The Society for Creative Anachronism

HEY!
Lookie at this!
The membership has tripled since I was last in here!
Greetings and Salutations unto m'lords and m'ladies!

Heh heh... I recently got word from one of my fellow former SCAdians that Calontir's 25th anniversary is coming up in February.
Egads...
Now I do feel old.

My SCAdian days predate Calontir being a region, let alone a Kingdom!
*Blink blink* Thinking back on helping with that first crown tourney... man that was a crazy fubar...

I teach my newcomers how to write letters of recommendations for awards, and the importance of it. I also teach chatelaines that they stand in a good position to do the same for newcomers that are "playing the game". They may know the newcomer's deeds better than anyone else, and it's such a thrill for them to get their AoA. Our Monarchs love giving awards, They just need to know who needs what.

LOL!
I can dig it.
I was in the SCA for many years, eight or nine, before I got any awards at all.
Every body knew me, but I'd been in so long they just assumed I had the alphabet soup. (At least that was the excuse I was given. Some who gave it, I could believe. Some... nnnnnrrrrr...)
Some how I usually ended up in the kitchen.
Some how I usually ended up running water for the fighters.
Some how I always had the dirty garb with the rolled up sleves...
Ain't that the way of it, though?

So different from us! We have so many events that the Kingdom often has to decide which gets bumped to another day. The mileage rule often comes into play in order for events to happen concurrently. Our people are so spoiled that they wont go unless the event is practically in their backyard. The remote Baronies feel left out because "downtown Caid" wont drive a couple of hours. With gas the way it is, it's more understandable, but we really are blessed to be in such close proximity to so many events.

The nice thing in your neck of the Knowne World is that there's more camping events. If people are going to make the trek several hours in length, they need to make a weekend of it. Our camping events are almost exclusively at wars. I went to an event in the Middle Kingdom a few years ago and it was so lovely, they had everything going on, fighting, archery, equestrian, arts competition, etc. Everything was much smaller than I was used to here, but it was so nice to see all of that happening at once.

I pass on most of the camping events right now because of the job situation and the remoteness factor, but they're the events that I love the most. I love sitting around the campfire, drifting off to sleep with the drums going, watching hundreds of fighters clash into one another. Things are different at Great Western War, since I'm on staff. I fall into bed after a long day of convincing people that they want to volunteer, not seeing a lick of fighting, wishing everyone around the campfire would pipe down... I jest, but it does put a different set of spectacles on how the Society works.

Ah yes... and a lot of times I still miss them. I'm in contact with a couple of the more... uh... salty... characters of legend, still. Neither are in the SCA anymore, and while their exploits were ... uh ... elaborated upon as legends are wont to do, they're not as salty as they once were.

Oh, once in a while I catch word of an event in the area. For a while at least there was even a group near (as in within 30 miles) here... and we're pretty remote. 4.5 hours to Three Rivers, 6 hours to Forgotten Sea, 2.5 hours to... er... Springfield, MO was a new group when we dropped out... I forgot what they're called... And I think there's something down in Jonesboro, AR, which is a little over an hour's drive from here, but I don't know that group, either.

I'm currently the Exchequer for my Barony, I've been the Baronial and Kingdom Chatelaine, and served on Baronial and Royal courts. Im also a Regent for our Collegium and a sub-autocrat for Great Western War. Definitely approaching helium-hand syndrome.

We have the advantage here to have a large population in a relatively small geographic area, so it's usually not as tough to get to meetings and events. With the advent of cell phones and email, things are better than in the old days, but gaps in information transfer always manage to happen. That's too bad that there was a breakdown in your group's communication, it's frustrating to travel that distance for nothing.

Maybe some day you'll attend another event or two. There are some fine folks in Calontir.

Haven't been for many years.
I married a fellow that had a hard time dealing with SCA time, and then we had a topper: He and I were both officers, but we had to travel something like 45 miles to attend, and for the third time in a row there was a meeting change that we weren't informed about... (Of course, these were in the days before cell phones were readily available to us po' folk.) ... And we'd only been officers for three months!
(To top this all off, my brother -IRL- and his wife were the baron and baroness.)
Ah, but otherwise, had a lot of good times in the SCA when I was a 20s something pup.

Thank you and the same back at you. I just started this group last week so we'll listen to the crickets for a while. I expect that people will join in soon.

I come from Caid, in Southern California. Are you still active in the SCA?

Greetings and Salutations m'lady!