[Ansteorra] Morgan's Observation

[Morgan Cain (Ansteorra)]

Since I apparently started this (see what happens when you step away from
the keyboard?), I thought I'd jump on something Gilli said:

> BTW, I just sent in 3 recomendations.  They were folks not in
> my local group.  Don't let our immaginary boundaries stop you
> from writing someone up for an award.

Absolutely!  One of the best times I had in court was after writing up an
award rec for a friend of mine who had moved to the Midrealm (we'd both come
from An Tir) a year or so after I did.  His local group said that despite
all the helping Ian did, because he had a service award from An Tir he
couldn't get one in the Midrealm.  Boy, were THEY surprised when he was
called up in court for a Fret!  We didn't live in the same group, but I knew
a lot of the things he did, for his group and when traveling.  I pointed
them out to Their Majesties, who agreed that he was doing a lot for the Mid
and could be recognized for it.  The shock on the faces of people from Ian's
local group was priceless as they realized that not only did someone care
enough to write to TRM about him, but that yes, you actually can get
equivalent service awards in different Kingdoms.

This is something to remember, and that I teach in my "how to write letters"
class.  If someone does work at your events, but is from another group,
there may be no way anybody in the home group may know about it unless
someone tells them.  If you get a Lunamoth, or Alina (see my response to
Lunamoth), or other person, who is shy and feels best when busy, they may
end up every event in the kitchen, serving feast, sitting gate,
waterbearing, and doing other small, quiet things that are needed to help
the event run smoothly.  But if they are not from the local group, nobody
may realize who they are until too late.  And very often there is a general
"thanks everybody" in court, but people seem too busy to send a message
saying "hey, this lady from your group came and sat gate for four hours, and
then I'm told she helped in the kitchen through feast - keep an eye on her!"

Not only can this go to getting the person the recognition s/he may deserve,
but it tells the local muckety-mucks and hats that this is a person worth
cultivating.  You may not always want to write an award rec, or may think
you don't have "enough" for an award rec for a person, but if you tell the
people from his/her local group they can collect up the information and use
it at a later date, saying "we keep hearing about what this person does for
other groups, too."  It also can help keep people because you can go up to
them and say, "we hear you like to do X, would you be willing to do X at (a
guild meeting, our next event, the group camp at Gulf Wars, etc.)?"  Just be
sensitive to the fact that the person may have done X only because the only
person they knew at the event was doing X, and the person would really
rather do Y if given a chance.

Donnel's response to Lorraine's question was simple "Word Fame," and this
should be more than the general "thanks everybody" at the event or a roster
thanks posted to the local, regional, or Kingdom list.  It should include
telling the people "back home" that this is a useful and helpful person, or
has certain skills that the group may put to use or simply can focus on so
the person can grow, because they may not have any idea the person went to
your event and the roster thanks will mean nothing.  I did it recently for a
new person from another region who helped at a local event, writing about
her helpfulness, and the person was so new she was not yet known to the
Seneschal or B&B, but they asked the Hospitaler about her and I would guess
are encouraging her and helping her to settle into the SCA.

In a way, this is putting the onus on people who run events, or run parts of
events, to take names and find out who is really working.  Yes, it takes
time and effort.  Yes, some people don't want to give a name and get on a
list.  But if you appreciate what they are doing, you have to make the
effort to get that record and keep track of what the person is doing - and
more importantly, pass it along so it's not just a list in a dusty file, but
part of the record of a person's activities.  I've always hated the fact
that many charters say simply "for service to the <blank> of <blank>,"
instead of giving you an idea of what the person actually has done, can do.
And I think it shows the person that you're paying more attention if the
award says something like "for service to the <blank> of <blank> in the
area(s) of <blank>."  I know it takes more work by the scribes and other
people (and yes, I've put in my hours in scriptoria), but especially with
people new to the SCA, I think it's a much nicer way to do it.

Oh, I'm gonna get slapped again for telling my betters what to do, I think
I'll go hide now.

              ---= Morgan, getting UNDER the soapbox

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea,
 never regains its original dimensions."
                                 ---= Oliver Wendell Holmes
"....look on every exit as being an entrance somewhere else."
        ---= Tom Stoppard, "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead" (1967)