From: haslock@rust.zso.dec.com (Nigel Haslock)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Dollar Cost of Awards
Date: 8 Jan 93 23:58:37 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation - DECwest Engineering
NNTP-Posting-Host: rust.zso.dec.com


Surely there are two phases to getting an award, one one has decided on an
award to attain.

Phase 1
Learning enough about the relevant subject and developing the skills to be
able to perform appropriately.

Phase 2
Performing well enough and often enough in front of people who will be moved
to write recommendations.

The costs of phase 1 are determined by the skill one wants to perform. 
Fighting is guaranteed to cost money for armor. Many Arts and Sciences can
have much lower investments in tools and consumables (Singing, Heraldic
Research, some fibre arts). Service may require no cash to learn how to do
a job. In all cases there is a time investment for this phase.

Phase 2 is almost as wide open.

Fighters need to maintain equipment, travel to practices and travel to events.
They are visible to their peers on these occaisions. Assuming that it takes 3
years to reach peerage standard and requires one replacement of equipment, I
would guess that the cost of a knighthood is $1000 plus 1200 hours (8 hours of
training per week for 150 weeks).

A&S types can end up spending a fortune in materials or a fortune in hours of
work. The distinction comes between the fields that require lots of time and
relatively cheap materials and those that require less time and expensive
materials. Performing Arts types are expected to give away their product.
Jewellers who are not independently wealthy need to sell their product to be
able to replace the raw materials used in their product. However, the problem
for an A&S type is performing in front of an audience. The audience is always
smaller than that of a fighter (how many Arts or Sciences have more than one
Laurel in a given kingdom? By definition, all of the Chivalry fight). Thus it
will take longer to achieve recognition in the A&S area. That means more time
and more materials and money spent on books, photos or photocopies. It might
be possible to generalize a trade off between manhours and cash but I refuse
to. It is noticable that it takes much more time if ones art is built on
cheap materials. Making a product from $50 worth of materials and 2 manhours
is always more noticable than making a product from 50 manhours and $2 worth
of materials. To become known, one must have a large collection of product.
A lacemaker is not likely to get a laurel for a single piece of lace (even if
it took 1000 hours to make and $20 worth of thread). A jeweller might be able
to buy a laurel with 20 hours work and $2000 worth of materials (a gift of a
set of new crowns for example). I have a feeling that it takes about 5 years to
earn a laurel. I would assume that on average 8 hours a week devoted to ones
field of interest which gives a cost of 2000 hours plus some amount of cash.

The attitude that 'Merchanting is its own reward' tends to delay awards to
merchant artisans. This might encourage the wealthier merchants to consider
'buying awards' by making extravagant gifts to the crown.

Pure service types seem to take the longest time to be recognised. I think
that I guessed at 7 years. I would also guess that potential pelicans spend a
fair amout of time talking to people and thus have a cash cost in phone bills,
stamps and filing systems. I would guess at $40 a month in phone bills on
average over my estimated 7 years. Thus my guess at the cost of a pelican is
2800 hours and $3360.

All in all, I suspect that the system is broken (in the sense that it is
inequitable) and skewed in favour of maintaining the preeminence of the
Chivalry over the rest of the peerage. However, I have yet to think of a
viable way to rectify the situation. 

Note that my hidden assumption is that peerlike qualities are evenly
distributed throughout the populace and not genetically linked to skill at
the SCA sport of heavy combat.

	Fiacha
	Aquaterra, AnTir

p.s. The Joy had better be in the Doing or we are going to end up being a
society honouring masocists.