What Happens at Pelican Meetings?

Activities at our meetings include:

• providing discussion and counsel for Their Majesties on matters that concern the Kingdom
• discussing general goals and directions of the Order, and of course:
• considering the progress lists of potential Pelican candidates.

Meetings are typically held at the following events (occasionally at others as time and need require):

• January: 12th Night Coronation
• February: Canterbury Faire
• March/April: Rowany Festival
• May: May Crown Tourney
• November: November Crown Tourney

Please note, if you are planning to recommend someone to the Order, it helps to do so before a meeting, rather than afterward. The Crown events move throughout the Kingdom, and we often pay closer attention to candidates from the general region of an event. Between that, and the time taken for the process outlined below, you should also be aware that it can be a while between even a very deserving candidate coming onto a list and an invitation being made by the Crown.

We do undertake online discussions outside our meetings so, if the urge to recommend strikes you outside the timeframe of an upcoming meeting, go ahead!

The deliberations of the Order, whether at meetings or online, are all highly confidential. Breaching this is considered a serious issue, whether hint-dropping by members of the Order or as a result of eavesdropping or creative speculation by the populace. If you find yourself in earshot of any peerage meeting, please move away and encourage others to do so. If you inadvertently learn Order business, please keep it to yourself.

The Progress Lists

As mentioned in How Are Pelicans Chosen?, we keep several lists of people we are interested in and whom we may recommend for an invitation from the Crown to join the Order in the future...

The Watch List

The Watch list consists of people who look promising to us -- they tend to show fairly clear peerage qualities in terms of how they do things and how they treat people; they have usually started to build a fairly substantial body of work (such as serving as officers, running events, assisting others and so forth). We keep an eye on these folk, calling for comment and information to see if they are ready to move to the Discuss list. In most cases, candidates will stay on the Watch list for a while, coming up for regular reviews.

If a candidate is Dropped from the Watch list, it may be that they have not yet done the level of work the Order feels is necessary for this peerage. It may be that we know that something is affecting their service (e.g. they may have just changed groups, taken a high-pressure job, had a baby etc). In many cases we expect such folk to come back onto the list at some stage. We do keep a history of people on the lists, though our primary interest is in recent activity (i.e. in the past 3-5 years).

The Discuss List

As with Watch candidates, information is collected, comments sought from the Order and a focussed discussion is held. The aim is to see if the candidate is ready to be Polled by the Order as worthy of consideration for elevation to the Order. Because the Order is scattered across two countries, any Polling that results is undertaken at the relevant meeting as well as online, to get the most representative sample we can. Those results are then presented to the Crown for Their decision.

An offer to join the Order only lasts for the reign of the King and Queen on the throne at the time. When the King and Queen step down, the offer lapses. An invitation may be extended by the next Crown, but that is entirely Their choice.

Recommendations from the Populace

The Order is always looking for new prospective candidates. Anybody, whether they are a member of the Order or not, can send a letter of recommendation to Their Majesties or to the Pelican Clerk.

For further information on recommendations and how you can best make one, see the Recommendations section.