Seniority

[Kinggiyadai Orlok (Kinggiyadai Orlok)]

One more option could be to select the most senior of all the applicants, or the greatest sum of experience from each of the candidate pairs.

It would certainly give us a Crown with the most experience at interacting with our people, and be very likely to be familiar with our customs and traditions.

[luan (Anluan mac Faelain)]

One more option could be to select the most senior of all the applicants, or the greatest sum of experience from each of the candidate pairs.

It would certainly give us a Crown with the most experience at interacting with our people, and be very likely to be familiar with our customs and traditions.

So Polit would reign unopposed for a few years

[Kinggiyadai Orlok (Kinggiyadai Orlok)]

Polit is midway in the comparative age of baronies. What gives you the impression that it has the most senior members?

Regardless, this method has a good chance of selecting for suitable rulers, and the candidate pool has no accessibility barriers and is relatively diverse (except racially - previous Anglo-European exclusiveness means that the older SCA population skews very white).

[Uberto (Uberto Renaldi)]

Except that one of the main complaints about the current system is that it is too exclusive, so I don't see how this addresses that problem. In fact, it exacerbates it by ensuring that almost no-one without a Peerage will ever be royalty, no matter how suited they are to the role.

[Kinggiyadai Orlok (Kinggiyadai Orlok)]

Please allow me to clarify that my meaning of "senior" in this case, means "age in the society" and not "precedence".
The three oldest Awards of Arms in Canon Lore that are active (from my observation) are probably Sir Wolfram, Baron Hrolf, and Baron Master Brusi. You have to go to about 60th AoA before you get to someone in the top 50 in the OP (Duke Eirikr).

Though even if I did mean "precedence", as of February reporting, there are 220 people with armoured combat (heavy) authorisation. There are 251 Pelicans in Lochac, according to Canon Lore.
Even before we add the other peerages, the field of possible candidature has improved 15%.

[Uberto (Uberto Renaldi)]

Please allow me to clarify that my meaning of "senior" in this case, means "age in the society" and not "precedence".

How would we determine that? And what counts as being active?
For example, I was first active in the SCA in 1987, had a break from 1993 to 1996, held a principalty office (Crux Australis Herald) from 1999 to 2002, and had another leave of absence from 2006 to 2019. Some of those years that I was active, my activity was mostly confined to ranting philosophical discussions on the Lochac email list.
So is my "age in the society" 37 years, or 26 years, or something else?

I agree that a minimum numbers of years of activity in the SCA should be a requirement for eligibility, but simply giving the Crown to the applicants with the "greatest sum of experience" does not seem fair or equitable.

[Kolfinna (Kolfinna Burlufotr)]

I agree that senior/established members of the society carry the advantage of being familiar with customs and traditions. I can however see a number of challenges with this method.

It is biased against newer or medium term members who may also be committed and possess admirable and crown worthy qualities. People who come to the SCA later in life, often bringing diverse skills from other hobbies, may never be able to compete against people who found the SCA earlier in life. It also makes the throne largely inaccessible for younger aged members which could cause them to be disillusioned or alienated from this core aspect of the society. Ignoring other flaws, the current armoured format allows both the seasoned veteran and skilled newcomer opportunity to try their hand at crown, this system does not offer the same opportunity.

Additionally, if previous crown experience is added to your sum of all skill, you may find a situation where the role is just passed back and forth between the same small group of people.

How would this method deal with people who take a hiatus? If I was a member as a child and then come back as an adult, when is my time considered to start?

As always, very keen to see all the discussion! Just wanting to politely raise potential issues 

[Llewelyn ap Dafydd (Llewelyn ap Dafydd)]

I think this is an interesting idea. Especially if we add that your seniority resets to zero after a reign (that'd make a duchy an incredibly special award)

[EleonoraRose (Eleonora Rose)]

I think the SCA already struggles somewhat with "greying" as we age up and find recruitment less accessible (thanks Covid, boo).

This idea would effectively signal to newbies (young and old) that they are not valued, and that what the SCA values most is seniority. Do we really want to give that signal?

Without a reset clause after reigning, you could easily have the same person over and over again, which is the worst outcome I could imagine (worse than no crown, I think). And even with a reset, a newbie will have to wait many, many, reigns before they have a chance at being "most senior".

This one doesn't feel right to me.

[Gwen verch David (Gwen verch David)]

I strongly disagree with this approach. I think we benefit from young Crowns with new ideas just as much as we benefit from older Crowns with a deep knowledge of our traditions, whether we refer to age, or age in the Society, or precedence.

What's worse, this method could easily entrench structural issues. If the culture of the Society has discouraged group X from participation for ten years, then choosing by seniority means there will be very few members of group X likely to become Crown, because most will not have stuck around for that long. As a result, the Crown would be less likely to notice and address problems for group X, and the culture would be slower to change.