[Northshield] Peerage topics

[elyse boucher]

Greetings from the humble scribe Merouda Pendray, who
has not been able to get back to the conversation
until now.

I will be making comments based on what I read in
several people's letters, and will not be quoting
anyone.


1. Regarding the idea of multiple GOA level treaties
for multiple martial activites: Please. No. First, as
Ary noted, the proliferation of awards-as-merit-badges
is detrimental to the society. At a very base level,
it speaks of an attitude of: Get one, then start on
earning another until you collect them all! Or it
speaks of an attitude of: Look at me, I got a specific
award, so I'm *more* special. However, even at it's
best, it conveys the appearance of the SCA as a place
to earn danglys rather than a place to learn history
in a social setting.

I would be equally against a proliferation of awards
for specific arts and sciences, or a proliferation of
awards for various sorts of services, but I can not
help but notice that this tends to be an issue only
for martial activities.

Secondly, why do the martial arts that do not fall
under the auspices of the Chivalry need a seperate
peerage? You can become a Laurel for study and
prowess; you can become a Pelican for service. It is
untrue that there isn't a peerage for you, it's only
true that the peerages for you aren't for you
exclusively. I can not accept any argument that
criticises the Chivalry for exclusivity and then
demands to be singled out. Furthermore, I can not
accept an argument that subtly criticizes the Chivalry
for not having the same expectation of research that
the Laurel has and then, again, espousing the idea
that a similar peerage be made for the other martial
arts because it's not fair to expect people to do
research on top of being masters at shooting or
riding.

2. Someone wanted to know which Laurels do what, and
someone else mentioned that the Laurels and other
Peers may seem difficult to get a hold of. While I
agree that one of the things on the webminister's
to-do list is probably a more complex Peerage
subsection, I don't think we need to make it a top
priority, in part because most of the active Peers are
also frequent flyers on the email lists. I'm easy to
get a hold of; if you want to find out about what my
primary skills, secondary skills, and interests are,
well, at the bottom of every message I send is a link
to my website. There is more than you would ever want
to know about me there. I'd say that about 1/2 of the
Laurels, at a rough estimate, have some kind of web
presence, which may be easily found merely by
googleing our names.

However, there is also a handy-dandy list on
MidLaurel.com that has a list of all the NS Laurels up
to the coming of the Kingdom of Northshield, at
http://www.midlaurel.com/nscompanions.shtml. They have
very graciously kept this active over there, and I
recomend it to you as a tool that you can use if you
want to know who specializes in what. Add Master Danr
for his mad metalsmithing skilz and Maestra Giovanna
for her mad Tentmaking, cooking, and costuming skilz
and you have a complete list that you may use as a
ready-reference.

Thank you very much for your attention; I hope the
link to MidLaurel will be helpful to those who seek
that information. :-)

I remain in service, 

Merouda

Modern: Elyse C. Boucher, West Allis, WI
SCA: Merouda Pendray, Caer Anterth Mawr, Northshield
Per pale sable and Or, a gryphon segreant counterny within an orle of feathers counterchanged. http://www.merouda.com

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