Femke's 99 Theses - give or take 96 or so

[femkes_follies]

Ya know, I really didn't start out in the Society with the intention of becoming a flag-waving, wimple-burning radical. But I seem to be collecting heretical viewpoints. I had a very enlightening 2 hour phone conversation this past afternoon with Mistress Sarafina. Which always gets my wheels spinning. All Heresies, however, are entirely my own.



First off (and what got me started tonight - other than a wakey baby followed by weird exhaustion-induced insomnia), I've heard some proclaim that you shouldn't decry someone else's solution to a problem without offering your own. Or, translated, "Have you got a better idea?" So here goes:

I understand the problem of obtaining bids to host Crown and Coronation - honest, I do. I've even surveyed local sites extensively - and had an excel database file of available facilities, policies, and costs. But I remain unconvinced that permanently fixing Spring Crown and the Kingdom A&S Faire in Cinci is the best alternative. Putting Kingdom A&S essentially out of reach for the northern and western parts of the Kingdom strikes me as heavy-handed and disrespectful. A lot of us decide whether or not to pursue entries for the Faire in the spring based on whether or not going to Faire is doable. I didn't bother this year due to the SNAFU with the Regional Faire and my inability then to make ANY of the Regionals on such short notice.

My alternative? Split it into two events. Leave Spring Crown on Memorial Weekend. Eliminate the requirement of entry into a Regional Faire for Kingdom Faire. And combine Kingdom Faire with Spring RUM (which makes more sense anyway). This still leaves us with only 2 Kingdom events. But now the Crown Tourney no longer requires a site that can meet the wildly disparate needs of Faire and Tourney. Nor does it need to be over two days. Which makes finding a usable site factors of magnitude easier. (For starters, Churches are now reasonable sites). And the host group doesn't have to pay for TWO days of site rental. Plus, combining RUM and Faire ought to increase the available pool of judges. Even though you don't have the draw of a Laurel meeting. After all, membership in the Order isn't a requirement for judges. It has the potential to boost both RUM and Faire, done correctly.

Heresy number 2:
The Middle Kingdom has a chronic problem at Courts. And that's Award recipients not being present. Part of this stems from people not staying for Court. And probably most stems from those writing the award recommendations reporting that someone will be at an event - while knowing darned well they won't.

My proposed "fix": Writs of summons. Have one of the Heralds deliver writs to pretty much everyone with a reason to be at Court - whether they're getting an Award, presenting something, won a tourney, or whatever. If they can't be found, the Crown can hold back the Award for another event. Instead of sitting in their thrones while the Herald repeatedly performs the equivalent of calling "Beuhler? Beuhler?" Now, Peerages don't have this issue, and therefore don't need writs (though whether they're desirable or not is a separate issue). Now, this might decrease attendance at Court - since those who did NOT get a writ need not stay. And arguably eliminates the thrill of "surprise." However - A. How important is the "gotcha" factor? and B. Given that some Courts manage up to 80% of recipients not present, they're going to just read it in the Pale anyway - so what difference does it make? Heck, I wish I'd had enough heads' up to have been present for my Evergreen, instead of on the other side of the site entertaining Anneliese.

I'll rant on people (especially in smaller groups) insisting on putting everybody in the group in for SOMETHING every time Royalty visits at a later date.

Heresy #3: Gut the Award structure of all of the GoA awards and return to nothing but a strict GoA. Turn the Willow and Oak into Awards that can be given more than once for proficiency in a new art or science.

The "three tier" structure makes people perceive them as "check marks" on the road to a specific Peerage. And highlights the gap between GoA martial awards for fencing, archery, and thrown weapons and the Chiv. It also seems to lend itself to "cookie fever."

Just my sleep-addled thoughts on subjects here and there.

Comments

[tashadandelion.livejournal.com]

Just FYI, even the 2-tiered structure (as seen in the East and some other kingdoms) is seen as a ticket-punch system. If someone is deemed qualified for any given level, I'd like to see the levels below it grand-fathered in automatically, if the person doesn't have that accolade. This would do away with the idea that we must grant every level in its order of challenge to a given candidate on their journey. As written, the levels feed into each other -- it's not really possible to be qualified for the highest level and not also be qualified for the lower ones. This circumvents the polling system for the lower ones though, which would probably be the biggest sticking point.

[femkederoas.livejournal.com]

You're always going to get it to an extent. But where it was understood at one point that a Willow was likely a long way from a Laurel.... Now, if you've gotten an Evergreen, you're "almost there - Teh Laurels Iz Watchin'!!" *eye roll*

There is a degree of TRMs consulting some of the GoA orders - but not the A&S. Polling there is reserved for the OL. I'm not really sure why they feel they need to poll the other GoA orders. It tends to make them put on airs, if you will.

[ablackram.livejournal.com]

I know they poll the rings because 90%+ of the chiv have no idea about the fencers. Even tho now there is a duke on the rings. So they decided from the get go to have them put forth qualified peeps, tho as we've seen sometimes they just dont bother to ask for guidance on who give the award to, then the person has to scurry to be worthy in the rest of the peeps eyes.