[Ansteorra-archery] Awards

[HL Agnarr Thorvaldsson]

Hey my turn to toss my few cents in...

There's nothing wrong with having people recommended for any award but we the populace must remember that the decision to give out any award rests  with the Crown, and the Crown alone.  If the Crown has a reason to not give out said award then we as subjects of the Crown must accept this decision.  Even if the person(s) making the award recommendations does not agree with the Crown's decision in not handing out an award.

In my personal opinion if the person(s) that wrote to the Crown with the award recommendation wishes to ask the Crown why an award was not given out then that should be a very private matter between the writer of the award and the Crown.  And it should not be discussed in any public forum  - ever.  This way there is no hard feelings by those individuals that are denied the award, and also no one person or Crown  is suddenly placed "on the spot" to defend their point of view or decision making process in a public forum on what is really a private matter.  This type of confrontation is usually done by others who only hear one side before they approach the Crown.  Hell - the Crown has enough on their plate at event's and don't need the extra hassle this public airing of grievances would surely cause.

Now as to an idea of how many people are given a particular award during any reign.  That again in my opinion should alone rest with the Crown to make the decision as to who should or should not be the recipient of any award.  I feel that each Crown has the right and duty to interpret the criteria for any and all awards in any matter that they decide; for or against.  This freedom to act is what makes each reign unique and special in here in Ansteorra.  If the Crown decides to use a time-frame on how frequent to giving out awards to a particular individual in their criteria for presenting awards then that is their decision and ability.   Who knows - maybe the award recommendations for the first award given may have come from several individuals and a few of them
mentioned the same activity that is covered by the second award recommendation and the Crown feels that this would be basically rewarding the individual twice for the same thing.  Again the decision rests solely with the crown on such matters.

No for example,  If there is 200 individuals recommended in a given reign for any specific award be it a Star, Iris, Comet, Crane, Thistle; or whatever award you wish and the Crown decides to give all of the 200 individuals this said award that they were recommended for - Great.  I have no hard feelings about that at all.  That just means that our artisan's and craftsmen  would be very busy making the regalia for the awards, and longer courts that the feastocrats would have to deal with. (G)

But if there is suddenly some new Kingdom Law that states a "magic number or quota" on how many people must receive a specific award in any reign, and this number is somehow reached early in a Crown's reign, then what do you suggest we do about those really deserving individuals that will not see the Crown in their local area till either late in the Crown's reign, due to various conflicts. (Travel difficulties, jobs requiring that the recipient is having to work on a local event weekend, not being recommended earlier in the reign, because the Crown did not make it to that region any earlier in their reign,
etc... )

I do not like the idea of having quota's placed on the award system.  This can
only hurt those individuals that are truly deserving the award or even worse it could cheapen the meaning of said award till almost everyone has it and it means nothing.  I say No Thanks to this concept.

Now as to the specifics concerning Awards in the Archery Community.  The number of archers in Ansteorra is growing from what I have seen and I can tell you that seeing several of the knights using archery at this past gulf war was pleasing to both my eyes and heart, that should not automatically make them all eligible to receive recommendations for either a KAA or CAMA's.  Common sense should prevail.

However - If an Anstoerran Knight at GW managed to make 25 consecutive kills with a bow defending our King in the ravine battle and the King decides that "Sir Deadeye" should receive a KAA on the spot for his defense of the Crown and Kingdom then the only answer you will hear from me is "VIVAT".  And I would not care one bit if this was the first time that Sir Deadeye ever used a bow in Melee, other then to try and convince him to shot a bow more often.

Ok I have stood on the box way to long preaching.... Next.

HL Agnarr