[Sca-cooks] Re: Feasts

[Laura C. Minnick]

At 10:28 PM 11/14/02 -0500, you wrote:
>    Another thing that would keep interest up in feast and also shorten
>courts would be to take care of non-essential business during feast; things
>like gift presentations, taking associates, schtick, announcements, and only
>doing 'official' business during court. Courts that are short and
>expeditious are very few in number, and anything that shortens them is OK in
>my book.

I have long been espousing this idea- for the Crown to hold 'audience' for
presentations, etc., is not only a terrific way to cut the Court length,
but it is a very period thing to do- at least in England and France,
semi-offical 'Crown Wearings' were done maybe twice a year or so, but were
held in different places, and gave the population an opportunity to see the
King in a place less rarified than Court. Also, it would appear to me that
presentations were largely done in private- and the pictorial record
supports this, particularly with presentations of books, etc.

As regards awards and people who aren't around to accept them- An Tirian
Crowns have taken to handing the awards to the local Coronet- Baronial as
well as Principality, to be handed out at a subsequent event. It does help
with folks who aren't able to travel, and people who skip court get their
awards- they just miss the treat of the whole kingdom seeing it happen.

>    A trend I've been observing for a while (which is trending upwards) has
>been the number of 'attendees' as opposed to 'participants' at events, which
>daytripping encourages. Highly visible volunteers (especially those basking
>in the reflected glory of the Crowns) are plentiful, but there are fewer and
>fewer volunteers for the behind-the-scenes scutwork. We suffered from a
>severe shortage of kitchen volunteers last weekend at coronation . . . While
>this may be a topic for another thread, I'm seeing a lot more of the
>'medieval fair' attitude, where people feel that since they paid to get in,
>they're entitled to wander about and be entertained. And work, well, that's
>for the host group.

Ya know Sieggy, I recently read the entirety of the History of the Kingdom
of the West, which is on-line at the West Kingdom website. It has info and
opinion from the First Tournament. And you know what? This is a problem
we've had since Day 1. It isn't a new trend. I for one don't really know
how to change it. I have heard people whine about not having an AoA, or a
*kingdom service award*, and when it's been suggested that they do some
*work* where it can been seen they are full of excuses, get defensive,
hostile even. And I think these people will always be with us. I dunno what
to do, other than work around them. (And you know what? They generally
aren't much of decorative value either! What- make period garb? That's too
hard... don't be such a N*** about it... :-P)

'Lainie
Hey has anyone else taken any of the "which HP character are you?" quizzes?
The Sorting Hat says I'm from Gryffindor! :-D)
___________________________________________________________________________
"This would be a better world for children if the parents had to eat the
spinach." Groucho Marx, _Animal Crackers_