[Antir_scribes] about the College of Scribe's Handbook

[AnTir Scribe]

Greetings again today to the An Tir College of Scribes from Bronwen,

I'd like to say a little something about the An Tir College of Scribes
Handbook.

I have a copy of the original document (Scribble #20) created, printed and
published in the Fall of A.S. XX (1985) in the Kingdom Scribe's files.

Also, in the files, I have a copy of an updated semi-version printed and
distributed in 1999 and another updated version (2.0) that was printed and
selectively distributed in A.S. XXXVII 2002.

I also have a word.doc version of the handbook that seems to have more (and
different) info in it than the 2002 printed version - but says that it is
the 2002 version.

I'm not keen to re-print any of these and I think that actually it would be
irresponsible of me to print and make any of it available for distribution.

Some of the information in the handbook is timeless (like how to draw and
paint things)
but some of it is outdated - especially the information about how scribal
stuff works in the Kingdom
and I believe that if I let that information go out - it would just cause
alot of confusion in the scribal community.

I know that we all want a handbook - and it is on my list of things to
undertake - eventually
but it is not first priority.
There is so much information missing - things that people have asked me for
information about - that needs to be researched, written up and then made
accessible - that even if the handbook was first priority, I would still be
doing exactly what I am doing now.
Listening to what people are looking for - and trying to provide the answers
to every scribe (not just those who came asking).

Until we have identified all the information that is missing - the handbook
could not have been completed anyway. - So, at this point, I'm still
gathering from you - what it is that you "need to know" to be successful at
what you love to do :-)


I will say that long before I became Kingdom Scribe, I had printed out
versions of all the scribal handbooks that the different Kingdoms of the
Knowne World have produced over the past few years.  Looking at these for
"best practices" I would have to say that the Middle Kingdom's is the best.
http://www.midrealm.org/heraldry/forms/MKScribesHandbook.pdf

It would be very cool to model our handbook after this incredible document -
but I'm torn about committing resources to re-creating it An Tirian style
when we already have ready access to it :-)

Anyway, that's the story for now
Getting one-page instruction sheets (for things that you have asked for) up
on the website is my current priority.
as the website builds - I expect that we will see a handbook building from
it - that can eventually be printed for those who do not have ready and easy
access to the web.

I did work to create The Royal Scribe's guidebook - because it was too huge
to be just a bunch of one-page documents.  The need was clear.  Having not
served as Royal Scribe myself, I knew that I was not in a position to teach
a new Royal Scribe anything and the information on what needed to be done
was not readily available.  So, I went thru everything that I could get my
hands on and I think that it got close to meeting the need.

I think that our website is starting to answer some of the need too.

anyway - I should leave this here


I am in your service :-)

Bronwen