Judging Originals?

[Joyce (AnnieLee)]

Howdy,

I've been doing some reading about the "Originals" category in NCOWS. My understanding is that three members have to sign up for it to be a category at an NCOWS event. My question is: who judges them?

For example, let's say, for the sake of discussion, Lars enters with the personna of a Swedish immigrant, Dr. Bob enters as a doctor, and Delmonico enters as a cosie. Each has a notebook with them with supporting evidence for the accuracy of their personnas.

Who at the match would have the specific background necessary to judge each of these members? Does Lars have the info necessary to validate the Del's credentials? Nope, his niche is Swedish immigrants. Can Del check on Dr. Bob? Nope, his knowledge base is in cooks. How about someone not in the Original Class? Would River City John be able to take the reference materials, check sources and validate them when he has no intensive knowledge of any of the three?

So who would be qualified to judge them?


Curious,

AnnieLee

[Forty Rod]

That ought to set some folks to scratchin' their....heads.

       

I love when you do that, Annie.

[Derby Younger]

Annie, I'm interested in the responses to that question also.

Working on one for the next Muster, when I get the prelims, going to post a similar question in the Barracks. 

[Kayleen]

Annie Lee,
  The Originals class was a side match at this past summer's National shoot. What I found was the participants had put much research into their persona and what was appropriate for them as far as accutrements, clothing, and even personal actions. This is not a biginners bunch of people, they have been around researching for a good number of years. Not that a new member couldn't be at this height from the get go.
   Many times you could find them helping each other research different items and documenting them. Most everyone that was in this group has done some major research and studying of this time frame.
I think some of them brought their resource books along to help others out.
  Not everyone will take NCOWS to the Originals height. That is why NCOWS is unique, it has a nitch for just about everyone.
  I might add also that this is not yet an approved category for NCOWS. It will discussed at the upcoming Congress meeting.
Kayleen

PS. To answer your question about who can judge these folks, they themselves do it with the documentation they presented to their peers.  Chantilly and U.S. Scout did a fine job at GAF.(and helpers)

[St. George]

'Each has a notebook with them with supporting evidence for the accuracy of their personnas.'

Somehow - I'd think that your quoted statement is self-explanatory - 'supporting evidence' and 'accuracy' being the key words, here.

In NCOWS - the individual does the research - 'not' NCOWS itself - and 'that's' why documentation is important to the development of an Impression or the use of equipment.

So - rather than a couple of guys dragging in a chest of reference material and a laptop - a couple of guys who could read the supplied-by-the-individual documentation and any supporting photographic evidence can suffice - wouldn't you say?

Vaya,

Scouts Out!

[Dr. Bob]

Howdy AnnieLee and Derby,

The Originals "class" was founded by O T Buchanan, OCB, French Jack and I think Black River Smith.  They set the requirements to qualify.  

There are two requirements:

1)  Develop a persona with a life story that leads to the date being portrayed.  Mine was born in 1814 so that I can portray 1875 in 2005.

2)  Document your outfit.  Find pictures or clear written descriptions of the items of clothing that you will wear for the match and the firearms and accessories, ie; holster, belt &c.

The people who judge the documentation are those who have already met the requirements at a previous match.  In the KVC that would be Trap, Books and me who qualified at the NCOWS Nationals for the "Originals" side match.  So, to judge, you must have already met the requirements.

My persona was about a page and a half.  I is a short "life history" that explains why I dress and am armed in the outfit that I wear for the match.

My documentation listed each item of clothing and refereced photographs showing the item that were dated to 1875 or earlier.  I tried to keep them between 1870 and 1875 as what I had in 1870 I could still be wearing.  I chose 1875 as the starting date for my persona since my firearms are an 1873 Winchester [repro.] and a Colt SAA [repro.] and the SAA wasn't available to civilians until 1875.

That's all there is to it.  It is not complicated or very diffucult to anyone who is interested in the history of the period.

Hope that this answers your question!  

[O.T. Buchannan]

There is an article coming out (I believe in the November/December issue) that deals with the Originals, and it also explains the judging.  That article also goes into detail on just how the first attempt at judging went, and the results (quite satisfactory) that were achieved accordingly.  Basically, Kayleen and Dr. Bob have explained the process well, so we will keep rolling with it (and try to tweak it with some good advice received from Dr. Bob) and see how it goes.....

[Ottawa Creek Bill]

St. George, Kayleen,
That is exactly the way the originals class is set up, the member that wants to shoot that particular class supplies his own documentation, NOT the other members of the posse. Annie Lee is right in that no body is qualified on their own to judge this category, that is why it is up to each individual that wants to shoot this category to do their own research and provide the documentation before-hand to the match director soley as a guideline as to how many there will be in the originals posse for that particular match.

Each member of the posse is assumed to be HONEST and FORTH-RIGHT, and is taken at their word that the research is accurate. You are only cheating your self if the documentation you present is bogus, no body else.

The only thing that is scrutinized is, if the documetation is complete and that it matches the impression of the posse member presenting it. In other words you wouldn't want to present documentation for a working cowboy and come dressed as a river boat captain. That is the only thing that is judged by the other participants of the posse, the completeness of the documentation as it pertains to your impression, not the accuracy of the research.

OCB

[Joyce (AnnieLee)]

Thanks for the insight, folks.

So, once a person is "qualified" via their personal documentation, the winner for the category is based on shooting ability?

AnnieLee

[Trap]

  To become an "original" your documentation is checked by ,I believe, 3 who are already originals. No one is an expert on all cultures or occupations , but the examination is to see if the persona is realistic to the stated time (year) and that all items would have been available to the persona in question. Once you have been accepted as an Original , you don't have to be judged each time. Also if you didn't want to Participate as an original you wouldn't have to, For example you wanted to try something out of your time period. Once you are an Original,  you understand the process, and may act as a judge for others.  jt

[Ottawa Creek Bill]

One of the benifits of shooting the originals class that hasn't been brought up here as yet, is,  French Jack, OT Buchannan and I have discussed  the possibility of archiving the research marterial collected from the originals class for future reference. Once we get enough material that will make it benificial we are hoping to have a data base that we can share with current NCOWS members that would like to shoot the originals class but for some reason don't have the means or resources available to do their own research. This is just in the thinking stages right now.

We will be able to supply that research/reference material or at least point them in the direction as to where they can find it. If what they need is in the material collected, and we have it in hand at that point it is requested, it would be a simple matter of copying it and forwarding to the requestor.  That is why it is extremly important that the research be accurate and documented. We had a pretty good variety of impressions at the first two matches thus far, hopefully that variety will grow. This is what makes this class so much fun....

OCB

[Major Matt Lewis]

Derby,

To answer your question, I will solicite one of The Originals to do the Judging....

[Dr. Bob]

Aw jeeez RCJ,

Now ya gone an blabed my condition all over the 'net!  One of me will get ya  for sure.   Jest hope it's not Bad Bob!

[Trap]

  Major Matt;
   will need to be 3 to judge documentation. Judges should be given at least a week before the event to look over the material.  jt

[Joyce (AnnieLee)]

Thanks for the insight, folks.

So, once a person is "qualified" via their personal documentation, the winner for the category is based on shooting ability?

AnnieLee

Isn't shooting a part of it, too? It seems I remember some strict criteria for shooting that required an alteration of the stages to adapt for the Originals shooters? Or was that "Working Class"?

Thanks again,

AnnieLee

[James Hunt]

I don't have much to add  to the above, a good explanation for your question. When you are into it as much as the folks are who go to all the trouble to be an "original" you're concerned that you "do it right". In other words, it is pretty much peer review and you want to be excepted by your peers. When I attended that Nationals this summer it was for the primary purpose of being "juried" by my peers, to be excepted by them. We gathered Fri afternoon and I submitted the historical basis for my persona (I presented it in a narative form) and documentation for my clothing, weapons, and accoutrements. I was pretty nervous when OT first picked it up and looked at it, then it went to OCB - nervousnes continued, then French Jack - not much better there, I wanted to do this right because I knew they did it right. I wanted to be as good as they were. These guy's do the 18th century stuff where no one has any reservation about telling you to come back on another day, and I valued their experience. On the next day all of us judged each other. I was looking at others who had put as much effort into it as I, and when talking with them began to realize that there were those who were more knowledgable about their personal than I was about mine. Never the less, I am now an original.

So now that I am an original is it a stopping point, not at all. I want to improve upon what I have done. I have since found several gaff's in my material and will be correcting those err's. Further I am expanding my persona of a hunter/scout in the years 1872 - 1876 to an entire adult life, from 1867 (my entry into the military) to 1905 (indeed beyond NCOWS but I have made my persona exactly 100 years older than I am, born in 1849 - so it will continue to grow from a military trooper to a small stockman on the Montana/Wyoming border as I age). You can see there is a fair amount of work as clothing, weapons, accoutrements, and life in general changes. Not for everyone, but it is great fun for someone who enjoys history.

I am greatful OT came up with this concept, I am greatful that there were those in NCOWS with the skill and knowledge to get this started. One more point, I don't think any of us original types have any attitude towards those who don't want to do this. I appreciate the fact that almost everyone in NCOWS enjoys history and makes a real attempt to dress right. Most notable at the National's this summer, I thought everyone looked great!

[Trap]

  Annie
 You get 50 pts for having documentation in order
 1-10 pts For scores fron other participants
 40 pts from shooting.  !st-40
                                     2nd 35
                                  3rd 30   and so on.   jt

[French Jack]

Annie Lee,
to answer your question regarding scoring:  1.  Each entrant is assigned a base score of 50 for having their documentation and impression complete.  2.  Each entrant is scored by the other entrants and given a score of 1-10 on their impression.  This will be averaged from scores given by other entrants.  No one scores themself.  3.  The deciding factor is the shooting score.  Everyone has a base score within a few points of each other to this point.  Shooting scores decide.  1st is good for 40 points, 2nd is good for 35 points, 3rd good for 30 points.  All places after that are assigned 15 points.  High score overall wins.

At the Eastern Regional, we were in a dead heat, then River City John's shooting score put him over the top.

Hopes this answers your question.   

[Major Matt Lewis]

Trap,

ARe you volunteering?

[Big Hext]

Howdy,

I'd like a bit of clarification on the Originals.  Is the "certification" for a particular persona or the person?
If O.T. creates a character of an ex-soldier traveling west that is certified, then creates an outlaw cowpuncher persona, does the second creation get an automatic pass as O.T. has shown he knows how to research and document?

Gracias,