I just wanted to recount the fact that I had an very simple and excellent experience getting my SCA membership. Here is the short but sweet tale.
I printed out the SCA membership form. I faxed it in. I was recorded as having submitted the form the same day, September 25th. I received a white receipt slip on September 28th in the mail from SCA headquarters. I recieved my SCA blue card today, October 6th.
This is very good service in my opinion. I paid $42 but it is much cheaper if you don't want to get the newsletter. I suggest getting the newsletter since in addition to its usefullness if you misplace your blue membership card you can use the newsletter mailing label as proof of membership.
Note: There may be a problem with the either SCA fax machine or with my transmittal. They made two typographical mistakes on my form (wrong zip code and spelling mistake in SCA name). However, I expect to have this fixed with a simple fax I will send them.
Another thing I wanted to let everyone know is that I found it VERY easy to subscribe to email lists for the SCA Midrealm. They use the Majordomo program and all you need to do is send an email to:
Majordomo@midrealm.org
with the text:
help
end
and then you will get full instructions on how to use this program to get lists of email groups and subscribe to them.
I attended my first large realm level event in the SCA yesterday, Saturday, October 20th, 2001. This is my first SCA event actually since I had only been to demonstrations, meetings, and workshops before.
The Crown Tourney was mostly about fighting. However, they had an A&S (arts and sciences) display that was great. They also has a good amount of merchants, a high and low feast (I didn't go to this), an auction, and court.
I hadn't planned on going to Midrealm court. It was late in the evening (started around 9 p.m.) but some of the very friendly people made it sound like fun to attend and they were willing to help explain the proceedings to me. It was a very interesting ceremony to attend. You really find out what the SCA values when you see the awards that are given out. It really helps you understand the character of the people in the SCA. The number of rewards I saw given out dispels some of the rumors I had heard about politics in the SCA. I am not saying there aren't negative politics (all institutions have that) I just have only experienced good politics so far.
The fighting at the Crown Tournament was very good. King Ragnvaldr stated that he was very happy that the fighting was very chivalrous and I would have to say that I am also very impressed at the honor with which the fights I saw were conducted. I also think that it speaks very highly of both the King to mention it and all of the leadership in the SCA for instilling this in their fellow members.
I decided that one of the best ways to learn about how the SCA works, meet people, and help myself remember who everyone is was to volunteer to help with a kingdom level event that Cynnabar was hosting - Middle Kingdom Twelfth Night. No one else in the group seemed to want to tackle the job of Entertainment Coordinator so I talked with one of my new friends in the group, Brenna, and she offered to help me with this job if I needed. So, I asked the event head, Midair, if he would allow me to take on this role in the event and he agreed. I hope I didn't get myself in over my head but the people in the SCA are very helpful so I have confidence I can do this job well.
Yet another party. This party celebrated the December holidays and is called Wassail (click on the word for a great website about it). Our group has its own Wassail traditions and I am unclear of whether other groups follow these:
Wassail Punch - Apples are the traditional fruit of wassail and it is even sometimes called 'Apple Wassail'. Our group has a cider punch at the event which has clove, orange peels, and other spices floating in it (i.e. floaties). There is a 'fortified' version of this and a normal version. It was pretty good stuff.
Bean Court - This is an elaborate ritual. First, there is some type of cake (usually cupcakes) that are somehow marked, generally with something like a bean baked inside it. The cake is given out to people (usually seperate between men and women) and whatever man and woman get the 'bean' become the king and queen for bean court. The best way to describe what 'Bean Court' is would be to say it is a 'roast' where procedures and people are made fun of in a tasteful(well, SCA taste) way.
Of course, another tradition about Wassail was to yell "Wassail!!!" anytime anyone said the word wassail in a group meeting. The first time they did that I was clueless on what was going on but it is a cool tradition.
All I can say is that this was a truly great event. We ended up adding 100 more people to the feast than we had originally planned which was amazing. In addition to feast we had classes, merchants, vigil for Cynnabar's Baron Straum, court (where Straum was Knighted), and, of course, entertainment. I was very happy with the way the entertainment came together. I was just a facilitator for the musicians as they are the ones that did all of the amazing work. I am a musician and know how much practice it takes to put on a good performance.
I participated in a SCA demo today at the Confusion Science Fiction convention. We displayed A&S, the fighters did some fighting, and we did some dance demonstration. There were a good number of people watching things and inquiring about the society. It is always fun to hang out with people from my barony.
Well, I decided after this last weekend of watching people fight at the SCA demo I participated in that there is no time like the present to start getting into SCA fighting. There are three reasons I am getting into the fighting:
I wanted to eventually get into combat archery anyway. In the Middle Kingdom you have to get authorization in weapon and shield in order to be a combat archer.
At war not every battle allows combat archery. I have been told that sometimes the majority of the battles don't allow it. So, if you want to fight a fair amount you need to be skilled in at least one type of weapon and how to use a shield.
It seems like a fun way to get exercise and I definitely need it.
I went to my first SCA fighter practice today. Here is me at the practice. Here is another picture of me without my armour on.
I am starting out by learning standard fighting stances how to use the shield in sword in basic ways. It is extremely tiring on the arms and all that gear on makes things hot.
I decided to take all the things I learned from being entertainment coordinator for Middle Kingdom Twelfth Night and put it into a document called How to Successfully Organize Entertainment for a SCA Event. I am so hoping that people utilize this document to make their events the best they can be. Better yet, I hope that I get to benefit from seeing some great entertainment setups and future events. I am ready to help with entertainment at a future event again already.
There was a very popular Saturday event on in Kalamazoo, Michigan called St. Valentine's Day Massacre that I went to. This event had a lot of great merchants, classes, and fighting at it. I bought quite a few good things at the event, most notably a leather gorget and half gauntlets. I went to a class on pewter casting that was extremely good. The fighting I saw, particularly the melee fighting, was spectacular. Also of note, was an auction for the royalty travel fund in which Midair, a member of Cynnabar and the Kingdom Exchequer, dressed up in some very nice clothes for donations.
I went down to Lumberton, Mississippi for Gulf Wars XI on Monday, March 11th. My friend Iain Ruadh drove down with a large pavilion for the headquarters of the Pentamere Free Company. It was a lot of fun to be at my first war. I participated in the battles as both a scout and an onager crewman. I had the honor of carrying the Midrealm standard during all three heavy combat battles. I can talk on and on about the parties, merchants, fighting, and people. I can say that I think Gulf Wars is much more laid back than what I have heard Pennsic is like. However, there was a lot of things going on if you looked hard enough. I would have to say that the Iron Lance camp was really fun. I have created a webpage of pictures from the event here: http://www.kormanworld.net/sca/gulfwarsxi.html
I had to get authorized as I really wanted to fight for most of the fighting season. So, I went all the way down to Fort Wayne, Indiana to the Shire of Shadowed Stars to fight in a one day fighting event they were hosting there. What really intrigued me about this event was that they had a castle wall to fight around. They ended up setting this up in a huge gym at the site. I had figured it would be outside but they set it up inside due to rain. I got authorized in basic sword and board and then there was some great fighting: open field, castle/fort, and bridge battles. House Darkmoon was there in force and they ended up fighting everyone else 'Darkmoon vs. the world' is a direct quote. After the fighting there was a really good feast where I ate with a great feasting companion named Bjorn (Ivarsson?).
On this weekend I helped out with the Girl Scout demo that the Barony of Cynnabar ran for the Huron Valley Girl Scouts. I did some work on Friday setting things up and then did fighting on Saturday. It was really cold that weekend so I didn't stay over on Saturday night.
Ok, this was the event from HELL. The event was at the Pioneer Boy Scout Reservation in Pioneer, Ohio and was a nice site. I got there on a Friday and coordinated the camping for Barony of Cynnabar. We got a really nice site and everything got set up fine. I decided to go to bed early on Friday night so I could fight and party on Saturday. Ok, I got up and went down to the fighting. I got authorized in thrust and even got my authorization card. We fought open field and bridge battles. Then it started raining so I went back to the camp. Well, it never stopped raining all that day and well into the night. It was like a monsoon. A lot of people (probably smarter than me) left Saturday night either permanately or just went to a hotel. There was mud everywhere, roads were flooded out, and it had been freezing cold that night. The rain ruined an otherwise very nice event.
I went to Lake Orion for this event. It was a nice little event. I learned the hard way that SCA fighting never starts on time. I was all worried about getting there at 8:30 a.m. when authorizations were going to start. I was a little late and nothing was going on. I tried to get people armoured up to fight but it was just lame. Fighting didn't start until about noon I think. That was when we had a Novice Tourney. I had two fights and I sucked on the first fight and, although I lost, I was happy with my second fight. Later we fought open field and bridge battles and all I can say is that I am learning. There was a hunt for a 'Tigger' doll through the woods which was pretty fun too. I later stayed for court and eating(Pentamere Free Company put on an awesome spread). I ended up partying much later than I had planned and crashed there. Thanks to Iain Ruadh MacFhionnghain for saving me from passing out and freezing to death.
This event was north of Jackson in the Shire of Talonval. It was a very formal fighting event with a viewing stand and a lot of heraldic display. It was held at Charles of Whithorse's White Horse Keep and put on by House Argus. I didn't fight at this event because I have no heraldry. However, I did eat feast and camp over night. There was dancing with live music and a bonfire where some people told interesting period stories as well as some rather tall tales. On the Sunday following the event there was a Pentamere fight practice at the site which I did fight at. The continual melee practices of these type are really helping me a lot.
I arrived at this event a little later than planned. I had to do some work on my armour. I then had to drive a few hours to the event site which was near the Ionia State Penitentiary at Bertha Brock Park. I tried some axe, knife, and spear throwing as soon as I got there. I then ended up at the heavy fighting field and, although I was a little late, got in a good deal of heavy fighting. I would really like to participate in some thrown weapons competitions and I am hoping at my next event I will get the chance.
There was no event on this weekend in June but there was a pretty big fight practice at Halmich Park in Warren hosted by House Darkyard. The Barony of Roaring Wastes normally have Sunday melee practices at the park but this was a practice where they made special invites to all fighters in the area and they had fighters come up from Toledo. After the fight practice they had a really nice BBQ at Duke Sir Brannos's house which is near the park. You can see pictures and videos of the practice here, Elynor's Practice Pictures. There is a video of me fighting on there that is cool. I pretty much screwed up on melee tactics but you can see me get a good whack in.
I went to my first Penssic war for two weeks. This was Pennsic 31. I enjoyed being a newbie there and seeing all the stuff I had heard about. However, for some reason I didn't seem to enjoy this as much as I did attending Gulf Wars. I think it was a lot more work than a camping experience probably should be. Barony of Cynnabar had a GREAT set-up and I was happy to help with the work to make it so. I guess maybe there was too much personal drama in camp for my liking. If I go again to Pennsic I would either not want to go for two weeks or go with a girlfriend/spouse maybe.
Ok, I haven't been keeping up on this journal. I guess a summary of what I did since Pennsic and my overall feelings about the SCA are in order.
First of all, the reason I haven't been keeping up on things is that the end of 2002 and most of 2003 so far has been a personal roller-coaster for me. I got caught up in the economic downturn and knew in December of 2002 I would lose my job in February, 2003. I kind of held back on SCA things some at this point. I stopped fighting much after Pennsic 31. I haven't gone to many SCA events in 2003. I missed Gulf Wars in 2003 because I went on some overseas vacations instead.
After Pennsic in 2002 I basically went to a demo and a revel and I think that was about it. Other than going to group meetings this was probably my full level of involvement.
I did get new armour at Pennsic and got this stuff in working order. That was mainly a new gorget but I also worked on my full gauntlets at Pennsic and have one of those working now so I can use free-hand axe.
I had a lot of fun during my first year in the SCA as far as getting my kit together and learning heavy fighting. I think heavy fighting is great but sometimes it is not so fun to get into and out of armour. Also, armour can be very frustrating at times when it doesn't work right.
Basically during 2003 I have tried to help out with things in my local group. Our group is hosting Midrealm Coronation in September so maybe I will make an entry about that soon.
