Just passing on some good ideas as I know several of you are not on the Ansteorra mailing list.<br><br>Racheal<br><br>---------- Forwarded message ----------<br><span class="gmail_quote">From: <b class="gmail_sendername">Jennifer Smith
</b> <<a href="mailto:jds@randomgang.com">jds@randomgang.com</a>><br>Date: Apr 30, 2007 10:55 AM<br>Subject: Re: [Ansteorra] good or bad courts<br>To: "Kingdom of Ansteorra - SCA, Inc." <<a href="mailto:ansteorra@lists.ansteorra.org">
ansteorra@lists.ansteorra.org</a>><br><br></span>Doré wrote:<br>> Sounds like what you describe would eliminate some of the<br>> annoyances of<br>> court.<br><br>That, and overly long courts (particularly the champion stuff), were why we
<br>tried the format. More details below.<br><br>> IMO the "too quiet to be heard" parts of court should be limited to<br>> stage direction and the like, such as, "What's next?" and "Go<br>
> ahead and<br>> kneel on the pillows." Personal discussions are, well, personal and do<br>> not belong in a public court. The sitting noble could ask the<br>> person to<br>> return at the end of court or at some other convenient time
<br>> if they have<br>> things they wish to say in private. Discussions that do not<br>> include the<br>> sitting noble (i.e. between two people standing in court in<br>> front of the<br>> noble) should be handled before the court or after, or perhaps quietly
<br>> off to the side (if it really needs to get done before the<br>> end of court)<br>> while the rest of court proceeds.<br><br>I entirely agree!<br><br>In general, there are four types of things that go on in a court: awards,
<br>championship stuff, elevations and investitures, and Everything Else.<br><br>I believe awards should probably take no more than 5 minutes per award, from<br>the time the herald summons the person into court, all the way until the
<br>person leaves court. This is true in most cases; baronial orders are the<br>worst offenders of this. That can be largely fixed by just enforcing the "go<br>hug everyone in your order" thing to happen off to the side, and to NOT
<br>delay the rest of court with it.<br><br>Championship stuff is where probably the biggest timewasters creep in.<br>Having every event-runner called up to talk about their event, hand out 28<br>separate prizes, call up last year's champion to talk about it too, then
<br>call up this year's champion, talk about all the pass-down and step-down<br>prizes, hand over all the loot, talk some more... My goodness, 30 minutes<br>has just passed, for one championship! Every group that I've been to does
<br>this slightly differently, and certainly every group has slightly different<br>priorities here, but I encourage groups to think hard about how to do this<br>more efficiently.<br><br>Elevations and investitures just Take Time, but even so it would be nice to
<br>attend an investiture where the stepping down was held separately from the<br>stepping up if there's going to be lots of outgoing speeches; otherwise, I<br>start wondering if someone is going to go have to fetch a crowbar... :)
<br><br>Everything Else -- presentations in court, random swearing of oaths, shtick,<br>and so forth: if it can at all be done at another time and place (earlier in<br>the day, more privately (not in court), etc, please please do so. Otherwise
<br>please keep it short and sweet.<br><br>> <a href="mailto:zubeydah@northkeep.org">zubeydah@northkeep.org</a> wrote:<br>> > One of the most cleverly arranged courts I have been to was<br>> at last year's
<br>> > Triumphe of the Eclipse, in Mooneschadowe. The manner in<br>> which the court was<br>> > arranged was, for the greatest part, very smooth and kept<br>> the 'flow' of things<br>> > going very well. It was also very nice that they had two
<br>> heralds for part of<br>> > the court, both of whom were easily heard.<br>> ><br>> > As it was a court in which their past year's champions and<br>> their new champions<br>> > were being acknowledged, they were called up together,
<br>> rather than seperately.<br>> > This also helped the audience correlate who had achieved<br>> which champion, and<br>> > helped give a sense of the 'history' and the 'passing down'<br>
> aspect of the<br>> > distinction which had been won.<br><br>The original idea was vaguely based on the Roman-style procession of<br>champions through the town, an actual "Triumph" (go have fun with google and
<br>"roman triumph"). I believe HL Gilyan came up with the idea and all the<br>details.<br><br>We seeded the crowd with people who knew the Plan, with bubbles and rose<br>petals along the central aisle (kids are good for this). Two heralds in
<br>front, one to each side of the thrones, next to a manned staging table to<br>handle pass-down and stepping-down prizes (we'd collected the pass-down<br>stuff from each champion earlier). All the old champions and new champions
<br>lined up in back, with another herald there acting as traffic cop.<br><br>Front Left herald would call out something along the lines of "Our current X<br>champion, So-and-So!", herald in back would wave that one on up the center
<br>aisle, crowd would cheer and toss rose petals and the like; as soon as the<br>current champion would reach the front of court and bow, he'd head off to<br>the left side to pick up his step-down goodies and at the same time, the
<br>Front Right herald would call out "Our new X champion, So-and-so!". New<br>champion goes up the aisle to much cheering, takes a right at the front of<br>court to pick up his goodies, while the Left Front herald calls out the name
<br>of the next champion. After picking up goodies, they'd continue around the<br>sides of court to go sit back down whereever (or take up stations behind the<br>thrones, etc etc).<br><br>Every one of them got a spotlight in court, names clearly called out, got
<br>their goodies and all, and there was no break from start to finish. We did<br>armored, rapier (half, the new one is decided on Sunday), thrown weapons,<br>archery, A&S, and bardic, in under 15 minutes all told. (We'd done a
<br>children's court before feast, to handle those prizes, and another court on<br>Sunday to handle rapier and the various new fighter stuff.)<br><br>Where that format won't work quite so well is when you have multiple prizes
<br>for an event, like A&S is wont to do at times, or to otherwise recognize the<br>runners-up or whathaveyou. Also, there obviously is no chance for the new or<br>past champions to say anything. This can be a good thing. ;)
<br><br>It was an interesting experiment, and a lot of fun. It certainly took a bit<br>more organizing behind the scenes, but I think it was worth it, and hope we<br>do something similar again this year at our next championship event.
<br><br>-Emma de Fetherstan<br>Mooneschadowe<br><br>_______________________________________________<br>Ansteorra mailing list<br><a href="mailto:Ansteorra@lists.ansteorra.org">Ansteorra@lists.ansteorra.org</a><br><a href="http://lists.ansteorra.org/listinfo.cgi/ansteorra-ansteorra.org">
http://lists.ansteorra.org/listinfo.cgi/ansteorra-ansteorra.org</a><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Lady Racheal no Ansteorra<br>mka Cherish Robinson<br>Gate's Edge Chronicler<br>Secretary for Gate's Edge Knight Marshal
<br>House Head for the Guild of St. Camillus de Lellis <br>Thunder Patch to HL Caley and Lord Gavin