ANST - Alexandrian vs Dance

[Kathri at aol.com]

>From Kathri in Stargate, who was unable to attend the last two Alexandrian 
Symposiums but was hoping to go to this one before it (possibly) moves out of 
Ansteorra.  

I'd like to give my reaction to some of Mistress Gunnora's comments, in a 
different order that she gave them:

> Lastly, I sure don't hear anyone squawking about the fact that we have two,
> three, or even more events colliding on the same weekend all the time all
> over the kingdom and have done so for years now -- this is certainly not
> some random isolated occurance. 

We don't have two, three or even more non-fighting events that are tailored 
to non-fighting interests on the same weekend.  We have very few totally 
non-fighting events at all, much less events that emphasis such 
under-appreciated arts as dancing and research, so the conflict is galling 
even to people who have no trouble deciding which event to attend.  

> Are you going to complain about the fact that Pennsic is opposite Kingdom
> Dance and therefore is drawing attendance away from the event? 
No, I see Pennsic as a separate thing altogether.  For one thing, the 
scheduled dates for Pennsic are widely known from year to year with no last 
minute changes. People make their plans knowingly, whether it's to go to 
Pennsic or to schedule an event during Pennsic for the people who don't go.  
I doubt that we're hearing from anyone who is going to Pennsic; they probably 
made their choice some time ago and are happy with it.  [I'd be happy if I 
could go to Pennsic this year! :>) ]

For another thing, Pennsic is "opposite" the whole kingdom of Ansteorra by 
many hours of travel time, and will "draw attendance away from" any kingdom 
event in the Known World that is held against it.  Kingdom Dance and the 
Alexandrian Symposium aren't even on opposite sides of the kingdom, so they 
are available and convenient to roughly the same group of 
non-Pennsic-attenders.  

> We average 80 to 100 people attending,
> tops, and that *includes* the instructors.  We're going for quality, not
> quantity.

I don't think you mean to imply that that you don't expect or want "new" 
people who aren't already involved in the Alexandrian Company, but that's an 
impression some people could get.  

> If you have the articles in hand, you won't miss out.

I don't think you mean to imply that there's no value to interacting with the 
researchers and teachers themselves, or to seeing how research can be 
presented "live" to an audience rather than just in print.  Do you mean that 
the presenters just stand up and read their papers out loud and then 
disappear from sight?  If so, you're right about buying the proceedings, and 
I'd appreciate knowing it so I can blithely skip the event itself.  (Had 
enough university professors that did that; thanks anyway.)

Kathri


Asterisk Herald for Ansteorra
kathri at aol.com


============================================================================
Go to http://lists.ansteorra.org/lists.html to perform mailing list tasks.