Awards Scheduling
Greetings from Mistress Ysemay Sterlyng, Awards Scheduler for Her Majesty Margarita.
I know there have been questions about scheduling, so I wanted to clarify some of the processes.
Let me start by saying the East Kingdom is large, diverse, and full of amazing people – many of whom deserve recognition. However, our exceptionalism also creates an impossible number of award requests for any single reign to handle.
On average, one reign generally gives out 250-300 awards. To provide a clear picture, I have had over 400 award requests already submitted, and there is still another polling that just closed.
Please understand that there is no way that every one of these awards can happen. Further, this volume of requests also takes a good amount of time to process. I know that our beloved Queen would bend time and space to recognize all those deserving if it were in her power.
I want to help everyone understand that just because you write a recommendation for an award in what seems like a timely manner, that does not mean that it will definitely be done.
For added clarity, this is an example of the timeline of the process in a best-case scenario and does not include technical glitches or staff life events.
Day 1: You submit your recommendation
Week 1-2: The individual handling the submissions compiles it with other recommendations and submits them to the crown.
Week 2-4: The Crown receives the submissions, reads through them, and decides which awards will be approved. Depending on the volume, this process can take a couple of weeks and may be ongoing throughout the reign.
Week 3-6: The scheduler receives the award recommendation and contacts the submitter for event confirmation. Once confirmation has occurred, the individual is scheduled for a court and the information is sent to the Signet. Once again, this process will take a while if there is a large volume of submissions.
Week 4-8: The Signet receives the information and starts assigning scrolls. The Court Dockets are set.
Week 5-12: The scribes do their magic.
Now, this is all predicated on the idea that everyone is checking their email and responding fairly quickly. It is also not taking into account the vast numbers of awards that simply take time to process, not to mention polling order awards.
Additionally, dockets fill up. Some events are more popular than others. We really try not to schedule courts for longer than three hours (let’s be honest, nobody wants a court to any longer than this). Sometimes that means that you are asked to either select another event or submit again for the next reign.
We all do our best to see that everyone is recognized for the amazing things they are doing that make the East so spectacular. No one on the staff wants to say no to any awards. No one wants to ask deserving people to wait. We all wish we had more time and the ability to make everything perfect for everyone. Please believe me when I say that there is no ill intent when you are asked to resubmit an award for the next reign (or because the submission was lost due to a technical glitch or human error). It is never easy to say no to someone.
Finally, please use the online form to begin the process. I understand that it can be cumbersome. I know that it is not perfect, but we need to use the system to track everything and stay organized. Going outside of the system just creates more stress, various difficulties, and chaos. It also causes problems as several of the people involved in the process change from reign to reign.
Also, please remember that while our Queen is spectacular, she is also managing the royal job solo. Please do not email her about award recommendations as Her Majesty has asked that all questions regarding recommendations and scheduling be handled by her Scheduler.
Any and all questions about award scheduling should be emailed to me directly (lnmscheduler@gmail.com).
Finally, please remember that we are ALL volunteers playing this game together. While we each put a lot of time and effort into keeping the dream alive, real-life can take priority sometimes. Keep that in mind before asking about the status of a recommendation. Be kind.
Yours in Service,
Ysemay