the last original Cooper is gone

[cellio]

Betty Cooper, who with her husband Mack founded Cooper's Lake Campground and worked with the SCA to build Pennsic, has died at 96. Betty, Mack, and their son Dave were true friends of the SCA, dealing honorably and fairly and with a smile. They seemed to enjoy the SCA's wacky brand of unusual fun. We lost Dave a few years ago and Mack a few years before that, and now we have lost the last Cooper with that long history.

Cooper's Lake is a different place in recent years -- more corporate, less human. Nothing lasts forever and this is to be expected; heirs and successors who never saw their customers as anything other than another convention need to pay the bills. But I feel like we've lost not just another good person, not just a piece of SCA history, but also some of the values that made Pennsic what it once was -- a place of honor and friendship and camaraderie and experimentation and innovation.

Comments

[stitchwhich]

Ken, Al, and Cindy are still well invested. And James and John, the two cousins who are running CLC, grew up with my eldest son as friends - they spent a lot of time hanging out at Pandora's Box and down in the bog. They were just very quiet about it. Yeah, they are more company-minded than the preceding generation but in a way I think that is a good thing. The SCA isn't the only big life-line that Cooper's Lake has anymore, and I think that is an important improvement. Too often members of our Society have treated the Coopers like servants. It is refreshing to see that turn around.

[cellio]

On the other hand, they've kicked out people (and structures) despite agreements previously made (by Dave). I have been told by affected merchants, but do not know first-hand, that they kicked out merchants that CLC wanted to compete with. Remember the year they moved Pennsic because they had another convention they wanted to host in "our" slot? My understanding from people on staff that year was that this was not negotiated but dictated.

Legalistically speaking they are allowed to do these things, but it's a very different approach from that of their predecessors. Maybe this is fond memory overwhelming actual facts, but it sure feels like the SCA and the Coopers used to work together more, honorably and respectfully. Do some people in the SCA treat the Coopers badly? Yes, and that's not right. Have some Coopers also treated some SCA people badly? Yes, unfortunately.

Making business decisions because you are, after all, running a business is of course appropriate. If they decide they can no longer accommodate things that were acceptable when the event, SCA, and staff were younger and times were different, understood. But there are right and wrong ways to make changes, and I wish I felt like we were seeing thoughtful transitions more and rug-yanked-out-from-under-us less.

[stitchwhich]

I was on staff when the date change was brought up - two years before the event it offset. And the Coopers did, in fact, discuss it with our Mayors and the event committee (made up of three kingdom's seneschals, exchequers, and their Crowns). Yes, the date was presented as "this is the only slot we can fit these folks in" but there was a good side of "we'd really like to do it, too, if you think Pennsic could work around it". Not a demand. A presentation of a really good deal they would like to take and a request for support from us by us changing our event date. I'm not sure what would have happened if the Pennsic Powers that Be decided to hold the Coopers to their written and signed contract. We were gracious, and they were appreciative, as partners in event hosting.

I know some people feel they've been treated poorly by Cooper staff. I also know that some changes were dictated by the commonwealth or changing insurance requirements, which they have no control over. The merchant thing though, well, that does kinda chap my drawers. But I also know that I do not know the whole story on that, and never really will. After the Health Department shut down the Middle Eastern restaurant maybe the Coopers felt that it would be wise to have a little more control over what is being catered on their land. They certainly didn't hesitate to allow in the King's Arms (the Aussie burger place). Gawd, do I love their fish and chips. I hope they survived Covid shutdowns.

[cellio]

Thank you for the correction about what happened that year. I am very glad to hear that it was not as heavy-handed as I had heard from some staff on the affected Pennsic. (What those people knew about the meeting two years earlier, I do not know.)

Some changes have external motivation, yes. If there have been problems with food vendors and the health authorities, I can understand them wanting to be more careful there. On the other hand, they shut down Mystic Mail when they started selling Internet access themselves.

I know some people feel they've been treated poorly by Cooper staff.

Yes, like me. That's all new-Coopers, not old guard. Old-guard Coopers dealt openly and honestly with us.