[MR] More about awards

[E L Wimett]

Yup.  I was around for that one.

Nearly 20 years ago, when the BoD was still more or less a wholly owned 
subsidiary of California, the BoD decided that too many groups were 
refusing to advance to Baronial status and/or were opting to advance as 
(recognized by Corpora) entities without a ruling noble.  They felt that 
200 member shires like Rieslingshire were a Bad Thing.  (This was when you 
only needed 100 to go kingdom, you understand.)  They also felt that 
Provinces like those particularly popular east of the Mississippi were a 
Bad Thing.

Someone had the bright idea of banning orders and awards for any group that 
does not have a ruling noble, no matter what their status, in order to push 
groups into "promoting".

Baronies have a ruling noble so they can have awards.  Shires have no 
ruling noble so they cannot have awards.  Provinces --- which are on the 
same level as Baronies but have no ruling noble --- cannot have awards.

Incidentally, in a lot of areas this strategy worked, but there are still a 
few holdouts floating around out there.

Was this a good motivation for banning awards in shires?  No, of course, 
not.  It was based on a local worldview and conflicted with the traditions 
of the better part of the Society.

Like the origination of the grant-bearing order, it was rooted in the 
desire to impose from outside a value and tradition structure on other 
kingdoms that was not native to those kingdoms.  Never a good idea an it 
has probably done a fair amount to warp the Society and to foster the 
hang-ups on award recognition that has done so much to change the Society 
for the worse in recent years. . .

Alisoun
Whose offices have made her a witness to more Society history than she 
really wanted to see. . .

On Wednesday, September 19, 2001 1:56 PM, Brett W McCoy 
[SMTP:bmccoy at chapelperilous.net] wrote:
> Something noted by Anne le Coeur earlier this morning was the lack of
> Shire level awards.  Does anyone know specifically why there are no Shire
> level awards (besides what it says in Corpora -- I already looked it up).
> Obviously, there is no ceremonial head of a shire (which leads to me a
> tangential question of why we don't have shire reeves?) to give out
> awards...
>
> -- Istvan
>                                           http://www.chapelperilous.net/
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