[Sca-cooks] AoAs

[Ted Eisenstein]

>What's an AoA? Not, I gather, that I need to worry about that myself for
>another 15 years or so... I am in Ostgardr, as you may have noticed. And,
>having seen what happens when someone gets involved in a Kingdom Level
>event, I'll stay in my happy little corner...
> Is it an Award of Arms, or am I mistaken?
Yup. That's what it is. No, you're not mistaken. And you don't need to get
into any politics at all to get one. I certainly didn't; nearly as I can tell, I got
mine for staying around so long, and for long service in the kitchen doing
dishes. (Well, in the kitchen flirting madly with the women, but, still. . . . )

>And is that what armigerous
>means?  If it is, how is it different from getting arms, which people seem
>to do all by themselves? (I mean, with help and permission of heralds and
>such, but...)
Armigerous means you've got an AoA. An AoA does not correlate with
a coat of arms (aka "device"), which is what you register with the SCA's
College of Arms. Technically, you can get arms via an AoA, and you can
get a completely different arms via registering a device. Very confusing,
all of this.

>Is it A Something of Arts?
No. You can get an AoA for doing artsy stuff, but it's not a requirement.

>Is it one of those annoying things
>where they seem to think you only do one thing so you have to concentrate
>on that if you want to get awards?
No. You can do whatever you want, as long as it's legal. And you should never
ever do anything to get awards: you should do stuff because you want to do
stuff, because it's fun, because it's educational, because it's a fine way to pick
up members of the appropriate sex. . . There's a name for people who do
stuff just to get awards, and it's not a term suitable for putting on this list.
I got my service awards for heralding; a while later I got an A&S award for
research, only some of which was vaguely attached to heraldry.
Do lots of stuff. It's more fun that way.

>And don't have to worry if you don't care?
Bingo. The purpose of this group should be having fun through learning bunches
of stuff; anything else is whipped cream.

>I so do not understand how some aspects of this society work...
I've been in for <mumblety mumble> years, and _I_ don't understand
how some aspects work.

(By the way: track down a copy of The Known World Handbook. Your
chatelain/new-person's helper should have a copy. If not, get one from the
SCA Marketplace (via the SCA's main page, www.sca.org). It's a good
overview of the arts, sciences, fighting, and customs and such of the SCA.)

Alban