[Ansteorra] Award Recommendations (was: The first installment of Uncle Jovian's "Thought on A&S")

[Bree Flowers]

On Sun, Jan 31, 2010 at 9:33 AM, Jay Rudin <rudin at peoplepc.com> wrote:
> Eve responded to me:
>
>>> It is my belief that you will get the awards you deserve.  It is ***NOT*** my belief that you will get the awards when you deserve them.
>
>>I'm not sure if you get the awards you deserve. I'd say it's more like
>>you get the awards *someone else* thinks you deserve. And further to
>>that, it has to be a very particular sub-set of someone elses.
>
> There is some truth here, but it's not the truth you think it is.  The particular sub-set of someone elses can be easily defined: it's the people who make award recommendations by going to the link to actually recommend somebody that they see more often than the Crown does.
>
> http://www.ansteorra.org/forms/award.php
>
> I'm not telling you that all awards that are recommended happen; they don't always.  But I *am* telling you that if you don't make the award recommendation then the award doesn't happen.

My personal experiences: I've lived somewhere where I was a "nobody".
I whole bunch of us got together and wrote a recommendation for a
specific person who was not part of our circle of friends (lest anyone
think this was about trying to get something for a friend) but who we
felt was a leader in our local group. It's been 5 years and I'm pretty
sure that person still doesn't have the award. On the other hand, I
lived somewhere else where I was friends with a lot of "somebody"
types. One of them wanted to recommend me for an award that I knew was
far beyond my abilities. I'm endlessly thankful that he mentioned it
to me before he did it so I could talk him out of it. I'm not sure
exactly what would have happened if he'd spoken up. Either he'd have
looked a bit dumb, or I would have gotten an award I didn't deserve
and people would have assumed it was because of who I was friends
with. The system isn't perfect, that's all there is to it. It's also a
bit mysterious. It's not like boy scouts where you check off the
things you are supposed to have done and when you complete them all
you get your badge. That can be a bit frustrating to people. If you
haven't got an award, it may not be because you don't deserve it.
Sometimes these things just are and that's all there is to it.

Award recommendations are all fine and nice, but I much prefer
recognizing people's skills, achievements and kindnesses in the
moment. Ultimately, I cannot control what awards someone gets, but I
can certainly take responsibility for personally  thanking people for
their efforts and congratulating their successes. Words are
inexpensive and meaningful and largesse isn't just for nobles. If
anyone wants to have a round table discussing little trinkets that you
can carry around to be gifted to deserving gentles I'd love to
participate!

I'm not saying the awards system is a bad thing, I'm just saying no
one should stress themselves about it too much. Awards are like
rainbows. Stand outside when it's raining and sunny (write
recommendations) when you can to improve your chances, but don't be
too disappointed if it doesn't happen and make sure you enjoy it on
those magical occasions when it does.

~Eve