SC - Okay, my life just got interesting...

[Kerri Canepa]

>It seems to me that awards in most parts of the SCA have
>proliferated to the point of triviality, to say the least. About the best
>thing that any king/queen or prince(ess) could do is to bundle all awards
>except SCA-wide standards (and kingdom-wide, for a principality) into no
>more than three orders, inducting (en masse) all recipients of lower and
>more specialized awards into those orders, and then close all but those
>orders. It would go over like a lead balloon at the initial announcement,
>but in the long run it would be well worth the trouble.
>
>Henry of Maldon/Alex Clark

I think I see your point but I don't agree entirely. 

There's always been difficulty in recognizing the efforts and talents of others
within the SCA. The proliferation you speak of is, I'm sure, one method of
addressing the problem. Unfortunately, not everyone is motivated to do things
the same way as everyone else. If everyone pursued their interests purely for
the love of it, awards would have great meaning. Some people set goals for
themselves (the idea being that they can do or learn whatever they like if they
try hard and long enough) and others crave the respect and attention of those
around them. On the flip side, sometimes awards are given to friends or those
whose respect is desired. Your suggestion to bundle up the awards would only
make those awards meaningful to a few; what about everyone else?

There should be a variety of ways to give recognition for good acts and deeds,
creative talents, martial skills, and dedication to this organization.
Formalized awards are one such method. However, most of this recognition is from
above, such as from Royalty or Peerage groups. Who's to say that a group of
people can't request a moment of a feast or a court to stand up and say "we'd
like to take this moment to say that we think so-and-so has the spiffiest armor
we've ever seen and that everyone should wander on over and have a look." Or
have the local members of the cooking guild in one group publicly thank the
cooks of a feast at another group. Sometimes it has more meaning to hear such
things from everyday folks than from the various pointy hats.

I apologize for pushing this topic further a field. If anyone would like to
discuss it with me off list, I'd be happy to do so.

Kerri
Cedrin Etainnighean, OL
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