[Ansteorra] Demo's counting for Service

[Michael Tucker]

On Monday, November 18, 2002, at 02:17 PM, Hillary Greenslade wrote:
> I beg your pardon, but I would disagree with your sources.
> [snip] in
> the southeastern kingdom area, we hold the largest demo in the SCA, at
> the
> Texas Renaissance Festival.  Folks that work the faire are often
> recognized
> for their artwork and especially their service to the SCA, specifically
> due
> to their work at the Faire/demo.
>
> Granted, if the 'only' SCA activity that some folks do is with demos,
> and
> they are unable to participate in any other SCA venue or event, then
> yes, it
> MAY take a long time for them to get recognition.   I would suspect
> that as
> they are not seen at other SCA functions, they may simply not be well
> known.
>  But it would be a shame if their lack of recognition were solely
> because no
> one wrote an award-rec for them (hint!).
>
> Yours, Hillary Greenslade
>

On the other hand, to play "devil's advocate", if someone never comes to
"regular SCA" events (such as tourneys), then how do they know what
they're talking about when they go to a demo as our ambassador? (Short
answer: they probably don't.)

There used to be a cadre of folks whose only "supposedly SCA"
experience, period, was coming to the demos at the Texas Renaissance
Festival (TRF). I'm sorry, but most of those people didn't have one clue
between them what the SCA was actually about. And I believe that some of
those people *were* recommended for service awards, but were shot down
*because* they didn't have a clue, since they had never in anyone's
memory attended a "regular SCA" event.

Nowadays, virtually everyone who works at TRF is also a regular at other
SCA events, and a regular contributor to their local group's functions.
And I agree with Hillary's comments that several of these people have
been recommended for, and received, awards based at least in part on
their service at TRF.

Yours,
Michael Silverhands