[Bards] Bardic college Events

Alden Drake alden_drake at sbcglobal.net
Thu Oct 26 14:34:31 PDT 2006 

While it might be late in the schedule for *this* Eisteddfod, is Eisteddfod a biddable event for any group to host?  I have no objection to Steppes hosting it if they desire to do so, as it provides a relatively central location, but there's something to be said for a kingdom championship that rotates through the various regions too.  For one, it might bring experienced bards into regions that are bard-light who might enjoy hearing some performers that they don't get to hear that often.  It could also inspire bards to travel around more, and thereby gain a bit more kingdom-wide renown.

Alden


----- Original Message ----
From: gail young <gwynethb63 at yahoo.com>
To: Ansteorran Bardic list <bards at lists.ansteorra.org>
Sent: Thursday, October 26, 2006 4:24:50 PM
Subject: Re: [Bards] Bardic college Events


These are great suggestions but remember a couple of things:
Right now, Eistedfodd is being hosted by the Steppes, not by the bardic community.  You can make suggestions to them about thier event, but I think it is a delicate subject to offer advice w/o manpower.  I'm not saying that's what you have in mind, just that I would think that to get the event the way the community wants it, there would have to be LOTS of communication with the people already in charge.
The other thing to remember is that any two groups can get together and put a date on the calendar.  It's a multi regional event and it won't count against anyone.
Your only limitation is how close you are to other events already scheduled and of course, Crown and Coronation.
Just an FYI,
gwyneth

Melody Soice <melodysoice at hotmail.com> wrote:
managed to make this a regional 
or kingdom event I think it would be both a great opportunity for small 
groups and a boon to the bardic, music, and dance communities. I know the 
bardic themed Westgate Winter Collegiums that we've held have been very 
successful.

Ok, there's my brilliant (?) suggestions. 

Melody
>
>Many of my "moments" in the SCA include the bardic arts and I support you 
>coming together to add strength and vision to our Dream. I think in 
>general, games play better if they don't have too many rules. I think the 
>bardic community will find more acceptance if they work to find ways to 
>achieve thier goals within the framework we already have in place here in 
>Ansteorra for recognizing our best.
> I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure 
>Eistedfedd is at Steppes because no one wanted to host it as a stand alone 
>because they couldn't make thier money back. Inside venues are expensive 
>(at least, here in Austin they are). My recomendation is that people who 
>feel strongly about this get together, find a site and put in a bid. Just 
>my 2 cents, but I think the turnout would be better if you have a colligium 
>with classes at the same event with the competition and perhaps even have a 
>hosting group do thier bardic also. For example, we had the competition 
>for Bryn Gwlad Artisan at Candlmas and also chose Gulf War 
>competitors...when you signed in you made a note on your judging sheet what 
>you wanted to be considered for. Steppes Twelfth Night is a big deal, but 
>if you were to piggy-back on a shire Yule, the Eistedfed would get more 
>attention.Another possibility is a multi-regional event such as the Lysts 
>at Castleton. I remember when this
> competition was a big deal and all the top bards in Ansteorra turned out 
>to compete for the title...did that change just because we stopped having a 
>Bardic College?
> Just some thoughts,
> gwyneth
>
>Alden Drake wrote:
> To collegiate, or not to collegiate....
>
>While I'm a relatively new voice among bards, I think the root of the 
>problem among bards is that somewhere in the past, we lost sight of being a 
>community, and instead became individual bards with no real connection to 
>eachother outside of our own local areas. I've seen discussions on this 
>list, and spoke to a few experienced bards about the fact that people seem 
>to be passionate about either a) being a college, or b) not being a 
>college, but I think we can go a long way to being a strong bardic 
>community without involving politics, heirarchy, hoopla, etc. that some 
>people associate with a bardic college.
>
>As far as signs of experience and heirarchy, we already have that in the 
>form of our kingdom awards. Laurels, Irises, and Thistles go a long way in 
>our kingdom to indicate which individuals have been recognized for specific 
>areas of interest. We should be encouraging those people to be our 
>teachers, and funnel newcomers to our community to those teachers who 
>specialize in areas of interest to the newcomers. Something I started 
>putting together for the website is a list of bards, what they are willing 
>to teach, and what they want to learn, for the purpose of pairing people 
>together.
>
>Mentoring - the approach to mentoring and teaching is up to the individual. 
>While I'm willing to teach anyone what I know, I have a bardic student who 
>I pay particular attention to as a mentor. I encourage her to learn from 
>others besides just me, but I try to fill the role of being her academic 
>advisor and primary go-to person. I in turn have a mentor/primary teacher. 
>Just because we become mentors doesn't mean we necessesarily stop having a 
>mentor of our own. I suppose at a certain point, we replace a mentor with 
>peers (not capital P Peers, but peers being equals).
>
>I think we could do a lot just in the structure of being a guild if we can 
>come up with ways of coming together as a community. We have recently been 
>given our own Deputy A&S Minister, whose focus should be encouraging our 
>efforts in that direction. We have a Kingdom Bard who, in service to the 
>Crown, should be the epitome of what our guild has to offer in talent and 
>service to our community. It is our duty as performers to support them, and 
>bring the bardic arts to the people of our kingdom.
>
>For starters, we should look at what we have kingdom-wide to bring us 
>together. We have Eisteddfod and the Ansteorran Bardic Collegium. These are 
>*OUR* events. Do we make the most of them? What can we do to improve them? 
>Looking at Eisteddfod, I found that Eisteddfod is a kingdom calendar event. 
>Steppes Twelfth Night is not. Steppes typically hosts Eisteddfod and tacks 
>their event onto it, which is fine, but it seems to me (by what I saw last 
>year) that the Steppes event overshadows Eisteddfod. So what can we do to 
>make Eisteddfod bigger and better? What about combining Eisteddfod and the 
>Bardic Collegium? Do classes in the morning and afternoon, and then 
>Eisteddfod in the evening? What can we do in addition to these two things? 
>Have a bardic sponsored tournament to determine the "Bardic Defender"? Have 
>an A&S competition of original bardic compositions? The archery community 
>had a Bard of the Archers competition some time ago, how cool is that!? Can 
>we do it a
>gain? C
>an we do it in other martial venues? What about organizing a Bardic Feast, 
>where the whole point *IS* dinner theater? Gulf Wars - HL Gerald of 
>Leesville hosted an outstanding bardic circle in front of the Ansteorran 
>Gate. What can we do to make it bigger and better? These are just some 
>ideas to get the ball rolling.
>
>I remember a quote that goes, "When all is said and done, more will be said 
>than done." But let's get *something* done.
>
>In service,
>HL Alden Drake
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