[Ansteorra-announce] How does GW Land really work?

[Doug Copley via Ansteorra-announce2]

Greetings!

Many people have questions about how Land at GW works and why they wind up
camping where they camp and why they can't just pitch their tent wherever
they want.

So, here is a write up of how things work and why things are done a certain
way.

My apologies for the length but I wanted to cover it all.

YIS,
HL Vincenti da Murano
GW XXIV Land Coordinator - Ansteorra

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All about Gulf War Land

Ansteorra has a fixed area and a fixed amount of land. Ansteorra does not
get any extra land based on the number of people that we have going.

All of the Ansteorra land has been surveyed and measured to account for all
of the square footage. All of the land is either set aside for Kingdom use,
such as the BFT and the Towers, or is given to one of the organized groups.

For a group to get land, they must have a designated land coordinator and
they must have people preregistered. Groups only get land for people that
are preregistered.

When ACCEPS closes the Kingdom Land Coordinator gets a spreadsheet with all
of the people that registered to camp with Ansteorra. Then, with the help
of their deputies, they go through and check which group a person listed as
who they were camping with. Some of these are easy to sort out some are a
little more challenging. Entries such as: “Barony of Wiesenfeuer”,
“Wiesenfeuer”, “Ansteorra - Wiesenfeuer”, “Wiesenfeuer - Namron” all get
sorted independent of each other. So we go through and get them all the
same, these are the easy ones. Some are a little more difficult and require
emails, phone calls, and group land people to help figure out. These
include entries for camping with such as: “Parents”, “Mom & Dad”,
“Household”, “B&B”, “Central Region”, or complex ones like “Elfsea,
Thunder, Central” (and just as an FYI, Elfsea is a Barony and has land,
Thunder is a household and has permanent land outside of Ansteorra, and
Central is a Region and does not have land).

Once all of the people have been sorted into their groups and ACCEPS has
given us any other outliers that may have been registered strange. We start
doing math. Just for easy math numbers, if we have 20,000 sqft and we have
100 people register, you take 20,000 and divide it by 100 so there is an
allotment of 200 sqft per person. This does not mean that each person gets
200 sqft, it means the the Kingdom Land Coordinator tries to give the group
200 sqft per person that is registered with that group. There is not any
land set aside in Ansteorra for people that are not preregistered. Anyone
that is not preregistered will be camping in the open land area for Gulf
War.

Ansteorran land is not a perfect square. It has curves and roads going
through it and twists and turns and is not in one piece. So the Kingdom
land coordinator has to go through and try to figure out where groups can
go based on the number of people that they have. We never split groups into
different areas or have a road go through a group camp (except one time the
Barony of Namron was moved to an area beyond the End of the World and wound
up being split up due to some miscommunications and the fact that Ansteorra
was bursting at the seams). In order to accomplish this no group has
permanent land within Ansteorra. Groups have to be moved around from time
to time to allow for those that grow or shrink from year to year. We have
had groups that did not exist 10 years ago now show up with 50 and groups
that 6 years ago had 30 no longer exist. Every group changes from year to
year so the land they occupy has to change some as well.

Depending on the group sizes and how things work out the groups (using the
numbers from above) would each be given about 195 to 205 sqft per person
that preregistered with them. No allowance is given to a group because of a
stump or brush, Group land coordinators have to work around these things as
best they can. That being said there are a couple of areas that a special
allowance is made because there is a cluster of trees so there is no way to
use a sizable piece of land. Those areas are already marked on maps and
accounted for.

Once the Kingdom layout is figured out and approved the group land
coordinators get a map and dimensions of the land that they will be camping
on. Normally all of this is done before anyone leaves for GW. The Group
Land Coordinators then take all of the information that they have for tent
sizes, door placements, tents with ropes, tents without ropes, where the
road is that they have direct access to, and start creating plans for
exactly where each tent will be.

A few days before GW, the Kingdom Land Coordinator and their deputies
arrive on site and stake and markoff all of the Kingdom land. As they are
doing this they look for any problems that may come up. Then work teams are
put together to work on Ansteorran land. This mainly is the trimming of
branches, bushes, and the filling of dangerous holes, and working on the
Ansteorran Towers. As the Group Land Coordinators arrive, we make sure they
find their area so they can get started marking off where the tents go in
their area. The Kingdom Land Coordinator does not have the individual plans
for each group which is why the Group Land Coordinator has to be the first
person there and the last person to leave.

Then comes Sunday morning, the gates open, and the flood of eager GW
campers descend on the Ansteorran Land area. Either the Kingdom Land
Coordinator or one of their deputies is located at the Ansteorra Towers to
help direct people to where they are supposed to be camping. During the day
we go around and make sure to remind everyone that vehicles and trailers
need to be unloaded as quickly as possible and moved to parking so that
others who are arriving will have a place to park so they can unload.

Saturday at the end of GW many people leave to make the trek back home. At
this time we go around and make sure people remember to to fill in any
holes they dug, trenches filled in, trash picked up, and that everything is
left in good condition. We also go around and talk with the Group Land
Coordinators to make sure that there are no problems. After the mad rush of
people leaving Saturday, everyone that is left goes and gets their vehicles
and trailers and brings them to Ansteorran Land. Now everything that is not
needed for that night can be preloaded, extra tents are taken down, gear
packed, and everything that can be done is taken care of. Then we stop, do
community left-over cook-offs and sharing, tell stories, relax, and enjoy
one last night of relaxation and fun before heading back.

Sunday morning everyone is up and going early, the last of the items are
packed, the land is surveyed, trash picked up, the last of the items that
belong in the towers is placed inside, the towers are locked and we leave
site - all of this has to be done by noon!

Then tired and weary, happy and sad, full of stories, we say goodbye to our
home away from home, and begin our trek home.

And now you know more about Ansteorran Land at Gulf War than you ever
thought existed!