terrshee's Diaryland Diary

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Laurel vs. Pelican Discussion Groups

I've been trying to figure out the differences between the dynamics of the two peerage discussion groups to which I belong.

I've been wondering if my irritation with the more recent one is lack of familiarity and/or adapting to a different set of standards. Both I guess.

It does seem to me that the Pelicans are more intensely invested in who gets in than the Laurels. Not that the Laurels don't care, but that it just appears more personal in terms of how we individually interpret worthy service vs. worthy arts. I suspect it has to do with a long log jam that existed some years ago that sort of set the culture into a more adversarial stance.

I notice that Laurels are more likely to comment on the work of people with whom they are not directly involved, i.e. "I noticed that Lady Thread has been teaching at the past few Universities and has had some nice entries in A&S exhibit. Can anyone tell me about the quality of her work?"

Comments on Pelican candidates seem to be more on the order of, "I've known Lord Mule for years and he's never gotten the recognition he deserves for herding cats." There's a sense of always being behind the curve in terms of noticing who has been doing what, and a rather strident and urgent tone in advocacy that I just don't associate with the Laurels.

I don't know if there is anything wrong with this, per se, or indeed if this is really accurate. If it is right, I just can't help but wonder why we aren't noticing service sooner and getting the word out. The nebulous nature of service? The preceived emphasis on holding kingdom office? The fact that service people are usually more anchored at events and therefore less likely to circulate and see who is up to what? Failure to solicit input from outside the order? Not that the Laurels do a lot of that.

I'm tempted to try to start some sort of "Workhorse Project" whereby we ask the various groups who does what and then start comparing them to the OP and find out if we are missing anyone on the rolls. Nah, too much potential for actual involvement in the SCA. But I do hate the words, "Long overdue" and "I thought you already had it."

8:46 a.m. - 2005-04-26
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