[MR] Atlantia Digest, Vol 167, Issue 10

[sca_bard@yahoo.com via Atlantia]

Message: 2
Date: Wed, 14 Dec 2016 07:58:34 -0500
From: Michelle C via Atlantia <atlantia at seahorse.atlantia.sca.org>


> My general impression is that most SCAdians enter competitions for
> their own reasons--to show off their work, to have their skills
> evaluated, to get feedback, as motivation to set goals, etc.--and
> prizes don't even figure into the decision. Still, I am curious what
> kind of prizes people prefer:

> Would you rather receive a prize that is directly related to the
> competition you entered, or one that is totally different? I'm not
> going to give examples, but feel free to provide your own.


Well, if nobody else is going to chime in...

Speaking as an A&S competitions person - I would rather have a prize that is something that I want and/or can use, so it may or may not have anything to do with the competition.  I got handmade beads that I adore from a bardic competition (different) and Viking-themed items that I still use from Viking-themed competitions (same).  As a reasonable person, I do not expect prizes to magically be tailored to my wants, though.  As you said, they're not a primary motivator.


When I ran poetry competitions as Poeta Atlantiae, I didn't necessarily give out poetry books as prizes, but I did try to find thematically-appropriate ones, because that seemed fun to me.  So a contest for Norse poetry had a recording of Sequentia's "Edda" performance, a contest for dream poems had a tapestry pillowcase, and a 12th cen. poetry contest had a 12th cen brooch reproduction from Quiet Raymond's as a prize.  I publicized the prizes ahead of time, with links to relevant vendor pages, to help set participants' expectations (and hopefully pique their interest).


- Teleri the Well-Prepared