How to Write a Letter of Recommendation

Introduction

Unlike your annual review at work, there is no automatic process for advancement and recognition within the SCA. The Crown decides who to recognize and who to elevate. Unfortunately, no matter how well traveled Their Majesties are, no two people can know every person in the Kingdom. It is, therefore, up to us to inform Their Majesties who, in their populace, is up to what.(1)

I Don't Have Any Awards, I Can't Recommend Someone.

This is simply not true. Any member of the SCA; whether a full paid member or not, a Peer, a Lord, or someone who has only attended one event, may write a letter of recommendation for any other person in the SCA. It is also a common misconception that one must have a particular award to recommend someone else for that award. I've been asked quite recently(2), "You have a Millrind, would you write a letter for so-and-so?" If you feel that someone has inspired you, and you feel that Their Majesties should known about that person, please write Them a letter. If you are recommending someone for a Grant level and Patent level order, send a copy of the letter to the clerk of that order; it is possible that that Order has been watching that person and need a little more information about what that person does.

Can I recommend myself?

You can submit a letter of recommendation for yourself. Should you? No. Let me explain. No, that will take too long. Let me summarize: If your friends and fellow members of your local group don't think that your level of skill or service isn't worthy of a particular award, even if you drop subtle (or not so subtle) hints to them, then you are probably have not done enough to be considered. Or there are other issues involved. While there is nothing stopping someone from submitting an award recommendation for themselves, either openly or via an alias, it really sends the wrong message. Either A) I'm so full of myself that my opinion is greater than everyone else's; or B) I'm so full of myself that my opinion is greater than everyone else's AND I'm dishonest on top of that. My suggestion would be to talk to a member of that order (or a higher order) and ask for advice not on how to get a cookie, but how you can improve yourself: fight better; learn a new A&S skill or what you need to do to put together a bid to autocrat an event. People do fall through the cracks and are overlooked for a variety of reasons. I think it would be far better to get attention by doing something that will benefit the Society than to send a "gimme gimme gimme" letter to the Crown.

How Many Letters Are Required For A Given Award?

Awards are not prizes that are redeemed by sending in box tops. Awards are given out to those individuals who have singled themselves out by their service, talent, or skill in one form or another. The letters, that we write, help the Crown to recognize that these people do not have a particular award and that someone thinks that they are worthy of it. The letters allow Their Majesties to put a name to a face or a deed. Despite the number of letters that might have been written in for a given person, Their Majesties still have to decide if that person is worthy of the award (i.e.: catch the person in action).

Unfortunately, one of the great injustices in the SCA, most of the people who are worthy enough for the service level awards, usually do their thing in the kitchens, the night before or the morning after an event, running around and trying to do 50 things as once, or other tasks that generally are done out of sight of the Crown. Please, make sure that you mention this fact in your letter. In fact, you can use that to your advantage. "Your Majesties may not have seen Sven Bigpants in Your visits to our Barony as he can always be found elbow deep in flour in the kitchen, at every event."

Make sure that you mention, in your letter, any details that will help Their Majesties identify the person you are recommending: "Can be found running troll at all of our Shire's events", "She came in third place at this past QRC", "The matching garb our Baron and Baroness were wearing, at Your coronation, were made by her", "Single-handedly made all 900 site tokens for Ice Dragon", "Was the only survivor of the Piquod", "Decorated the stage and hall at Harvest Raid", "Wears day-glo orange fencing gear".

All right, Already! How Do I Write A Letter?

There are a few ways to send a letter of recognition:
1) Use the handy-dandy online form, which can be found at: http://www.aethelmearc.org/onlineaward/. Just fill out the relevant information, click on "submit" and your recommendation will be whisked off to Their Majesties at the speed of IP. This is the easiest and quickest method.

2) Send a personal E-mail. This is the method that I prefer. Not only can I be as eloquent as possible, but I retain a copy of the letter. I have, over the years, sent the same E-mail out, for the same person, to successive Monarchs and just changed the details: replaced the details of service with those of A&S or of martial skills. And since I archive these messages, I can always go back and confirm that I did send out a letter for someone for a particular order. Another reason that I like sending out a personal E-mail, is if the current Crown does not take the time to call the recipient of the letter forward, during Their reign (for whatever reason), I can always send the same letter to the next Crown (after changing the salutations, of course).

Make sure that your E-mail contains the following information:
Your name and who you are, SCA and modern
The name of the person you are recommending, SCA and modern and their gender
The group they are from
What award you are recommending them for
Why you think they deserve the award
What events you think they will be at
How long the person has been in the SCA (time in the SCA does not guarantee any awards)
You can also include some information about the person so that scribes can personalize the scroll or if you have a scribe lined up you can mention that.

It's actually very easy and this can certainly be done in a brief letter, although you can make it as complicated as you wish.

Their Majesties's E-mail addresses are ae.king at aethelmearc.org and ae.queen at aethelmearc.org. (3)

3) Send an actual letter through US mail, courier service or carrier pigeon. Hey, some people just don't have computers. I know, right? But even Luddites have opinions. If you do plan on mailing an actual letter, please to not use calligraphy. Type it up or use your best and finest hand to write the letter. Remember, someone has to be able to read your letter. Your letter should contain the same information as listed above. Their Majesties home addresses can be found in the AEstel.

Things to remember:

Always date your letters. All of these letters are kept and while Their Majesties may not feel that a given person is ready for a particular award during Their reign, perhaps Their Heirs might have a different opinion.

Double-check the Order Of Precedence(4) to see if the person already has the award you are recommending. You can find the OOP from the Kingdom web site or at http://www.aeheralds.net/precedence/.

Keep in mind that it should take around eight weeks from the time that you write the letter to when an award can be presented. Their Majesties must review the letters, check up on the people, ask the people They do know in that area, and have a scribe create the scroll. Eight weeks is, I think, the bare minimum time this process this would take. Please don't send in your recommendation the week before the event you know the potential recipient will be at: think of the scribes.

Use concise language. Jimmy the Spartan may have done a lot for the Barony and he might have been here for a while, but that doesn't really mean anything. Give exact numbers and stick to what you know. "In the two years I've known Jimmy the Spartan, he's been working on chain mail at our local fight practices and is always willing to stop and teach anyone who stops by."

Be polite. You are petitioning the Crown as a lord or a lady; you are not asking for biggie fries at the drive though. Address Their Majesties with the courtesy, honor and respect that They deserve and with the chivalry that you are supposed to represent.

A Poor Example Of A Letter:

Dear King and Queen,

Dudes! I think Sven should get his AoA. He's been waiting like forever, and he makes totally rad feasts. Remember that lamb thingy he made at that event last month?

Your Friend
Bubba

What do you think the likelihood of anyone taking this letter seriously?

A Much Better Example:

Unto Their Majesties, {INSERT THE NAMES OF YOUR FAVORITE MONARCHS HERE} does Lord Bubba of the Pink Flamingos, Tiddlywinks Marshal for Your Barony of the Snowplows send fond greetings.

I write to you to tell You that on Your many journeys though Fair AEthelmearc, one of Your subjects has been overlooked, one whom I think is worthy of consideration of an Awards of Arms. I speak of Sven Bigpants, who has only been in the SCA for less than a year. In that brief time, he has been found in the kitchens of every event our Barony has held as well as the kitchens of our neighbors. Outside of events, he spends his time making beautiful, viking garb for other people. He does not wear his own garb because, in his own words, "A kitchen drudge would never own such finery." Unless You actually look into the kitchen, You might never meet him. He was the feast-o-crat at Bearpit Insanity and made the rôti sans pareil(5) that was brought out to high table.

His information is as follows:
SCA Name: Sven Bigpants
Modern Name: Mr. Rosco P. Coltrane
Address: 123 Velvet Ears Way, Hazard County, USA
Persona: 11th Century Norse
Home Group: Canton of Soggy Lawns
Lord Frodo of the Nine Fingers has volunteered to do the scroll.

I do know that he has made plans to work at Monsoon Lizard, Seven Deadly Dwarves, Pax Uitcasesay, and I Traveled Across AEthelmearc to Attend an Event With No Name.

If you require any further information, please, let me know. I can be reached at the following:

Lord Bubba of the Pink Flamingos
C/O Bubba Bo Bob Brain
123 4th Street
Buffalo, NY 14000
716-555-1212
Bubba@internet.account.com

In Service To The Dream,

Lord Bubba of the Pink Flamingos, Order of the Chipped Stone, Order of the Lab Mice on Stilts, Tiddlywinks Marshal for the Barony of the Snowplows and Your humble servant.

Isn't It Cheating Writing Letters For My Friends?

No. If your friend is doing things for the Society that deserves attention, please feel free to do so. This is particularly true if you see your friend doing things out of sight of Royalty: doing the pre-event feast prep, running errands during the event, running additional practices because he or she can't make the regularly scheduled practices. Don't write them in because they are your friend; write them in for the fine work they do for your group and the Kingdom.

Do I Have To Know the Person To Write Them in for Something?

No. If you don't know the person's name, ask around, or write to the Baron and Baroness or the Seneschal of the group that that person lives in for more information. Drop a polite note and ask, "who was the young lady who acted as a runner for the MOL at The Soggy Four Day event?" or "Who made the new Shire banners that were displayed at this past Planting Attack?"

Can I write a letter of recommendation for someone who lives in another Kingdom?

If that person plays in AEthelmearc and does service to our Kingdom, by all means, write a letter to our Crown. Otherwise, send your recommendation to the Crown of that person's Kingdom. Use the same advice listed above: check out that Kingdom's OOP and award list and write a nice letter. Just because you live in a different Kingdom doesn't mean you shouldn't take the time to recommend someone for their martial skills, service or even how nice they were to you, when you visited their kingdom.

Are Their Majesties The Only Ones Who Can Give Out Awards?

No. Every Barony has its own awards to give out. The difference is, a Baron and/or Baroness have a better chance of knowing every member in their Barony than Their Majesties do of knowing everyone in the Kingdom. But, they might not know of the good deeds of a particular person. Again, use the same advice as above, when writing your letter.

I Don't Know What Award To Recommend For Someone

There is a link on the Online Award recommendation page (http://www.aethelmearc.org/onlineaward/) that will take you to a page describing all of our Kingdom's awards and orders. You can recommend anyone for almost all of these awards(6). Youth awards are only to be given out to those under 18, however, there is no reason why a youth, who has already been recognized with a Silver Sycamore,  cannot be recommended for a Sycamore if their mad A&S skills do indeed pay the bills. If you don't know what award to recommend, then say so in your recommendation. If you describe a friend's work as an archery marshal, a good shooter and someone who is always working at events, but you don't know which award to recommend them for, Their Majesties might decide to induct him or her into the Golden Alce for the skill with archery, or They might decide to recognize the service side and induct him/her into the Keystone.

One last thing to remember: Their Majesties, Their Highnesses and all of the Landed Barons and Baronesses cannot see everything; it is up to all of us to help Them keep abreast of the good deeds of everyone in our Kingdom. So, if you see that someone is doing a bang-up job, say something. The chance to be called up in court and publicly thanked, in front of the populace, is a special privilege that not everyone get the opportunity to experience.


(1) No, this is not the same as snitching.
(2) Okay, it wasn't recently; no one talks to me these days.
(3) The E-mail addresses for the Order clerks can be found on the Kingdom web page or in the AEstel.
(4) OOP, yeah! You know me!
(5) It's a warbler stuffed inside a bunting, which is then put inside a lark then into a thrush stuffed into a quail stuffed into a lapwing stuffed into a plover stuffed inside a partridge, stuffed into a woodcock stuffed inside a teal stuffed into a guinea fowl stuffed inside a duck, then put into chicken, then inside a pheasant stuffed into a goose, then into a turkey, and finally all sixteen birds are packed into a giant bustard. Yes, this is a real thing.
(6)You really can't recommend someone for the Lady of the Rose or of the Garnet: there is a pre-requirement for those.