weekend so far (mostly SCA)
Jan. 12th, 2003 01:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cellioYesterday after I got home from services we went to kingdom 12th night, about an hour north of here. We got there just as a court was finishing; I hadn't known there would be more than one. There was an artisans' exhibition, but there was very little time to look at anything before I had to go to my first meeting. (I thought the meeting was later. Oops.) This was very much the day of long meetings, and next time I end up with multiple meetings at a single one-day event I will choose one to attend and not attend all of them.
The choir performed before court (the later one, I mean). I could actually hear the tenor parts! (This has sometimes been a problem with our choir, I'm told. I'm usually in the choir, but not for Christmas music.) The altos and sopranos were down in numbers compared to the tenors and basses, and each of the upper parts had one weak singer, so balance was a little off. Aside from that, though, and one piece that really suffered from this week's rehearsal being snowed out, it sounded good. The environment wasn't really all that good for performances, unfortunately. (There was one large room with lots of background noise.)
The site for the event was a little strange. They were using a high school, so most activities took place in one large room (the cafeteria), which was plenty big enough to accommodate that. But changing rooms and meeting rooms were separate, and they were far away. (This event would have benefitted from a published map.) We had to walk quite a way to get to the changing rooms, and had to go to a different building to get to the meeting rooms, yet we walked past many suitable classrooms on the way to those destinations. Was the school unwilling to let the SCA use rooms that were actually close to the cafeteria? How odd. I felt sorry for the people who have trouble getting around. (Oh, and pretty much all of the parking was a good distance from the building, too.)
The feast was good. Starch-heavy for vegetarians (few veggies), but that's normal. I guess I should start packing raw veggies when going to events. (I am not complaining about the cook here; most feasts have this issue, for various reasons.)
A lot of people took off right after the feast. I had planned to spend that time schmoozing with people I didn't get to see during the day because of meetings, but had limited success. Some of them will be at today's baronial party, for which I'll be leaving soon.
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dagonell and Cigfran got snowed in,
so they didn't make it down after all. Pity.
(no subject)
Date: 2003-01-12 07:53 pm (UTC)In all areas it's possible for someone to earn a peerage and then do something new or different that is independently worthy of recognition. Our laws don't currently permit that recognition for the grant-level awards, and I'm starting to think that this is a bad thing now that we are a more established kingdom. We do also still have the AoA-level awards (and I really think they should have closed those when they created the new ones), but you almost never see a peer getting that low-level award, even if he's done something completely different that would otherwise rate. I don't know if there's a perception that it's redundant, or what. I think most people like to be thanked, and if it's something new then thanks might be in order.
(no subject)
Date: 2003-01-13 12:47 pm (UTC)Why? We only have one rank of awards and I've been curious about how the two rank system (GoAs and AoAs) functions. (and if you find I'm asking too many questions, let me know, you've struck me as an approachable, encouraging questions sort of peer)
but you almost never see a peer getting that low-level award, even if he's done something completely different that would otherwise rate.
Hrm. Our baron is a peer (knight) and has done some things recently to get a King's Award of Excellence (very low level attaboy) and some times I wonder if he wasn't a peer would his work be enough for a Golden Dolphin (service order), but that it's been demoted because some is expected since he's a peer (it has to do with providing stuff for fighting in general and crown tournies in specific). That would probably be an interesting question for me to ask some of our local GDs.
Reguardless, I think that he really appreciated the KAEs (he's gotten two for two of the different aspects I believe). Isn't that really the purpose of awards, to make people feel that they are appreciated and give them that warm happy feeling?
(no subject)
Date: 2003-01-14 11:05 am (UTC)Amusing. I'll have to keep this in mind, since the East has a King's Order of Excellence with a very different meaning. (Basically, it's for doing persona really well. I don't entirely approve of the existence of the award -- I think we'd be better-off with fewer, less-specific award types -- but it does highlight the folks who play the part very well.) Your KaE sounds more like our Queen's Honor of Distinction: a random thingy that the Queen can give out entirely at whim, because she thinks you're a neat person.
Isn't that really the purpose of awards, to make people feel that they are appreciated and give them that warm happy feeling?
That's one purpose, anyway. There are others -- in particular, the awards we give say a lot about our priorities as a small-s society, and there are strong feedback loops between the awards given and what people do.
But your point is basically correct: occasional recognition is a Good Thing, even for the muckety-mucks. Unnecessary limitations on who can receive honors tend to be ill-advised...
(no subject)
Date: 2003-01-14 06:47 pm (UTC)I didn't know that another kingdom had an award like this. Ansteorra has their Lions, which is a very highly respected order there. For the most part I agree with you about preferring fewer, more general awards; but I've always liked this particular specialization. Perhaps it's because so few people around here really have good personas (myself included), and it doesn't really fit into any of the other 'typical' orders very well.
Your KaE sounds more like our Queen's Honor of Distinction: a random thingy that the Queen can give out entirely at whim, because she thinks you're a neat person.
Sounds pretty similar. Our Queen's award is the Queen's Award of Courtesy, given to those who have been particularly nice and helpful and whatnot (courteous). I think that is a bit overkill since we also have the Undine, which is personal service to the Queen. Too often they seem to overlap (since those who offer service are often very courteous about it).
(no subject)
Date: 2003-01-14 07:43 pm (UTC)I didn't know that another kingdom had an award like this. Ansteorra has their Lions, which is a very highly respected order there.
My impression has always been that the Lion is a bit different. Where the KoE is specifically about being in-persona -- doing medieval/renaissance really deeply -- I've been told that the Lion is more about embodying the spirit of the Kingdom. Essentially the KoE is about period, whereas the Lion is about the SCA. (My impression may be incorrect, but that's the way I understand it.)
Oddly, despite the fact that I dislike special-purpose awards, and especially dislike awards with limits on how many people can get them, I'm rather enamored of the Lion. The very fact that it can only be given once per reign gives it enormous prestige, despite carrying no technical rank or precedence. The nearest Eastern equivalent is the Augmentation of Arms -- that isn't written into law anywhere, and can technically be given out at whim, but everyone understands that it's intended to be used for living legends.
Our Queen's award is the Queen's Award of Courtesy, given to those who have been particularly nice and helpful and whatnot (courteous). I think that is a bit overkill since we also have the Undine, which is personal service to the Queen.
For us it's called the Queen's Order of Courtesy, but I suspect it's very similar; the personal-service award is the Queen's Cypher. However, they're quite clearly different here. The QoC is specifically about personal bearing, and while there is some correlation with those hanging around the Queen, it isn't much stronger than many other things. (Not nearly as strong as with Court Baronies, which are very frequently given to those who give assistance to the Crown.
(no subject)
Date: 2003-01-16 10:03 am (UTC)Hrmm. From their award web page (http://www.ansteorra.org/regnum/herald/tressure/awards1.html):
As to how it's used, that I don't know, I was only there for a few months and never saw one given.
The nearest Eastern equivalent is the Augmentation of Arms
That's odd, our augmentations can be given out for anything. I think there's an order that has an augmentation, a group of people who did something really cool at Pennsic, and various other 'whims'. Our 'special' award is the 'Order of the Non Pareil', which always says 'snowcaps!' to me, but I didn't make it up. I don't know that I'd apply 'living legend' status to all of the members of the order, either (that's a lot to live up to!).
Not nearly as strong as with Court Baronies, which are very frequently given to those who give assistance to the Crown.
I see court baronies a lot given to those who give assistance to the Crown, but they are also often given in Atlantia as 'dead end' awards. You've done good in lots of areas for years, but for some reason or another we just can't make you a peer. I've found it a bit odd.
(no subject)
Date: 2003-01-16 04:34 pm (UTC)Interesting. Okay, I guess my information was incorrect.
That's odd, our augmentations can be given out for anything.
Technically, that's true here. But precedent says that it is only given for extraordinary and extremely long service to the Kingdom, far beyond Peerage level. I think the majority of the recipients have been Royal Peers who also served as Kingdom officers for many years. One of my favorites is Master Feral "Kingmaker" von Halstern, who hasn't yet managed to win the Crown himself, but whose dynasty accounts for a whole bunch of reigns in the past couple of decades. So basically it's generally for achievement that folks consider remarkable.
(More precisely, it's usually given to the people who have every official award they're going to get, but who everyone agrees have gone far enough beyond the pale that they really ought to get something else. So it's essentially the "this one goes to 11!" award.)
I see court baronies a lot given to those who give assistance to the Crown, but they are also often given in Atlantia as 'dead end' awards. You've done good in lots of areas for years, but for some reason or another we just can't make you a peer. I've found it a bit odd.
That happens a fair amount here as well. Basically, Court Baronies are the highest award that the Crown can really give out at whim -- where there is neither Law nor Custom restricting who they can give it to. So it's sometimes used for cases where they really want to give something extra-spiffy, but can't give what they'd really like to.
I tend to treat CBs on a case-by-case basis. Sometimes they're really meaningful and important; sometimes they're just tokens. Depends a lot on both the recipient and the Royals who gave i
(no subject)
Date: 2003-01-14 12:23 pm (UTC)It doesn't function very well here, especially when you try to redefine things in the middle.
Ok, it's like this. Once upon a time we were a principality and we had the AoA-level awards. Everyone, and I mean everyone, understood that the level of skill necessary to earn (say) a Sycamore was much lower than that required to earn a Manche, the kingdom-level award in the same area (arts, in this case). So people from the principality of AEthelmearc had an extra award that they might get on the way to a Manche, and people from the rest of the East didn't, but the standards were so different that this didn't really cause any confusion.
Then, AEthelmearc went kingdom. The heralds who were running the place at the time, in some moment of one-upsmanship or whatever, decided that the AoA-level awards ranked higher in precedence than the Eastern awards (which were also technically AoA-level, but with higher standards). So Sycamores now ranked higher than Manches on paper, which had nothing to do with reality.
So, the analysts among us noted that one of two things would happen: the standards for the award would rise to meet the new position, or a new layer of awards would be added in order to keep the existing awards at a lower level. Some of us really didn't want to see a new layer right away, and felt that the standards should rise a bit now that we were a kingdom, so we argued for closing the principality orders and opening new ones. That effort failed, though, and it really only could have been done at the time we went kingdom. And the prediction played out: the first king and queen created grant-level awards to parallel the AoA-level awards we already had, and made them polling orders (like the Eastern orders had been) to distinguish them. So for all practical purposes, a Fleur (grant-level) is now more-or-less equivalent to an Eastern Manche, except on paper.
My fear is that someday we will end up like Trimaris, with 50-something awards, most highly-specialized, few understood by most people. I would rather have fewer general awards than lots of specific ones. Heck, some might lend themselves to being given multiple times, which would be fine. But we don't need a special award for heraldry or teaching dance or thrown weapons or autocratting or whatever...