[Artemisia] SCA Mission Statement and Recognition

[Bruce Padget]

Hachmood Braden writes:

> Ok Niccolo, you've tweaked a couple of points enough
> for me to actually turn
> off a badge of 'argent, a cloak sable' (for those
> who don't want to get it,
> it's a cloaking device)

Good! :D  In general, I do not think we disagree on
goals.  My beefs are that the SCA as a whole has done
a lousy job of defining its goals, and that we don't
work to advance our stated goals.

> As one
> who helps decide these things, the ultimate goal for
> these [war point] categories is to
> inspire folks to try out a new form of art.  

That is a great goal, and one I share.  But I'm not
convinced that war points are the best way to make it
happen.  If you'll indulge me by briefly imagining
Maxwell Smart's voice, we "miss it by *that* much." 
In the case you present, the justification for the war
point wasn't the point itself, but things like the jam
session that spun off from it.  

For every person who has been inspired by an arts war
point, I'm fairly sure you can find one who was put
off by it.  Yet almost all of the musicians I know
would love a jam session with period music and
instruments.  So instead of working toward the war
point and hoping for a jam session to spin off of it,
why not work toward the jam session?

When we judged European dance together, the most
important recognition (my opinion) went to the person
who organized the two lowest-scoring entries.  The
recognition we gave was entirely ad hoc and
unofficial.  (Should any wish, I'll recount the story
privately in detail.  In brief, as I saw it, it came
down to the question I posed to the lady we
recognized: "Is it better to have one couple dance
perfectly, or to have a whole shire dance well?")

One of the categories for the upcoming war is table
top games, another area dear to me.  Yet I will not
enter the category, and unless there is great need, I
don't intend to judge it.  I will spend much of my
time at the Inn of the Crimson Spade, teaching and
playing period table top games, because that is how I
have found I can most productively advance research
and re-creation of period games.

> Not all of the members of the Society are fighters. 

Quite true, so why cram their activities into a
fighting framework, such as competing for a Kingdom
championship, or a war point?

Also, while not all members are fighters, an awful lot
are.  Yet the SCA Mission Statement does not mention
fighting.  A mission statement that lumps fighting in
as just another activity doesn't describe what we do
at all.

> The 'war point format'
> is so we have structure over chaos when little lady
> 'first event' shows up
> to display her doobis she learned by herself to make
> because she'd heard
> about the artform from reading the Estrella
> information. 

I think the SCA over-values structure.  Or more to the
point, values the wrong structures.  

Hachmood Braden, I hope it's not news to you that you
generally have one of the coolest encampments around. 
I've heard more than a few folks who have seen it and
been inspired to improve the authenticity and
decadence of their own camping arrangements.  To my
knowedge, this was not driven by any formal
competition or recognition.  Rather, it has been
driven by a desire for comfort and beauty.

> It's not the
> long-time hardcore artists that take the day.  In
> the instrumental music
> category, a lady from Hawaii who doesn't read music
> and only listens to her
> husband's early music recordings was inspired to
> pick up a pair of different
> period instruments and learn the songs she played
> completely by ear, then
> came and shared her knowledge with the rest of us. 
> She won the instrumental
> music category.  That takes FAR more courage than
> being part of the army on
> the field.  You become an army of one on the stage,
> hopelessly outnumbered
> by the judges, critics, and audience.  Is that not
> worthy of some sort of
> banner of honor?

Absolutely!  Does it have to be the same badge of
honor that the fighters win? 

I am not saying that we over- or under- value
non-fighting activities  What I'm saying is that we
err in attempting to measure them as we measure
fighting.  

> You also say
> 
> [snip]
> Official recognition takes up an awful lot of our
> time
> and energy.  The main activity of peerage meetings
> is
> deciding who else gets invited into the meetings. 
> The
> central activity of most SCA evenings is induction
> of
> people into various orders.  (We call it "court,"
> but
> it don't look much like court to me...)
> 
> The SCA award structure has been very good to me, so
> I
> hope I will be forgiven for asking why it is that so
> much time and energy is taken with things that are,
> at
> best, peripheral to our stated goals.
> [end snip]
> 
> There is more to the awards of the SCA.  Without
> digging up circle biz to
> the masses, there is a lot of idea sharing that
> happens on a peer level if
> you look in the places where it's being discussed
> (re: society-wide lists).

Yup, I've had the fortune of seeing and participating
in some of those discussions.  But again, it's a case
of "missed it by *that* much."  The coolest, and I
think most productive, peerage conversations I have
been in are outside the official conversations.  When
the coolest things we do happen despite our official
structures, it's time to re-think the official
structures.

> And it's more than just peerages.  You of all people
> as a court herald
> should know that there are those looks when people
> receive an award that
> they weren't sure they deserved, but were soooo
> pleased that the Crown (or
> Coronet) felt they had earned, it's just priceless. 
> You've made someone's
> day by thanking them for enjoying being a part of
> the Society.  They get a
> bit of pretty art and a doobis, but more
> importantly, they feel that their
> efforts have made this game better.

Oh, don't think for a moment that I don't recall those
moments with great affection.  My point (and I do have
one...) is that, if those moments are so important,
why isn't recognition part of our mission statement? 
(The SCA Mission Statement does rather blandly mention
 "encouraging" certain things, but I don't think it
comes anywhere near capturing the importance of
individual recognition as we practice it.)

Regards,
Niccolo
bapadget at yahoo.com