ANST - New noncombat topic

[Mjccmc01 at aol.com]

Kudos to you, Galen, for applying a combat analogy.  You confirm my faith
that you all could turn a conversation about lace making techniques in the
14th century Pyrenees to combat with some sort of logical analogy. ;-)  (Ask
Pendarron about the "estroborg" sometime.)

What I'm finding interesting about the thread is how favorable the reaction
is to Laurels competing; the reaction to the previously mentioned Steppes
Artisan was decidedly not.  (This is all a moot point to me, since I hate A&S
competitions and have never entered them, even before I was a Laurel, unless
it was a "support your Kingdom for a war point" situation.  I do find it
fascinating from a PR/perception standpoint.)

I know several of my fellow Laurels (and I certainly don't presume to speak
for all of them) are made to feel as if we are "robbing" someone when we
enter a competition.  There have been several instances when members of the
populace have been _very_ vocal about it.  That, added to the completely
absurd notion that all judges should be Laurels, tends to keep us from
competing.  The only real analogy I can draw to the Chivalry is that "only
knights should marshall fighting."

So it seems to me that we are in a sort of Catch-22.  If we compete, people
are upset because we are unfair.  If we don't compete, we are perceived as
"inactive" or not up with the current standard.  

So, given that some people are going to be unhappy no matter what happens,
what are some suggestions for how to deal with this?  I've discussed it with
other Laurels, but I think commentary from those outside the circle would be
helpful.

Looking forward to comments,
Siobhan
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