pennsicdance: [OT] History and policies of the SCA

[L.J. Sparvero]

At 08:51 PM 8/25/2005, Greg Lindahl wrote:
>The name was made up on the spur of a moment in order to reserve a
>public park. It doesn't necessarily mean anything -- although it does
>frequently get mentioned in discussions like this one.

Since I'm a geek, and it sounds like there are others here that might not 
know about stuff like this, I found: 
http://history.westkingdom.org/Year1/SecondTournament.htm

"
The enthusiastic turnout for the first tournament had proved that a roomier 
site was needed for the proposed second tournament. It was proposed to hold 
the tourney in the Joaquin Miller Park to the east of Berkeley. However, in 
order to reserve a site in Tilden the band of medievalists had to apply to 
the Park Service as an organization, for which a name was needed. Marion 
and Walter Breen (Elfrida and Walter of Greenwalls) came up with the name 
of the Society for Creation Anachronism, because the group was trying to 
recreate the ways of the middle ages as it could have been, which would 
certainly be considered an anachronism in twentieth century Berkeley, and 
the goal was creativity. This name was accepted and so the Society for 
Creative Anachronism was formed. The Breens were autocrats for the second 
tourney.
"

There are even photos of the first tournament on this site!

For those that aren't aware of the governing policies of the SCA, Inc. (and 
if you've ever given them money in membership fees or non-member surcharge, 
it's definitely a good idea to see what you are supporting), please check 
out this site:

http://www.sca.org/docs/welcome.html

The governing docs ("Corpora") are a huge PDF file, but there's a nice 
1-page introduction to the SCA on page 8. If you want something to tell 
your friends about your hobby, this is good. This is also where you can 
find things like the pre-1600 focus of the SCA that so many have mentioned. 
There's also the official newcomer's site at:

http://www.sca.org/newcomers.html

Just letting folks know where to find info. -Lyev