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<DIV><FONT color=#000000>Well, I agree with Gilli. A certification board
would not help any.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#000000></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>A person can usually find acceptable documentation, but in some
circumstances, when there are not a lot of others who are well versed in the
subject, it is not hard to make themselves seem knowledgeable on a subject
without actually knowing a whole lot.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#000000>A point which I always remember involved a rather
heated argument which ended up taking place last year when I was working on a
master's level thesis involving the Japanese. I had just completed my 400
plus page thesis, and received a 4.0 for it from a board of professors, and when
I answered a newcomers request for information regarding Japanese influences
during the SCA period, an SCA "Peer" proceeded to tell me I did not
know what I was talking about because she had read a single book by some obscure
author during her preparations to teach a class in the SCA. It did not
matter that she was wrong, that her information was faulty, or that professors
from Tokyo and the University of Washington offered to verify my information and
teach classes on the subject for free at other SCA events. All that
mattered was that I, a non-peer, had dared to offend a Peer by putting out
information which was different from what she had been teaching for several
years, and not taking my scolding in the properly subservient manner that she
required of a non-peer.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#000000></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#000000>The fact is that most Peers do take the time and put
forth the effort to provide good information, but there is absolutely no viable
method to verify instructors information and certify them to teach in the
SCA. Not without making another whole new set of rules to add to the
already growing number taking up volumes of space now.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#000000></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#000000>Spyke</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#000000></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#000000>P.S. The newcomer kept coming to me for more and
more information, is still playing in the SCA, and is now one of only 3
authorized two-handed fencers in the Known World.</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>