My thoughts on the changes of the SCAs mission statement in Corpora.

As the Board of Directors has asked for feedback on this change I did my thinking and wrote this:

First: A few notes on the format of how this proposal is communicated. The  proposed changes should be presented in a way where you can read both the current and the proposed text next to each other. The work done by the East Kingdom Gazette should be the standard for how this is presented, with both a web view and a pdf. https://eastkingdomgazette.org/2020/07/21/bod-proposes-change-in-corpora-introduction-wording/proposed-changes-to-corpora/

Second: In order to help the reader assess the proposed changes there should always be a description of what the SCA is trying to accomplish by the changes. Is it for clarification or modernization of language, is it for recruitment, is there some specific problem that needs to be addressed or is it to change the basic understanding of what the SCA is doing? 

On a side note be aware that changing a policy or mission statement will not do much to change the culture of the SCA and the current focus on medieval and renaissance europe. Unless you are prepared to do some serious change management and legwork the proposed change might very well be an empty gesture as culture eats strategy for breakfast.

Now my views on the proposal.

The text does not feel finished. This is not a good introduction to a group, it feels more like a user manual for a toaster than an engaging text for a lifestyle hobby.
The mission statement should set the tone for the journey, to be a hero, to become the master of a craft etc. In some ways we might need more of the Larp-SCA than the Reenactment-SCA here.

I think that we are doing ourselves a disservice when removing this sentence “Most of its activities take place in the context of a social structure adapted from the forms of the European Middle Ages, which allows participants to take a first-hand look at various aspects of the life, culture and technology of the times under study” from the mission statements first part. I believe that it should be kept possibly rephrased but it should be clarified by adding that it is a romanticized version of the European middle ages, or middle ages and renaissance courts and life since the SCA nowadays is doing so much more than courtly life.

To me the point is not if we focus on Europe or not but that we understand that our, the SCA’s, rites, rituals, awards, tournaments, hierarchy etc comes out of a context of literature and art rather than historical correctness. We do in some ways have more in common with the Tolkien and Harry Potter societies than we do with reenactment and living history groups. We simply mix and match too much to pull that off.

If we forget that it is the romanticized version of courtly life and the middle ages that we deal with, we will end up with somebody reenacting a warrior from the shogunate insisting that all the people they beat on the field seppuku in court or the human sacrifices of prisoner from Aztec and Inca, simply because it was a part of courtly life. I cherry pick these two examples to illustrate what leaving this fundament of how to interpret the game out can lead to if we do not have a common ground for our understanding of the game.

The part about what is expected by those who participate is ok, but could perhaps be moved to the end of the document.

When it comes to areas covered by the SCA US and Canada could be replaced with North America and Australia could be replaced by Australasia since New Zealand is a part of Lochac. This will make the text more coherent and relate to continents rather than some nations and some continents.