Kingdom Advocate

Kingdom Law:

IX-100 THE ADVOCATE shall be responsible for representing the interests of those members of the populace who have questions or complaints concerning other offices at the local or Kingdom level, and shall be a source of information and advice for dealing with such complaints or general questions as needed. The Advocate shall be appointed directly by the Crown, with an expectant term of office of two years, and may be removed or replaced as the Crown deems necessary.

http://seneschal.calontir.org/calontir-law-14th-ed.php#ix-100

Calontir Seneschal's Handbook

Problem Solving and Conflict Resolution

• Any behaviors that affect group dynamics are within your jurisdiction to help mediate, regardless of whether they begin outside or within the SCA scope. Only directly involve yourself though when the dispute has the potential to have a negative impression on others toward the group or cause negative group dynamics. If this is not an issue that is a group concern, or is a personal issue between two individuals unrelated to an official activity that occured, encourage the parties to resolve the issue privately or to seek the assistance of the Kingdom Advocate as needed to resolve their dispute. If you involve yourself, it is critical that you remain neutral. If you cannot do so, seek the advice of your regional or Kingdom officer who can help you find someone who can to serve as an arbitrator if necessary.

The levels of escalation and communication in conflict resolution would be as follows:

1. among the individuals themselves, preferably face to face
2. with the local officer in charge of the activity in dispute and/or the royal representative (i.e. baron/baroness), and CC your regional and Kingdom seneschal
3. with Kingdom officer in charge of the activity, and CC the local officer, your regional and Kingdom seneschal
4. The Crown, the Kingdom Advocate (Royal Appointee for conflict management) and CC your Kingdom seneschal
5. and finally The Board of Directors (this should be a last resort—if no one else has managed to find a solution, the board will do so, but you may not like what they come up with and there is no level of appeal above them)

http://seneschal.calontir.org/calontir-seneschal-handbook.php#conflict-resolution

History

The position was created in about 1993, after Calontir had its first, and to date only, Court of Chivalry. The laws regarding courts of chivalry were then rewritten, and the position of Advocate was created. The person had/has the responsibility to run courts of inquiry and courts of chivalry, but also to be a sort of pan-office problem solver and mediator. Basically, if you have a problem and you don't feel it's getting solved by dealing with the officers, or if something crosses office lines, or if officers have a dispute, the advocate's office can be asked to problem-solve. The office was created pretty much with Master Crag Duggan in mind, and he held it until 2001. For reasons best known to themselves and quite mysterious to me, he and Valens (who was king at the time) then saw fit to ask yours truly if I would take it. I had the job from 2001 until 2006, and then it passed to Sir Logan. From him it went to Master Owain, and I *believe* it went from Owain to Mistress Roselyn--if there was another in between, I completely missed it. It's a royal appointment, and while Crag told me when I was getting ready to take the job that I should not even think of writing regular reports or regularly attending meetings...

Ealdormere's Lawspeaker is, I believe, somewhat similar, but it's pretty unique to Calontir. When Eilis O'Boirne was Society Seneschal, she told me she'd love to see it in other kingdoms, but she could think of no way to translate it that wouldn't end up, in a lot of places, with someone totally on a power trip in the office.

The symbol of office is a purple leather-and-leadshot sap inscribed with the words "Come, let us reason together." ...the guys in camp (sideways glance at Fernando Vigil and [Sir Erich]) had to "try out" the sap after I acquired it when Crag turned over the office in Lilies great court that year...

per Elasait