[Loch-ruadh] MoC office

[PBW]

Ok for what its worth here is my shillings worth of thought on the office of
MoC.

1. Being a Canton I do not, at this time, see a need for a formal office for
MoC. If we were doing mult. events each year then I could see needing one.
At this time we are only doing one event a year and this is only our 2nd
year to do it consecutively at that.

2. We need to keep in mind the age groupings of our "under age" population.
We have a segment of small children who would probably benefit from formal
A&S kind of things but by and large our Cantons children are older (i.e.
over the age of 7) who are bored with this type of activity. These are the
kids who would benefit from becoming involved with the Canton. Such as
Waterbearing, being a "runner" (taking messages from list field to troll,
from the Marshalls to the Autocrat, etc etc. And even our older children
(teens, and even some pre-teens) can assist us in our events by getting them
involved in some Heraldry (lets face it, some of these kids have lungs and
can be reallllly loud!), assisting in being a List Mistress/score keeper,
etc. These age of kids make great pages in making sure Nobles are attended
to, or attending to just about anyone in need of assistance that's within
their abilities.

Last year at Lughnasad we didn't have any "formal" children's activities per
sey. We had "children's" A&S competition, "children's" archery, "children's"
bardic to name a couple of things we did. And each of these took into
account the participants age. (Didn't we have youth rapier too?) And of
course our now famous water melee (which I think the adults had as much if
not more fun than the kids!). These were interdispursed throughout the day
and from what I saw kept the kids busy and the parents involved as well.

Connell and I being parents to three girls ages 9,10,11 we have seen in the
last year and a half them becoming more interested in helping and BEING part
of the SCA vs. just attending a scheduled A&S for kids. I am not saying that
scheduled A&S type activities are not needed, just keep in mind the age
groups attending. Examples are: One of our kiddos is "apprenticing" to a
bard as she is very interested in being a bard. Another is into Archery and
has asked if she can have someone (not me, good ol' Mom) mentor her in
archery. The youngest wants to do heavy weapons but due to age cant get into
this yet, even youth boffer, so she has a few years to go but she has also
expressed interest in Heraldry (I think she just likes to talk loud
actually!) and in learning some A&S things. So of course I am going to
encourage them to seek out information and people to help them in these
areas. Last year at Defender the girls had a blast going around helping put
up tents in the dark. They thought it great to do this. How many of us think
putting up a tent in the dark is a "cool" thing? <grin>

Ok this has become more long winded than I intended. But those are my
thoughts. And for those who know me know that I can prattle on about most
anything! :)

MagD'Leigha
A Mum who has watched the girls grow from being toddlers in the SCA playing
in the dirt to actively participating in the SCA activities.