Rules for the Meridan Kingdom Arts and Sciences Faire and Tournament (Updated October 6, 2009)
Summary
The Kingdom A&S Event will focus on two major activities occurring at the same time. One will be the Kingdom A&S Tournament and the other will be the Kingdom A&S Faire, both as defined below.
General Rules applicable to both the Tournament and the Faire
- Judging is open to both entrants and the populace; however, the judging process is still confidential.
- There will be no time limit on the age of an entry, although an item that shows wear or is dirty will not do as well as one that looks new.
- An entry cannot have been entered in a previous Meridian Kingdom Arts & Sciences Faire.
- An entry cannot be entered into the Tournament after being entered into the Faire a preceding year and vice versa.
- Performance Arts categories are limited to 15 minutes, including introduction.
- If your display requires greater than average space (about 2 ft square), contact the Faire organizer ahead of time.
- All entries will be arranged by category (personal displays of multiple categories may be allowed in the Faire on a case by case basis, but not the Tournament).
- Absentee entries will be accepted as long as a guardian is present to take care of the entry. Each entrant or guardian of an entry is responsible for that entry and making sure that it is placed on the correct table.
- Each entrant shall be allowed 2 entries per category, with a cap of 12 entries total. Participation in a group entry shall count toward the individual entry limit. Each participant in a group entry receives the score points that the entry receives.
- Entries shall be judged on their own merit and not compared to any other entries.
- Entrants may not judge in any category in which they have an entry.
- All research and creative writing papers entered need to be sent to the Kingdom Minister of Arts & Sciences no later than one-month before Kingdom Arts & Sciences for judging.
- Entrants entering in Brewing, Vintning, or Cordials must be of legal drinking age per state law (in most states 21 years of age). The entrant, or a representative thereof, is required to stand with the entry at all times and is solely responsible for monitoring the appropriateness of sampling by the populace.
Rules Specific to the Kingdom Arts & Sciences Faire
The Kingdom A&S Faire provides a venue for individuals who do not wish to participate in a formal competition and/or prefer to do minimal documentation.
- Pre-registration is not required, but if your display requires larger than average amount of space it is encouraged.
- Artisan is encouraged to stand with their entry.
- A guided documentation form will be available to the entrant on the Kingdom website and at sign up the day of the event. The extent to which the artisan completes the form is up to the individual artisan.
- Artisans who choose to participate may compete for a "populace choice" award consisting of a standard "bead in cup" style polling with the award going to the project that receives the largest number of beads.
- If the artisans so desire, they may actually demonstrate their activity (within reason). If the activity is excessively loud, dirty or dangerous we may have to decline or come up with an alternate venue, outside of the display hall, if space allows.
- Projects that are in-progress are allowed, but subject to the same restriction as all projects; namely a project can only be entered into Kingdom A&S once, regardless of state of completion.
- The Faire provides an opportunity to display items that do not fit into other categories under the heading of SCA Life. Items created to enrich the SCA experience utilizing period concepts or techniques with useful modern day application belong in this category.
Rules Specific to the Kingdom Arts & Sciences Tournament
The Kingdom A&S Tournament is a competition to determine the Kingdom A&S Champion.
- All entries must be pre-registered to ensure judging. Pre-registration is available on the Kingdom Web site and by postal mail. The Kingdom Minister of Arts & Sciences may accept non-pre-registered entries at his/her discretion the day of the Faire.
- Four (4) copies of written documentation must be provided for all entries according to the guidelines of the Kingdom Arts & Sciences Office. Fewer copies of supplemental materials may be placed with the entry if 4 copies would be cost prohibitive (such as with color images).
- If an entrant's documentation is significantly more extensive than average they are highly encouraged to submit it by the Research Paper deadline to allow the judges additional time to review materials.
- If the competitor chooses, they may stand with their entry but only the Judges may initiate conversation. Nothing conveyed in conversation with judges (that is not also supported by the written documentation) can affect the scoring of an entry.
- To compete for the Tournament Champion the competitor must enter at least three entries into the Faire that receive a score of 17/20 or higher. If more than one entrant meets these criteria, all the scores of these entrant's entries will be averaged together and the highest mean score will be declared the winner. If there is a tie, or if no competitor meets this requirement, the Laurels will confer and make several recommendations to the Crown. The final decision will rest with the Crown.
- Entries into Performing Arts, Culinary and Brewing & Vintning categories will be assigned a time for evaluation. Failure to be prepared at this time will result in no judging.
- There will be a goal of 3 judges per entry; each judge will be supplied with their own copy of the documentation to review at their own pace.
- Judges will write a critique of each entry and sign the entry sheet legibly. The entry sheets will be returned to the entrants (or guardians for absentee entries) after judging and tabulation is complete.
- Judges will evaluate their assigned entries independently and submit their signed judging forms by the afternoon deadline. Scores will be entered and averaged to produce a final score. In the event of a significant discrepancy in the scores, the judges will be asked to sit down as a group and arrive at a consensus.
- If the judges have questions, they may enter into discussion with the competitor and provide immediate feedback. Information conveyed in these discussions cannot be used during the determination of the final score. Final score relies solely on the entry and documentation. However, the competitor can be informed how information provided verbally would have affected their score if it had been included in the documentation. This should provide the competitor with excellent opportunities to further refine their documentation.
- Judges for Brewing, Vintning, or Cordials must be of legal drinking age per state law (in most states 21 years of age).
- The judges have the discretion of moving an entry to another category if they feel it would do better. However, if the entrant already has two pieces in the other category, the entry will be sent back to the previous category to be judged or be disqualified.
