award-rec-let-msg – 6/11/05
Comments on writing award recommendation letters within the SCA.
NOTE: See also the files: Award-Rec-Let-art, Baronial-Lead-art, SCA-awards-msg, coronets-msg, jewelry-msg, tokens-msg, med-letters-msg.
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This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org
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Thank you,
Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous
Stefan at florilegium.org
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Subject: Re: A Question about Recommendations!
Date: Mon, 20 Sep 1999 10:08:06 -0400
From: Aedan Aylwyn <aedan at mindspring.com>
To: Atlantian List <atlantia at atlantia.sca.org>
>If I wish to recommend that a gentle receives his/her AoA, what is the
>correct process (or recommended way) of doing so? I apologize to all if
>this information is located somewhere in the Corpora or Red Tape, I have
This may be a bit long-winded, but here's an article I wrote on the subject
Last year. I hope it helps spell things out somewhat.
In joyful service,
Aedan
-----
Seeking Recommendations - Awards Offered
I know that if you look around you can find other articles on this subject, but I'm hoping one more will not hurt. What I'm talking about is that wonderful feeling of pointing out the great work of someone you know and seeing them rewarded for it. If they are doing such a great job then why would they need a recommendation? Believe it or not, neither the King nor the Queen (nor your local Baron/ess, for that matter) are exactly all knowing and they rely on each and every one of us to help them out by directing their attention at their noteworthy subjects. Let's start with some details on the process.
The first thing to remember is that anyone can recommend a gentle for any award. You don't have to have received that award yourself, there is no minimum requirement of rank or precedence. Merely making the effort of putting pen to paper (or reaching for that keyboard) is enough to put you in a special and all too rare category. Send any recommendations for Baronial awards to that person's Baron/ess. Kingdom level award recommendations get sent to Thier Majesties, of course. Let's get into some more specifics.
1. These points apply to both Baronial and Kingdom level awards. If you're shy about sending something to the King and Queen, your seneschal or Baron/ess are usually more than happy to act as a go-between for you.
2. Put it in writing. Their Majesties have a million details to remember, please don't give them one more. For those of you in the electronic world, email is often perfectly acceptable.
3. Make it clear who the person being recommended is. Try to at least include mundane and SCA names as well as their home group.
4. If recommending for a polling order, be sure to send a copy to the principle of that order. Their information can be found in the Acorn. The polling orders are the Academie D'Espee, Golden Dolphin, Pearl and Sea Stag orders.
5. Be as specific as you can. Saying "Joe's autocratted 3 events in the past 2 years" or "Jill is always in the kitchen helping with cleanup after local events" is great. "Bill works really hard and is a great fighter" is not so helpful.
6. You don't have to recommend someone for a specific award. Pointing out their fighting skill, artistic accomplishments and teachings, great amount of service or extreme courtesy can suffice.
7. The King's Award of Excellence and the Undine are personal awards >from the King and Queen respectively. It would be presumptuous to recommend specifically for these awards although a general pointing out of someone's work just might earn them one of these accolades.
8. Be willing to sign your name to it and include contact information
for yourself. Just like complaints, praise tends to be ignored if it is anonymous.
9. It does not hurt to be sure but don't worry too much about knowing if they already have that award. The Crown will do their best to confirm this information. The worst case would be for a gentle to receive the award a second time, not too disastrous.
10. Be courteous in your writing. Remember that you are trying to point out someone's achievements and not filling out a mail order for a birthday present. Making the recommendation doesn't ensure that the award will be given but it does go a long ways in that direction.
11. This is a medieval reenactment society but make your recommendations in reasonably modern English and a readable handwriting or font. If it can't be understood, it can't be acted upon.
12. Anyone can make award recommendations. This bears repeating.
Writing that first recommendation can be the hard part. After that, it's much easier and just think of how you'll feel being in court when that award is given, knowing that you were part of the process.
----------
Baron Aedan Aylwyn, Provost Baron of Caer Mear, Atlantia
Email: aedan at mindspring.com Royal Bad Influence
WWW: http://www.mindspring.com/~aedan Liason to the King's Privateers
Subject: Re: Award Recommendations
Date: Mon, 20 Sep 1999 17:10:31 EDT
From: SCAVard at aol.com
To: atlantia at atlantia.sca.org
Thanks to Baron Aedan for posting his article on award recommendations. A
similar article was written by yours truly for publication in =Clyffe Notes=
a few months ago, including a sample award recommendation letter that people
are free to use if they happen to be a little tongue-tied.
The address is: http://members.aol.com/scavard/vardicles.htm
I'll cut/paste the sample letter in a subsequent email ...I hope it is of
some help to folks.
To reiterate what has been said by many others.... award recommendations go
from your hands directly to the hands of the Crown. It is perfectly
appropriate for you to let the Crown know of Gentle(s) whom you feel deserved
to be recognized for their work, and I have yet to meet a Crown who does not
delight in giving awards. They cannot know everything, and They depend on
the populace to let Them know what's going on out here. A courtesy copy to
the Gentle's Baron/ess is absolutely a nice touch, and is encouraged, but it
is not a requirement.
If you do not know what the various kingdom awards are, or what they are for,
then drop by the kingdom website to take a look-see at a description of each:
http://www.atlantia.sca.org/awards.html
Finally, please PLEASE make use of the Kingdom Order of Precedence, as well
as whatever Baronial OPs that may be compiled and available for your use.
Many good Gentles have spent a great deal of time to provide for your use the
listing of all of the awards which have been given out. What you should look
for is what has NOT been given. Even if you don't have a particular Gentle
in mind for a specific award, it's always a good idea to paroose the OP just
to see who's got what.\
Why not take a moment today and look up the awards held by your friends and
by those in your local group? You might be surprized to learn that so-and-so
does NOT have an Award of Arms, and you might be moved to take that important
first step to correct this oversight. The Kingdom OP is at
Several Baronies have compiled their own OPs, for my home Barony (Dun Carraig), the OP is at
http://members.aol.com/scavard/op/
Thanks for letting me climb on this soap box. If you've not figured it out,
award letters are something very dear to my heart, and I am always happy to
write letters for those Gentles deserving of recognition. I'll step down
now and let some other person say their piece...
Yours,
// Vard //
Lord Edvard Gayer, Chronicler
Barony of Dun Carraig, Atlantia
http://members.aol.com/SCAVard
Subject: A Sample Award Recommendation Letter
Date: Mon, 20 Sep 1999 17:12:10 EDT
From: SCAVard at aol.com
To: atlantia at atlantia.sca.org
Below is a sample award recommendation letter which was graciously provided
by Lord Lancelin Perigrinus of the Barony of the Flaming Gryphon in the
Middle Kingdom. With his kind permission, I have modified it to make it more
Atlantia-specific. Feel free to use this as a starting point for your own
letters.
Yours,
// Vard //
Lord Edvard Gayer, Chronicler
Barony of Dun Carraig, Atlantia
http://members.aol.com/SCAVard
----
** A Sample Award Recommendation Letter (by Lord Lancelin Peregrinus) **
Unto Their most Royal Majesties Frederick and Wilma, King and Queen of
Atlantia, does Lord John Doeslayer recommend himself and send greetings!
Your Majesties, I write this day to recommend one of your subjects, Bronwyn
the Industrious (mundanely known as Betty Boop), for an Award of Arms for
service to the Canton of Twinkiton.
Bronwyn has been a member of the SCA for two years and currently lives in the
Canton of Twinkiton (Dullsville, MD) within the Barony of the Rampant
Platypus. She has been the Twinkiton Minister of Arts for the past six months
and has done an excellent job. In addition, she has participated in almost
every demo we have put on, and is constantly helping our members with garb
and other projects.
Bronwyn will most likely be at "Push for Pennsic" and "Revenge of the
Platypus."
Thank You for Your kind attention! On this third day of June, Anno
Societatis XXIX, I remain
In Your Service,
John
Lord John Doeslayer, CGP
Twinkiton Seneschal
cc: TRH Barnard and Elizabeth
Joe Blow
123 My Street
Dullsville, MD 22233
(301) 555-1212
joeblow at anywhere.com
From: Kimberly Koch [sarapenrose at yahoo.com]
Sent: Thursday, August 29, 2002 1:47 PM
To: ansteorra at ansteorra.org
Subject: Re: [Ansteorra] Criteria...
> I remember having this conversation dozens of times when
> I was queen: Someone would come to me and ask "But
> why did you give Lady X this award when Lord Z, who
> lives in the same group, has done more and for a
> longer period of time?" My answer was always the
> same: "Because nobody recommended Lord Z."
> Recommendations are so important!
Amen to that! I had that conversation several times
during our reign, too. The Crown can't possibly know
everyone who is deserving of an award at all times.
The vast majority of awards happen based on someone's
written recommendation, not on the Crown's personal
knowledge of those people.
> Write your recommendation down and give
> it to them so they'll have something to jog their
> memory when they sit down later to confer with their
> scribe.
Amen to that, too. I have to add that it's also a good
idea to email or snail mail your recommendations,
rather than handing them to the Crown at an event. The
Crown hauls so much stuff back and forth to events,
and there are so many people who help them with that
task, that it's very easy for scraps of paper to get
lost, forgotten, or inadvertantly transferred to
someone else's vehicle. While all award recs are of
great importance to any Crown, when you're sitting the
throne, you are often more worried about making sure
you don't forget the Sword of State and that someone
got the kneeling pillows out of the rain, than you are
about keeping track of an award rec someone jotted
down on a napkin and thrust at you just as you were
trying to find a few minutes to rush to the bathroom
before court.
Mailing your recs - especially emailing them - makes
it easier for the Crown to keep track of them.
Sara
<the end>