[ANSTHRLD] Shires and Thank Yous

[Rhonda and Stephen Hays]

Laundry list of things here...

Alden, please note that a B&/orB gave out those pearls.  Shires do not, by definition, have landeds.  So, once again, we are back where we started.

Hilary, the Ant got replaced with a one time Portcullis.

Concerning delayed AoAs or any award for that matter...

I have chased people down to get them the award that I want them to have and I have enlisted the help of people whose voices will be heard.  The phrase, "you will be coming to court, right?" was followed closely with, "Here, oh look, court is about to start, let's go."

I know that people get overlooked.  I have a friend that waited 12 years and three or four kingdoms for his.  It happens.  All I can say to that is better late than early.  I would much rather have someone say, "about time!" than "Huh?  you have to be kidding me.  She got that?"

Lastly, and this is the hard part to say and understand on email so bear with me.  If a person works locally for 20 years then chances are they do it because they chose to and they like it and the rewards of service.  They are respected for their knowlege and wealth of stories of the old days, they are competent and trusted, and they carry a special place in the heart and soul of the group.  After 20 years, they know the score.  And chances are that they hear all of the thank yous loud and clear.  If they didn't, I daresay they wouldn't be back.

With the advent of email, we have lost the art of letter writing.  A well-written, nicely phrased and perhaps decorated letter complete with a seal (hey, here's another way for us to show off some cool medieval stuff) could go do much for a person.

Medb


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: prudencecurious at netscape.net 
  To: housedragonstar at earthlink.net ; heralds at ansteorra.org 
  Sent: Monday, November 14, 2005 2:17 PM
  Subject: Re: [ANSTHRLD] Shires and Thank Yous


  > My question here goes deeper...why would you want to recoginize someone for service to their local group and _not_ put them in for an AoA?  

  Reason 1:  Okay, using myself as an example.  It took seven years to get an AOA.  After moving to my new shire (after being in for three years), they started writing me in for an AOA after another two years.  This is what people told me.  But for one reason or another (the royals that reign didn't travel, the letter got lost, all the courts were filled to the max in time, there were no royal progresses (RP) nearby that reign, autocrated the RP and no one had told the crown that particular reign I didn't have an AOA), it took an additional two years to get me and the Crown and a scroll in the same place at the same time.  It would have been nice if the local group had had a means of saying thank you a little more publicly and obviously then just - thanks in a meeting.  And remember this was with writing people in and having good word fame.  Sometimes life just doesn't work out.

  Reason 2:  The person has an AOA and continues to do work only at the local level - for decades.  How do you say thank you for that level of service?  (Include maybe a non-stellar personality that a friend of mine has who has been for over 20 years as a local officer - peerage is out-of-the-question.)  So people talk about how to say thank you that gets through someone's thick skull.

  Now I will say that my favorite two scrolls were thank yous given to me.  I value them more than the awards scrolls.  One was for a weekend demo (10,000 person) I drove five hours to participate in.  A group for my shire just said "lets go" and five of us arrived and helped out - a lot.  They gave magic markers to a scribe and the result is now framed on my wall.  The other is from all the fencers of my old kingdom for my service to them.  Sometimes when burn-out occurs, I look at those two scrolls and go - oh, yeah, someone likes and respects me.  These make a huge difference.

  Ever a Servant,

  Prudence the Curious

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