[ANSTHRLD] Shires and Thank Yous

[nweders@mail.utexas.edu]

Okay, I have to say something...

Why do people have to have a physical object or a fancy named thing as a 
thank you?  What about a nice hand written note from either the autocrat or 
in case of a Barony from the landed noble?.

Even more interesting -- what would happen if after the major Kingdom event 
(Crown, COronation K A&S ) someone send a thank you note to the person in 
charge.  I know if a local group did a Scribe's Symposium and you sent the 
autocrat or seneschal thanking the group for hosting the event  a thank you 
to  be read outloud to the group, it would no doubt make them feel good 
someone had noticed.

I'm all for people getting recognition but I begin to believe that a token 
is oftentimes a quick way of thanking someone without saying thank 
you.  You don't really spend a lot of time giving them the non-armigerous 
award of the soggy mop to go with their name.  I myself would rather enjoy 
a nice thank you that I can keep awhile or file into the secret files.  I 
actually have some from the ELDER DAYS thatI hold on to for that very same 
reason.

What about giving a person who worked really hard for a group, a free 
submission to the local newsletter for a year or having them sit at the 
head table as an honored guest?  Seems to me that would really make it 
special (until they realise how boring it is up at the head table.) and you 
don't have long lists of people you have to remember.....

When I first got into the SCA, most of the people didn't have an AOA let 
alone anything higher.  They couldn't give awards or such, but as thank 
you's people made small gifts and gave them ...... A shire could easily get 
into that habit.

I dunno but having a little group of initials after your name sometimes 
gets problematic.

Just a thought.

Clare