How deep a hole am I digging for myself?

A few posts ago, I talked about the idea of holding a Prize to celebrate my 20th anniversary of fencing in the SCA. Well, I've decided to go ahead with the idea but I've run into a few snags from a direction I didn't expect: my friends.

Their concern is that I will offend the White Scarves by presuming to host a Prize at other than the crown's direction or that my Prize will be taken as a parody of a White Scarf's Prize. These are both valid points, and I must admit that these points never crossed my mind. Now I don't want to offend anyone with this Prize, so I'm glad my friends brought up their concerns.

I really want to do this Prize, but I also don't want to shoot myself in the foot. My first thought was that I should ask the White Scarves of Artemisia for permission to hold the Prize, but I really don't want to do this. Yes, it is their responsibility to ensure that their order is upheld to the proper standards, but I'm a little leery of the precedence I might set if I ask their permission to hold the Prize. My personal belief is that Prizes should not be limited to only those earning their White Scarves, but should be open for other occasions, too.

The compromise I've decided on is to contact them beforehand with my proposal to fight my Prize and ask them if there are any changes to the format that I should make: basically ask what I should have in the Prize, and what I should leave out of it. My hope is that, by including them in the initial planning, I can avoid any unforeseen consequences.

So now I just have to track down all their contact information.