Badges and Terms

[Joel Schumacher]

> At 10:19 AM 06/19/97, "Angus mac Taggart/Rik Packham" wrote:

> If you see someone walking by where a brass-hat (coronet, circlet,
> crown, what-have-you) flag her/him down for some help.

> Look at it from this point: what do you do?

> if you went to a bar for the first time;

  Ask the bartender, waiter, waitress, or they guy collecting the cover
  charge.  ie. somebody clearly who clearly works there.

> a indy-car race for the first time;

  I've never been to one, but the stadium concept is familiar.  I find
  the seat on my ticket and watch.  Questions?  I find a person in a
  uniform who obviously works there and ask.

> to a beach where they have surfing; a field where there
> is a bunch of people playing a sport you want to play;

Being rather shy at making the first approach, I'd do any of these:
  * Look for somebody that looked like they were already helping a
    stranger, kind of blend in and wait to be recognized
  * Stand and watch and wait for somebody to talk to me or invite me
    to join in.
  * Watch for a while and go home
  * (least likely) go up and ask somebody.

For me, I think you see the general pattern.  This is just MY personality,
but I don't think it's too uncommon.  I first look for help from somebody
who is part of the staff.  In the SCA this isn't easy to tell.  Uniforms
aren't appropriate and badges are often not recognized as such.

At an event, I'd probably make the first contact at the troll booth
because the person taking money is obviously affiliated with the people
in charge.

Walking up to a fighter practice, I'd be hard pressed to figure out
who's "in charge", since nobody usually is.  People just kind of show up,
fight, sew, socialize, etc.  This sort of little circle of people talking
makes me, the semi-shy one, very intimidated.  My mind tells me that if
they welcome outsiders, they'll come up and introduced themselves.  If
not, I assume I'm not welcome and leave.

> You are right, IF an individual is wearing his/her badge of office there
> is not just one location that the official will be wearing it (or type
> of badge, for that matter).

This is also true.  Even if you know, for instance, that you're looking
for a symbol with a key on it, that key may come come in many, slightly
different forms.  Even the badges I found on web-sites varied from site
to site.  How people implement and wear their symbol is even more varied.

And yes, looking a person up-and-down and not really knowing exactly what
you're looking for can appear very rude.  For example, a woman may be
wearing one of those push-up bodices with a necklace dangling over her
chest.  As you strain to see the emblem on the necklace, she notices the
general area you're staring at and suddenly, you're some sort of pervert
who she's not about to walk up and talk to.  (Or, maybe she'll like being
looked at and you will find somebody to talk to...)

Perhaps a standard could be developed to narrow the choices one has for
the wearing of a badge.  Like baldric or cloth hanging from a belt.  So
that if you're looking for somebody you only have one or two places to
look for a badge.

-Karl von Augsburg
__________________________________________________________________________
Joel Schumacher                        JCPenney Co. - UNIX Network Systems
jschumac at uns-dv1.jcpenney.com          12700 Park Central Pl
(972) 591-7543                         Dallas TX  75251