Sunday stuff
Jun. 11th, 2006 12:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aliskyeJust got back from a typical Sunday morning with the P's. They had coffee and a pastry at the Rose Cafe. I had a muffin and some non-fat milk. Then we walked down one of my favorite beach streets. (If I won the lottery I would buy a house on that street). Walked on the beach, went to the Farmer's Market (I bought some veggies and some flowers which I still need to put in a vase). Then we went to Costco.
So, if you are still reading, we get to some SCA stuff.
I've been trying to stir up more interest in Scribal matters because it seems to me we are at a low ebb in scribal interests. Last year, I tried to interest people in a Scribes Guild and it was roundly pooh-poohed. I think I'm going to try to interest people again, and I'm just not going to a) take no for an answer :) and b) think that I have to interest 100% of the people.
Eowyn is right that we need to train more scribes, but just offering classes isn't going to do it. We need to have mentoring and incentive, even if that is something as artificial as ranks in a guild. We need to build a community of scribes.
What I have in mind is taking the College of Scribes and giving it some dimension. I propose to have several different ranks along the lines of Student (completed 0-3 scrolls or 0-2 scrolls and taken 1 scribal collegium class), Sophomore (completed 4-10 scrolls, or 3-7 scrolls and taken 3 scribal collegium classes), Scholar (completed 11+ scrolls, or 8 scrolls and teach 1 scribal collegium class). The exact numbers are up for debate.
The most senior scribes of the Kingdom, those wonderful people who regularly teach classes and write articles and keep the scribal arts alive, I'd ask to be part of the faculty (and continue their efforts).
The College of Scribes would be headed by a Dean. This would likely be separate from the Scribe Armarius though it could be the same person. The Scribe Armarius would still be the Collegium Regent for Scribal Arts and have the primary oversight of scroll production of the Kingdom. The Dean would keep track of ranks in the College and set up mentoring positions between new scribes and experienced scribes. Both positions will promote scribal arts in the Kingdom.
I think the time is right for this. Certainly there will be some that don't think it's necessary and it might not be for them. This is to encourage new scribes. Do people need ranks to do things? Of course not, but people do need community, especially to continue with what is often a thankless task. The College of Scribes can be that community. It needs to be something more than a name.
So, if you are still reading, we get to some SCA stuff.
I've been trying to stir up more interest in Scribal matters because it seems to me we are at a low ebb in scribal interests. Last year, I tried to interest people in a Scribes Guild and it was roundly pooh-poohed. I think I'm going to try to interest people again, and I'm just not going to a) take no for an answer :) and b) think that I have to interest 100% of the people.
Eowyn is right that we need to train more scribes, but just offering classes isn't going to do it. We need to have mentoring and incentive, even if that is something as artificial as ranks in a guild. We need to build a community of scribes.
What I have in mind is taking the College of Scribes and giving it some dimension. I propose to have several different ranks along the lines of Student (completed 0-3 scrolls or 0-2 scrolls and taken 1 scribal collegium class), Sophomore (completed 4-10 scrolls, or 3-7 scrolls and taken 3 scribal collegium classes), Scholar (completed 11+ scrolls, or 8 scrolls and teach 1 scribal collegium class). The exact numbers are up for debate.
The most senior scribes of the Kingdom, those wonderful people who regularly teach classes and write articles and keep the scribal arts alive, I'd ask to be part of the faculty (and continue their efforts).
The College of Scribes would be headed by a Dean. This would likely be separate from the Scribe Armarius though it could be the same person. The Scribe Armarius would still be the Collegium Regent for Scribal Arts and have the primary oversight of scroll production of the Kingdom. The Dean would keep track of ranks in the College and set up mentoring positions between new scribes and experienced scribes. Both positions will promote scribal arts in the Kingdom.
I think the time is right for this. Certainly there will be some that don't think it's necessary and it might not be for them. This is to encourage new scribes. Do people need ranks to do things? Of course not, but people do need community, especially to continue with what is often a thankless task. The College of Scribes can be that community. It needs to be something more than a name.
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no subject
Date: 2006-06-11 08:41 pm (UTC)I personally think there are too many scroll-eligible awards being given out, or at least that there are too many awards that are scroll-eligible. (Yes, there's a difference between those two.)
I think that we are wasting our new scribes' time painting the charters--I know that the expense might be great to start with, but have we ever considered getting the Charters color printed? The expense of losing scribes because they don't feel challenged by trying to color inside the lines (something they may have outgrown by the end of grammar school) I believe to be far greater than the printing expense.
The concept of turning the College of Scribes into a College is utterly shocking. I'm all for it.
no subject
Date: 2006-06-11 08:50 pm (UTC)I totally agree that there are too many scroll-eligible awards. Maybe we ought to be focusing on AoA's and Patents. I don't know what to do about the Grant level awards though. Darn our complicated award structure.
I have mixed feelings about painting the charters. It can be a good training ground to teach people how to paint and about some certain styles. But only if the charters include instructions (Eowyn did instruction sheets for the first Dolphin charter scroll, but they don't seem to be distributed anymore. And instruction sheets were never done for the rest of the charter scrolls.) But after painting 2-3, I think a person is ready to move on.
I'm not crazy about printing color charters. I'd rather see them as black/white line art, or handpainted. If we simplified some of them.......
I'm wanting to run with this...
Date: 2006-06-12 12:01 am (UTC)Most historical grants of arms were writing-heavy, art-light, in contrast with most of our scrolls. I do not begrudge anyone a beautiful piece of art for their wall, but I don't think spending untold hours making an already attractive piece of black-and-white art colorful is a good use of the time of the scant few active scribes.
In regards to the scroll-eligible awards, any that change the status of an armiger (Award to Grant to Patent) I can agree are appropriate for scrolls. The Orders often attached to the elevation in rank (i.e., the co-awards--Harp, Dolphin, Crescent Sword, Duelist, Argent Arrow, Lux, Crescent, Gauntlet, White Scarf, Chiron) get the recipient a ceremony and a pretty piece of jewelry. The legal documentation of a scroll (with the many hours of personal artistic effort) should be for the elevation, not for induction into the Order.
Court Baronies could also be scroll-eligible, since that changes the person's right to a title.
Your idea of (and I'm interpreting and expanding here) beating the bushes and dragging the artists, kicking and screaming, out of the paw-paw patch, is a much more useful thing to do.
How do we do this? Perhaps the idea of the Scribes' Challenge is worthy. Instead of a throwaway line when the scroll is presented identifying the scribe, maybe calling the scribe into court at the time of the scroll delivery, and an announcement something like, "With this scroll, Mistress Aliskye has presented to our court the 1,834th document from her brush and pen." A small gift, consumable in the practice of the art (a new tube of gouache, or a new nib, or a feather suitable for cutting into a quill, or a fresh fine-pointed brush, just as a few examples) could be presented to the scribe, not as a bribe to do more, but as a thank you and as an acknowledgement that supplies get used up!
If you like these ideas, I'd be happy to bring them to the scribes' list. However, they're going to be controversial, as is anything that changes The Way We Do Things.
Re: I'm wanting to run with this...
Date: 2006-06-12 02:50 pm (UTC)Perhaps doing illuminated scrolls for basic AoAs, GoAs and all Patents, then doing basic written scrolls for all the orders. Illuminate the first letter of each paragraph, and maybe have a nice but simple header with the symbol of the order on it. That should cut down scroll production time considerably without making it completely plain.