I first left the SCA in the mid 80s due to bickering between branches. Some shires just couldn't get along. I left before even getting my AOA, and looking back I can see I personally was part of the problem. I feel guilty over it, but the individuals I wronged are no longer in the SCA, and therefore not there for me to apologize to.
I have come to the conclusion since that if one unfairly criticizes another branch of the SCA he or she is attacking a whole kingdom. After all, SCA branches are not individualized entities, but part of something greater. An individual that unfairly criticizes another canton, shire, or barony is like the finger that criticizes the foot. The finger does not stop to think the foot, while different is needed to move the rest of the body of which the finger is a part.
Unfortunately, I have seen cases where one person has a problem with one or two members of another branch so they take it out on the entire branch, sometimes over things that happened long ago of which new folk were not a party to.
Giving another canton, shire, or barony a hard time, making things difficult for them is not chivalrous behavior. Indeed, it is the opposite. Groups and individuals within a kingdom should seek to help each other. That is the chivalrous thing to do. People should put aside issues in the past, and instead make sure every branch succeeds at what they do. If anything else we should refrain from such behavior least we drive new folk away.
The SCA is in addition to an educational organization a social one. And its social interactions are supposed to be of a chivalrous nature. SCA members should go out of their way to be kind to one another, to help one another, esp, when they are members of the same kingdom. There is no room for grudges, for rivalries, for petty jealousies. I wish when I had first joined the SCA 40 some odd years ago I had realized that then. I certainly do now.
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