[Anst-dancers] Ansteorra-dancers - levels

[Kelly Erickson]

>Guild levels, it seems to me, serve two purposes.  One is to identify skill
>levels.  This may also be assessed, however, through biographies and
>knowledgeable coordinators.  In fact, for a small group of "geeks" where
>everyone knows everyone else, levels convey no useful data.  The Second 
>purpose
>of levels to to grant recognition, or establish precedence.  Who's better 
>than
>who?  Who are the peons?  In the absence of any official recognition from
>kingdom or barony, this recognition strokes egos and may help outsiders
>recognize previously overlooked activity.  When there *is* "official"
>recognition, guild ranks may easily be abused by those who seek alternative
>paths to glory.  In the case of dance, activity at events should be self
>evident.
>
I think that we originally went with the guild levels in an effort to 
emulate Saltare, the Meridies' dance guild. The idea was to give people 
goals to work toward within our guild, to give local groups an idea of who 
might be called on to teach or help out (with a record of their level of 
skill or knowledge with a list of particular dances known), and to give us 
recognition when that might not be available at a Kingdom level. I can't say 
this wasn't a bit of ego stroking, but it was also part of the continuing 
effort to get dance recognized in Ansteorra as a serious A&S field.

But what works for one kingdom clearly doesn't work for all; at this point, 
I'd say with no more interest than people have shown over 3 years, we should 
just give up on it. Alternately, we could give it one more good try, and 
have all the local guild heads get all their guild members to sign up in the 
next month - if we still don't get much response, then give up.

Elin

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