principalities...a few

[Lee Forgue]

At 02:35 PM 9/18/1996 U, Stefan li Rous wrote:
>Greetings from Stefan li Rous,
>
>eilis, Board ombudsthing said:
>
>>The "Crown Lands" in the West consist of 3 Baronies and 2 Shires, with a
>>total population of less than 100.
>
>Since the minimum population counts from my copy of Corpora are barony -
>25 subscribing members and other groups - 5 subscribing members this
>leaves some of those groups awfully close to demotion or desolution. 
>(3 x 25 plus 2 x 5 equals 85 out of less than 100).
>
>Is this the normal state of affairs in much of the kingdom or Known
>World? As I have always lived in a large barony with well over the
>minimum number of members, this has not been a big concern to me, 
>although Estril's comments earlier do mention this.

The three Baronies are rather small, but are all in relatively isolated
areas -- up on the North Coast of California, way down on the coast almost
to Caid, and stretched from Guam to Korea.  The two shires are both minimal
in size in terms of memberships.

Branches in the West range from a Barony with under 25 members (and a Board
variance to keep that size) to a Shire with about 50 members and a Province
with over 200.  We have some branches that just about "make" their numbers
and some that are well over -- and some of the large ones have been
encouraged to split into smaller branches so that more people can have the
experience of being officers, etc,

The Central West is somewhat unusual, in that most of our branches are
physically close to each other.  I just counted and there are about 20
branches within one hour's drive of my front door.  Now, I'm fairly
centrally located, but that means that these branches are (usually) no more
than two hours drive from each other.  If I drive two hours, I can reach all
but a handful of the Central West branches; the furthest away is about nine
hours -- and the only reason that one is so long is that it's up a twisty
highway through the redwoods.

  --- eilis