From: vader@meryl.csd.uu.se ("]ke Eldberg")
Subject: SCA Upgrade?
Organization: The Internet
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1993 23:54:16 GMT

Greetings from William de Corbie!

Bertram wrote:

>  1. The SCA was founded as a group for enjoying the _romance_
>     of the Middle Ages.  The 'educational corporation' stuff
>     was added later to gain us some benefits from the powers
>     that be. (Confirmed by multiple people attending 1st Tourney.)

Right. But the educational stuff has become more than just a
convenient legal definition; it is now a real part of what we
aim for and of what many members are actually doing.

>  2. Over the last 27 years the SCA has been remarkably "good" at
>     providing a place where people _can_ enjoy the romance of the
>     Middle Ages (otherwise we'd still be 60 people in a backyard...)
>     and it's hard to say that we're doing anything other than _romance_.

In this, you are using the growth of the Society as an argument
for the present system, right? I.e. it must be very good, or it
would never have attracted so many people.

I do not believe for one moment that there is any causal relation
between the fantasy style of our system and the growth of the
Society. People are attracted to the SCA for many different reasons,
size not being the least. Openness and low treshold requirements are
others.

Over these 27 years, we have also aquired a lot of knowledge that
was not here when this thing started. We are now able not only to
be more authentic in our personal equipment and behavior, but we
are also more able to figure out authentic ways to organize the
Society, without compromising the necessary modern values.

As I said earlier, our administration has developed with our size,
but our medieval organization has not. I am firmly convinced that
there are things that we can change which would not negatively affect
the growth rate of the SCA, while they would make the Society more
authentic, and thus even better suited to providing a place where
people can enjoy the romance of the middle ages.

>  3. So long as we do not have a tightly restricted time frame
>     (a decade, say, or perhaps half a century) there are few
>     criteria for saying "this was done historically and this
>     was not..."  In all the human civilizations prior to 1601
>     there were MANY different ways of selecting rulers, etc.
>     We'd have to pick a more coherent geographical area, too.

Not necessarily. I would be satisfied if we had a system (for
e.g. choosing sovereigns) that (at least resembles something
that) was done *anywhere* in Europe in our period. The problem
with our present system is that it is a pure fantasy, something
that was done *nowhere* and *never*.

>  5. The SCA _does_ have structures in place to encourage the
>     creation of various things -- costumes, armor, art, etc. --
>     that _are_ based on historical models (like the Order of the 
>     Laurel, to one degree or another).  

What? Are you saying that there was a medieval Order which made
the members Peers of the realm, but *not* Knights, and which was
given out for skill at e.g. embroidery or calligraphy? Can you
document this? Wow! :-)

It looks  to me like you are criticizing something that I never
wrote. You are painting the old authenticity monster on the wall.
The changes I have been advocating are not of the type that would
make the SCA a 100% authentic group. As you say, this would require
narrowing down our scope to a few decades in a particular country.
That has not even been an issue in the recent Rialto discussions.

I quite agree that people who have special interests in a parti-
cular culture and time should be encouraged to form separate groups,
in collaboration with the SCA. But that is a different thing than
what we have been talking about here.

Implementing Cariadoc's "County" proposal, or Kevin's restructuring
ideas, or my own ideas for Drachenwald, or the organizational ideas
put forth on the Rialto by Tadhg, Arval, Aryk and others, does NOT
mean that we narrow the scope of the Society, and it does not hurt
any of the valuable qualities that this group has. All of these
ideas and arguments have aimed at achieving not only a more authentic
organization of the SCA, but also one that would provide more fun,
and that would take modern considerations in account.

William

P.S. If I have misinterpreted your intentions, please forgive me.