The Social Media Handbook issued in October 2021 introduced a new requirement:
IV.C.3.d. On Facebook, Events are to be created through Official Kingdom Pages rather than Groups.
SCA Social Media Handbook, page 9
This creates a significant challenge, because local branches can create hundreds of Facebook events every year, and requiring all of those requests to pass through this bottleneck would create a serious burden on the Kingdom Social Media Officer who operates the Official Kingdom Facebook Page, and would likely lead to delays and coordination challenges.
In practice, this requirement is not enforced, and seems to be nearly universally ignored. For example, here in the East Kingdom, I estimate that the proportion of SCA-sponsored Facebook events which are created through the Kingdom Facebook Page is on the approximate order of one percent.
It strikes me as problematic for there to be policies on the books which are routinely flouted — and indeed are the subject of wry humor by local and kingdom-level officers — as it creates an environment in which some rules are meaningful and others are not, and only those “in the know” understand which ones may be disregarded. More insidiously, it leads to a situation in which nearly everyone is breaking some rule or another, and could be subject to seemingly-legitimate sanction for those violations should someone in the chain of command decide to weaponize the policy against them.
I think this policy should be revised to allow Facebook events to be created through the sponsoring branch’s official Facebook page, so I have been writing to the Social Media Officer of the East Kingdom, although the results to date have been inconclusive.
From: Mathghamhain Ua Ruadháin
To: East Kingdom Social Media Officer
Date: April 25, 2023
Hello,
In our little canton we create a lot of Facebook events for local activities like dance practices as well as our larger annual event.
The Society Social Media Handbook says:
IV.C.3.d. On Facebook, Events are to be created through Official Kingdom Pages rather than Groups.
Obviously we do not have access to the Official Kingdom Page identity on Facebook.
Does this policy only apply to Kingdoms rather than local branches?
Or are we supposed to send you requests every week when we want to create a Facebook event?
Thanks for any clarity you can provide,
— Mathghamhain Ua Ruadháin
— Social Media Deputy for the Canton of Whyt Whey
From: East Kingdom Social Media Officer
To: Mathghamhain Ua Ruadháin
Date: April 26, 2023
Hello! Thank you reaching out about this. As of right now, the local practices, “activity nights”, etc can be posted through the group they are associated with. If the event is on the EK calendar then it needs to be sent to me to create through the East Kingdom Facebook Page.
Once the event is created, the event steward will be given admin power so they can edit as needed without having to wait for me to make changes.
From: Mathghamhain Ua Ruadháin
To: East Kingdom Social Media Officer
Date: April 26, 2023
On Apr 26, 2023, at 8:31 AM, Kingdom Social Media Officer wrote:
As of right now, the local practices, “activity nights”, etc can be posted through the group they are associated with.
Is there a written policy somewhere that lays out the distinction of which events may be posted by the group rather than the kingdom?
If the event is on the EK calendar then it needs to be sent to me to create through the East Kingdom Facebook Page.
Looking at the East Kingdom’s official Facebook page, I see one upcoming event, one event from earlier this year, and two events in 2022.
The East Kingdom calendar has nearly two hundred entries for this same time period, and a spot check of a few at random suggests that perhaps somewhere over half of them have corresponding Facebook events.
Is it just accepted that this policy is routinely flouted 95% of the time?
Wouldn’t it be more practical to delegate the authority to create Facebook events to local social media officers using the identity of their local group’s official Facebook Page?
Thank you for your service,
— Mathghamhain
From: East Kingdom Social Media Officer
To: Mathghamhain Ua Ruadháin
Date: April 26, 2023
Is there a written policy somewhere that lays out the distinction of which events may be posted by the group rather than the kingdom?
I am working on creating some documentation that well help with this distinction
Is it just accepted that this policy is routinely flouted 95% of the time?
The reason there are only a few events on the East Kingdom page is because most of the people who are creating events on Facebook are putting it under their personal accounts and not sending me the informationrequired for me to create it, they are not aware of this policy therefore the only thing I can do is have them add my personal page as a co-host. I have the intention of announcing that policy a bit more publicly at a later date but this policy will be followed.
Wouldn’t it be more practical to delegate the authority to create Facebook events to local social media officers using the identity of their local group’s official Facebook Page?
The reason why it is to be put on the East Kingdom page is because it allows more visibilit. Most of the baronial/branch pages are marked as private in some way therefore the event is unable to be seen by people who are not in that group. Also, there are many groups that do not have Branch pages they have Branch groups.Therefore, by putting it on the East Kingdom page it allows people who are not part of those groups to actually see the events. It also creates another place for all the information to be in one place and able to be easily found.
From: Mathghamhain Ua Ruadháin
To: East Kingdom Social Media Officer
Date: April 26, 2023
On Apr 26, 2023, at 12:48 PM, Kingdom Social Media Officer wrote:
Is there a written policy somewhere that lays out the distinction of which events may be posted by the group rather than the kingdom?
I am working on creating some documentation that well help with this distinction
That would be appreciated — but how can such documentation overrule the Society Social Media Handbook?
Wouldn’t it be more practical to delegate the authority to create Facebook events to local social media officers using the identity of their local group’s official Facebook Page?
The reason why it is to be put on the East Kingdom page is because it allows more visibilit. Most of the baronial/branch pages are marked as private in some way therefore the event is unable to be seen by people who are not in that group.
I don’t believe there is any way for Facebook Pages to be made private.
Also, there are many groups that do not have Branch pages they have Branch groups. Therefore, by putting it on the East Kingdom page it allows people who are not part of those groups to actually see the events.
If the goal is visibility, wouldn’t a policy of encouraging people to post their events to the EK Official Facebook Group be equally effective?
For example, Nordenhal’s official group is private, and they do not have an official page.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/369179249797006
However, their event listing for Dancing Fox comes up in Facebook search results and has been discussed repeatedly in the Unofficial EK group.
https://www.facebook.com/events/860758595233769/
What additional visibility would be provided by creating the event through the identity of the Kingdom’s Facebook Page?
— Mathghamhain
I never received a response to this email, so I followed up with the Society Social Media Officer.
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