ANST - Too Many Awards, Too Fast

[C. L. Ward]

Bjorn Lochlannac <bjorn at odsy.net> said:
>Justg wanted to let you know that I agree with you 100%. 
>There is nothing to make a person "burn out" faster than 
> feeling taken for granted.

and Faith Vedder wrote:
>> And if they get no encouragement they will burn out and leave as well.
It's a
>> fine line.

But as several people have already pointed out, you DON"T have to give
awards to acknowledge peoples' hard work and effort. Public recognition,
word fame, a small gift in court from the local noble, all of these work
equally well as an award.  They are in fact more welcome many times than an
award.

Sure, we could lump all the awards onto a person in no time at all.  Have
you noticed that once a person is a peer or a noble they mostly don't GET
any more awards?  Or if they do, they are few and far between?

Now think -- you've rushed this person through getting this stack of
awards, not taking any account of timing between the awards.  Then they hit
this brick wall after which they won't get much of anything else.  How will
that feel to the person who is used to measuring their acceptance within
the group and achievement by getting a cookie every few months?

It's also important to recognize that not everyone gets awards in the
Society.  I've seen it stated before that many people never get more than
an AoA.  So how do *those* people feel when they see Lord On-the-Fast-Track
getting umpty awards all the time?

Another point to consider -- maturity and behavior aren't closely evaluated
for many of our awards, but they become critical factors in whether or not
a person will get a Peerage, or one of the grant-level awards where the
members of that order are polled (White Scarves and Centurions).  It
normally takes most people a few years in the Society to develop the
maturity and understanding about how the group works that would allow them
to be considered for one of these awards.  What happens when a person racks
up all the awards short of the peerage, then  --- nothing?  And that person
won't get the peerage *until* the maturity develops -- but since they don't
have the maturity, what typically happens is that person gets frantic and
pissed off because they aren't getting the peerage when they think that
they should, then they do dumb things that come back to the ears of the
Circle, and that delays the peerage further.  Had the person's earlier
awards been spaced out further, by the time they were looking at a peerage
as the next step, the maturity would be there, too.

I think it's critically important to recognize people for the work they do
-- by giving them praise and gifts.  And I think it's important to give
people awards, but to space them out as well.


Wæs Þu Hæl (Waes Thu Hael)

::GUNNORA::

Gunnora Hallakarva, OL
Baroness to the Court of Ansteorra
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Ek eigi visa þik hversu oðlask Lofstirrlauf-Kruna heldr hversu na Hersis-Aðal
(Ek eigi thik hversu odhlask Lofstirrlauf-Kruna heldr hversu na Hersis-Adhal)

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