For those unfamiliar with the Award of the Swift’s Heart, this is the award bestowed by the populace, given to those individuals identified by the populace who have shown true kindness, and are helpful, considerate, and inviting. It was created last year to take the place of our previous gendered populace awards, the Heart of South Downs and the Chivalry Award.

The award is given no more than once per South Downs event, preferably at the event. The ceremony for the awarding is arranged by the previous recipient(s) in consultation with the baronage. We have three baronial events, clustered from Sep/Oct to February, so at most three awards per Anno Societatis.

Voting for the award(s) is conducted annually, prior to Red Tower, and the granting of the award(s) spread out over the event season.

There are two steps to the process, Nominations and Polling.

STEP 1: NOMINATIONS (the thing starting now)

Nominations are now open and will continue through Wednesday, August 23rd (to give people at Pennsic time to participate).

Every member of the populace may nominate up to 3 other members of the populace. Previous recipients of one of the South Downs populace awards are ineligible:

Heart of South Downs Recipients: https://southdowns.meridies.org/about-us/baronial-awards/heart/

Chivalry Award Recipients:

Swift’s Heart Recipients:

Justina di Silvestri, Ogata Mitsuko

Use this form to submit nominations:

If you’re unable to use the form, email the seneschal (sen.southdowns@meridies.org).

The results of the nominations will be received by a committee formed of the seneschal, incoming baronage, and at least two previous recipients of a South Downs populace award – if you’d like to volunteer to serve on the committee, please do so. (Wistric will be present to provide technical support since he came up with this probably over-complicated process).

STEP 2: POLLING

The committee will compile the nominations into a ballot. If you submitted a nomination, the ballots will be emailed to you at the email address on the nomination form. If you do not wish to nominate anybody, but do wish to receive a ballot, you can either submit a nomination form with the nominee names blank, or email the seneschal to let them know you’d like to participate in the voting.

Ballots should go out on or around August 28th.

Ballots will be emailed out to all who request them. Voting will be ranked choice (indicate 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc).

The committee will review and count the votes cast to determine who the populace wishes to see awarded, and the next recipient of the Award of the Swift’s Heart will be recognized by the populace at Red Tower.