SC - Competition entry

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Siegfried Heydrich wrote:
> 
>     I've entered a total of 2 art/sci's in the 18 years I've been in the
> SCA. In the first, I entered meade, and provided the required documentation,
> in compucalligle, no less. During the course of the day, someone (else's)
> bottle exploded, and they used my docs to help clean up the mess. As a
> result, I scored a 68, and was told I had been penalized 30 point for not
> having any docs. When I found out what had happened, I complained, presented
> my spare copy of the docs, and was told (and I quote) "it's too late,
> judging is over, bad break, better luck next time" by the KMOA/S.

Well, okay, you present excellent points. On the other hand, it was,
literally, a bad break, and if the outcome of the competition was all
that important in the Grand Design, perhaps this was Somebody's way of
letting you know that if the competition was as ridiculous as you've
made it seem, it ought not to be taken so seriously. I mean, a
competition is supposed to  yet another friendly game, like a game of
checkers, tennis, or a rattan fight. If you deal with idiots in these
situations, someone is liable to get splashed, and you probably need to
figure it will even out in the end, with everybody getting screwed over
once or twice. Yes, this was a pretty intensive exercise in how not to
run a competition, but it sounds as if most of the big errors were made
in the early, organizational stages. It may have seemed as if your
KMoA&S was being insensitive, but what are they going to do, publicly
strip the other person of the victory?

I completely understand your dislike of the regimented competition. I've
never liked them myself, have also been in exactly two of them, actually
won them both, and still decided the format wasn't for me. 

>     The second time, I entered a Kurdish dish whose recipe was taught to me
> by the grandmother of a family friend. She was old enough to have been the
> Grandfather of Assassins personal handmaiden, and came from the Alamout
> region, no less . . .
>     She told me that the recipe had been in her family for many generations,
> and I documented this as such. I also documented similar dishes as period,
> and stated that this particular recipe had been handed down in an oral
> tradition, and was a family variant taught to me by word of mouth from a
> native of the region. Once again, I got docked 30 points for 'insufficient
> documentation'.
>     That was it for me. I don't do art/sci's any more. I have a great deal
> of respect for the entries I see, and admire the craftsmanship shown, but
> I've also seen masterworks metaphoricly ripped to shreds by people who
> didn't have a clue. One lady I knew did a 3'x5' tapestry of Tolkein's map of
> the Middle Earth, and had it disqualified from judging as being a 'fantasy
> work'. She removed it from the hall in tears, handed back her green belt,
> and I never saw her at an event ever again. Apparently, the comments from
> the judges were bad enough that she quit the SCA as a result. She does
> sci-fi cons now.

And somebody bears responsibility for that. We had a chance to make the
Society better, and failed. Recently I helped bring a variant on the
Laurel's Prize Tourney to the East, and before the event I offered, only
partially in jest, to teach a basic workshop on Tact and Professional
Courtesy for Peers of the Realm, since it was the shy and easily
discouraged artisans that the expo was aimed at, and I felt the need to
say that if I heard about any cruelty in the judging, those laurels
would answer to me. I still don't know what I was supposed to do, maybe
pants them outside or something, but I can be reasonably scary when I
want to be.

>     I've found over and over that judging is purely subjective, and the
> judges in all too many cases have little to no expertise in the field they
> are judging. I've seen Laurels lobbying other judges to boost the scores for
> their apprentices, and at other times slagging the entries of people they
> didn't like. Politics.

Yep. Unfortunately, while the Corporate view of behavior requirements
for Arms Patent is probably desgined with this kind of thing, in part,
in mind, it doesn't always work.

>     I've seen many well meaning efforts to reform the judging systems, but
> the elastic nature of the SCA means that what one KMOA/S does, another may
> undo next reign. Oh, well, sorta like crown lists - quality varies, and that
> always gives us lots to natter about . . .

I'm beginning to suspect that there is no Best Way to do a competition,
and the only way to be sure a decent job gets done is to have several
different types of rule systems in place at once, in different places.
Rules for a specific comp might be designed, accidentally, in favor of
one person over another, but then if the same two are at another event,
those rules can favor the other, while at a third event they're on an
even keel.

I was recently asked to provide the East Kingdom's A&S Guidelines and
Rules, and I was embarrassed to realize that I didn't know what they
were. I looked through the files, and found nothing. Nothing in EK Law
and Policy (Yes, 'Lainie, I _have_ read it ;  )  ). The bottom line is
that, as per the recent words of the Crown of the East, we have no such
guidelines, no set rules, and are fairly proud of it. Now, what we do
have are A&S events that are older than most kingdoms, and they will
often have set rules that are well-publicized several months in advance.
But variations in the rules between events tends to iron out a lot of
the difficulties with how they're run. If, for you, one event is no fun,
the next one might be better, because it'll almost certainly be
different. It also means that if you don't like the way a comp is run,
you can run one yourself, with rules you establish yourself, and take
charge of publicizing. Hey, maybe your event will just happen to be
thirty miles from a pentathlon where you had a bad experience, on the
same day, and who knows, maybe that event will end up out of bidness. [I
did not say that!]  

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com