From Society Marshal’s handbook:
I. PROCEDURES FOR THE AUTHORIZATION OF MARSHALS
A. General Requirements
There are three near-equal priorities in marshaling: safety, fair witness, and showmanship. Overemphasizing any one at the expense of the others will tend to make the fighting less enjoyable for everyone (although, if you must go overboard on one pick safety).
1. A Marshal may be authorized after he/ she demonstrates the ability to oversee combat, judge a fighter’s authorization, and inspect weapons and armor.
2. Unless he/ she is warranted or rostered by the Earl Marshal as an officer of the kingdom, however, he/ she may not be the Marshal-in-Charge of an event, or sign the paperwork to authorize a fighter or non-contact participant.
3. Kingdoms may have other types of Marshals other than Authorized Marshals (local Knight Marshals, Constables, etc.) as they see fit. These individuals may be warranted or rostered by the Earl Marshal of the kingdom. However, unless the marshal has undergone a Marshal’s Authorization, he/ she shall not give final approval of the suitability of weapons or armor, or be involved in the authorization of participants.
4. Only the Earl Marshal or one of his/ her Deputies may perform a Marshal’s
Authorization. He/ she must witness the authorization and execute the appropriate paperwork to insure the authorization is registered. As a minimum a Marshal’s Authorization shall include the following:
a. The candidate must have a good working knowledge of the “Rules of the Lists”, the Society “Conventions of Combat” and any additional Kingdom rules or conventions.
b. The candidate must be willing to enforce the “Rules of the Lists”, the Society “Conventions of Combat” and any additional Kingdom rules or conventions.
c. The candidate must have a good working knowledge of the Society minimum Armor and Weapon standards and any additional Kingdom Armor and Weapon standards.
d. The candidate must demonstrate the ability to conduct an inspection of Armor and Weapons for use in combat.
e. The candidate must demonstrate the ability to conduct an inspection of Combatants and Non-Contact participants.
f. The candidate must demonstrate the ability to safely control SCA combat, whether this is single combat, team combat, general melee, or part of a war environment.
5. The term “Knight Marshal” applies to the marshal of a branch, regardless of whether he/she is a belted fighter, or even whether he/she is an authorized fighter at all.
Marshal’s Authorization procedure for Calontir:
1. Person who wishes to authorize contacts a Deputy Earl Marshal close to them..
2. That deputy will either A) take on the MIT to train or B) find another deputy who can train the MIT.
3. Deputy is responsible for ensuring MIT meets the society regulations for a marshal. See section I.A. for a complete listing. The deputy should pay close attention to 4a-4f. The deputy should stress courteous behavior in marshaling. The MIT doesn’t have to get all his training from said deputy, but said deputy is the person the MIT reports to about his marshaling training. (Please note, Calontir does not currently have non-contact participants that require inspection.)
4. When the deputy feels the MIT has completed these things in a satisfactory manner, he grants the authorization. If the MIT fails to complete the training, he fails the authorization.
A. A reasonable maximum time to complete the authorization is 6 months, unless the MIT makes arrangements with the training deputy.
B. The MIT may contact the Earl Marshal or another deputy if they feel they have grievance or cause against the training deputy.
5. The form is filled out and the authorized marshal’s card is marked and signed by the deputy. Paperwork is filed with KEM and deputy of cards.
6. The authorized marshal is then free to become a warranted marshal after fulfilling those obligations. To become warranted you must contact the Earl Marshal.