Dragon’s Laire Candlemas

· Set up will be “county fair” style, with all competitors and those who are displaying all in the same room. Championship competitors, if housed in the same room, will be clearly designated.

· A panel of “evaluators” will be convened, comprised of the Baron and Baroness, the A&S Minister (or designee), the outgoing champion (or a past champion, if the current champion in unable to be an evaluator), plus one or two additional Laurels or other qualified individuals to assist with the evaluations of the entrants.

· The individuals in the panel will visit each competitor during the event day, and listen to the entrant talk about their work, in a much more casual atmosphere than presenting before an audience

· At the end of the evaluation period (by 4 PM at the latest), the panel will meet to talk about each of the entries, and make a decision on the champion, and any other entries that need special recognition.

· A simplified evaluation form will be utilized by the panel, to keep track of their observations.

· Ties will be decided by the Coronets…this is Their Championship.

· Bardic is similar, with the performance aspect added in.

· Bardic entrants can enter only for feedback.

· Bardic entrants will also have tables like the A&S entrants. Championship competitors will be clearly designated.

· Documentation will be required, similar to what is required at Kingdom i.e., the type of piece, location & time period, and salient points regarding the performance.

· On the morning of the event, right after the invocation of the lists, the Bardic entrants will perform their entry with a time limit of 5-7 minutes.

· After the performances, they will go to their tables to be available to talk with populace and evaluators for the rest of the day.

· At the end of the day there will be a Bardic Court where the Bardic entrants wishing to compete for the Championship will perform a second time.

· The entries will be discussed at the end of the day before final court along with the A&S entries.

In addition to the Championship, the Coronets can award any number of accolades as prizes (Baron’s choice, Baroness’ choice, Coronet’s choice). There can be a populace choice for both A&S and Bardic. All in attendance are encouraged to go and view all displays and talk to the participants, both entrants and non-entrants.

· All those wishing to enter the Championship must declare their intent to Their Excellencies and the Arts and Sciences Minister by midnight January 1, 2020.

· Entries will be a single item with documentation.

· Documentation, either complete or nearly complete must be received by the A&S minister by midnight January 19, 2020.

· Those who wish to display a body of work, a single entry, a group display, or a work in progress inform the Arts & Sciences minister of their intent and space requirements by January 26, 2020 to ensure there is enough display space.

Scholars:

Scholar’s Assembly point of contact is Maestra Aelianora.

Research/Scholarly Papers– the Scholars’ Assembly

The Scholar’s Assembly focuses on scholarly research, the examination and written presentation of an aspect of pre-1650 culture or history unaccompanied by either a made object or a performance. Research papers for the Assembly should demonstrate both breadth and depth of knowledge about the chosen topic. Breadth of knowledge is accomplished by locating one’s topic firmly in a specific time and place, and comparing that local knowledge to what happened elsewhere both before and after the chosen time-frame. Depth of knowledge is demonstrated by presenting the range of what is known about your topic in your chosen time and place, including conflicting interpretations of the experts, identification of the limits of what is known, and the speculations of the experts. You, too, may wish to speculate about unresolved controversies about your topic but it is not required. If you choose to do so be sure to explain why you have come to the conclusions you present.

Those desiring to submit and present a paper at the Scholars’ Assembly (and hence become a Scholar of Dragon’s Laire) are required to submit a letter of intent to Their Excellencies, the Arts and Sciences Minister and the Assembly Coordinator by midnight January 1, 2020. Preliminary copies of the research paper can be submitted for review and feedback by December 10, 2019. Submission of preliminary copies of papers is not required but is usually helpful. PDFs of the finished research paper are due to the Arts and Sciences Minister and the Assembly Coordinator on January 18, 2020. Submitted papers will be reviewed by the Scholars of Dragon’s Laire. Papers will be judged against a set of scholarly standards, not against each other. Those papers meeting these scholarly standards will be accepted for presentation at the Assembly and their writers will become a Scholar of Dragon’s Laire. Please note, the Assembly is NOT a competition; since it is the intent of the assembly to build a community of scholars within the Barony, every writer/scholar who is accepted to present their paper at the Championships (and does so) will be named a Scholar of Dragon’s Laire and they will remain a Scholar and be invited to submit a paper every year, if they wish.

Scholars’ Paper Format Specifics:

Length: approximately 2200 words (roughly 5 pages of text without illustrations).

Font and spacing: 12-point font and either 1.5 or double-spaced.

Margins: 1-inch top, bottom and sides. Number all pages except the title page.

Bibliography: A list of everything you read, including the references you have cited. This can be annotated but it is not required.

Citation style: There are many to pick from. Choose one and stick to it.

Illustrations: illustrations, tables, and figures should be numbered consecutively (figure 1, illustration 1, table 1) and referred to in the text the same way.

Finally, if you don’t feel ready yet for the Championship competition, but would like some detailed feedback on a current project, contact me. We will try to arrange this for you, depending on time and space constraints.

Murakami Tsuruko, OL, OP

Dragon’s Laire Arts and Sciences Minister