ARCH - Thoughts about events

[Bob Dewart]

All good and worth thinking about suggestions.

I too was at that event  in Wisenfeuar.  I got the feeling we (the archers)
were more or less swollowed up by the other activities.  Now don't get me
wrong, I had a  great  time.

One problem with combining AoB with almost any other event is the space
requirement if you are going to have the ranges.  A lot of sites that are
suitable for colligiums or the AoR  just won't support archery ranges.
Kings College for example is almost always in an air conditioned building
with very little if anything going on outside.  I'm not saying it couldn't
work; however, the other event folks may be reluctant to change their
location for one that would support the archery.

When you say *books*, were you referring to procedings of the AoB or of the
AoR or something totally differant?

I'm not sure where you're getting the 3 - 4 dozen attendance figure for the
event.  All the stand alone  AoB that we (Middleford) have done have had
right at 100 people.  Now, I do think that the Kingdom Calendar could give a
little support to ALL Kingdom level event.  Yeah, yeah, I know that there
are only 4 protected events during the year.  Still if you let three other
events get scheduled the same time, the turn out isn't going to be very
good.   Perhaps only one event at the other end of the Kingdom.

Say, how's that period shootin' coming?

Anyway, I know that Academy of the Bow can stand on it's own.  I think  it
needs to stand on it's own.  We (archers) get lumped in with other folks on,
IMHO, enough things now.  But , then that's just me.

Gilli

----- Original Message -----
From: "Scott Powers" <spowers at telepath.com>
To: <ansteorra-archery at ansteorra.org>
Sent: Friday, October 20, 2000 5:58 PM
Subject: ARCH - Thoughts about events


> I have been thinking about the "events" situation in Ansteorra for a long
> time.  While my thoughts have not yet clarified to the point that I am
sure
> about them, I do have some ideas that may be useful here.  I don't expect
> everyone to agree with me.
>
> I was thinking about the Academy of the Bow in Wiesenfeuer some years ago.
> It was autocrated by Lord (now Don) Donovan Fitzpatrick, and was a
> combination event.  It served as both Academy of the Bow and Academy of
the
> Rapier.  It went off fairly well.  I remember at the time that the
> discussion in Wiesenfeuer was that by combining both functions into a
> single event, then it would draw more participation and maybe at least
> break even, if not make a little money.  The turnout was good, and it
> probably would have made money except that far more "books" were printed
> than we needed.  That is a fixable problem.  What is not fixable is
getting
> a group to bid on events with an expected attendance of three of four
dozen.
>
> I think that WE as a kingdom do too many events.  I remember back in the
> days when there were one or at most two events on the calendar for each
> weekend.  Every event was special!  We did not travel to a lot of events.
> But the ones we did were always an adventure.  Now though, there are so
> many events that its all rather ho-hum.  I read event ads and wonder if
> there is anything at the event to get my interest up.
>
> The same situation applies to groups.  Back when we ran one event a year,
> it was something for everyone in the group to look forward to.  Now we
have
> three scheduled events, and the occasional kingdom event on top of that.
> Again, it is hard to get exited about the whole thing.
>
> So what I propose is that groups do fewer events.  Not only will that make
> it easier to get a "date" for your event, but it will make each event more
> "special."
>
> But what about all the event type things that we want to do, you ask?  We
> can make events more special by, well, by being more special.  Combine
> functions from seperate events into a single event.  The combined
Academies
> of the Bow and Rapier mentioned above is a good example.
>
> So to apply this to the problem of the Academy of the Bow, there are
> several possible solutions.
>
> 1) Combine it with the Royal Huntsman shoot.  That would provide a more
> robust event for both.  The competition would be a nice conclusion to the
> weekend.  Yes, I know, we need two Royal Hunstman shoots every year, but
> only one Academy.  But maybe for one of the two annual shoots it might go.
>
> 2) Combine it with the Academy of the Rapier every year.  This will add
> momentum to both, and make it a money maker instead of a money loser.  The
> biggest problem I see here are the number of wire-wigglers who also like
to
> fling sticks.  They won't get to do everything that they want to.  On the
> other hand, it will also make the event a bit more prestigeous for groups
> to do.  And it will attract autocrats from the Rapier community as well as
> the Archery community.
>
> 3) Combine it with a regular event someone else is doing.  Sure, that
makes
> scheduling during the event harder.  But I believe it is well worth it.
It
> would mean that only the Academy part would require a coordinator, since
> the autocrat for the event can be drawn from a much wider group (the
entire
> branch instead of just the archers).  I, for one, have only so much energy
> to devote to running events.  I work at all of our local events.  And I
> autocrat one every now and then, but do less of that as time passes.  Why?
> I am getting older, grumpier, and have less energy for such things.  But
if
> I only had to do the coordinating part for an Academy, I might be tempted.
> Hauling trash, cleaning porta-potties, and staying up all night dealing
> with problems definately makes the autocrats job less interesting.  But an
> Academy Coordinator needs do none of that.  So if your group is doing an
> event anyway, and there is time to work in an Academy of the Bow, then why
> not do it?  It could even raise attendance at your event.
>
> 4) Combine it with another collegium.  I autocrated Northern regional
> Tribute a couple of years ago.  A big part of that event was the
Collegium,
> in which a large number of classes were taught.  How about adding the
> Academy of the Bow to the curriculum of this or a similar event with a
> collegium already in place?
>
> Anyway, these are just some thoughts.  Hope you find them useful.
>
> Baron Rumil Fletcher


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