[Ansteorra-archery] Royal Rounds and IKAC

[Eadric Anstapa]

ld.blackmoon wrote:
> greetings
>
> while i am but a lowly archer ( very noisy though ; )
>
> ( and i have to say first that you have done wonders in the archery
> comunity, but not everyone can afford to play at your level . just my
> opinion  )
>   
Arthur everyones participation is limited to what they can afford. 
Similarly people are going to limit themselves (even those who might be 
able to afford anything) to what they enjoy.

My point is that those who are sometimes critical that others are not 
shooting as many Royal Rounds or IKAC ends as some might think they 
should should stop and consider that those other archers may be active 
and serving in other ways.  I will have a dozen or so archers with me at 
Gulf War this year that didn't shoot a single IKAC round this past 
year.  However, we were very busy at Gulf War and Pennsic, worked many 
many hours at both wars, attended and marshaled many tournaments and 
events in Ansteorra, and were virtually the only people teaching at AoB 
( the exception was Robin who also didn't shoot at IKACs and who also 
served at war and throughout the kingdom) .  In general  these folks who 
didn't shoot IKAC rounds had a very high level of  extremely productive 
activity without the need to shoot an IKAC and don't miss IKAC at all.

> i would have to ask ??
> does anyone have any solid numbers on how many archers ansteorra has that
> shoot on a regular basis ??
>   
Sure, as a recent regional marshal you know those numbers were available 
to you.  Branch marshals are supposed to report each quarter the number 
of active archers in their branches and the regional marshals should be 
wrapping those numbers up and reporting them to the kingdom marshal.  If 
all the marshals reported properly then the kingdom marshal should be 
able to get pretty close to telling you how many active archers their 
are in the kingdom because if those active archers are active without a 
marshal who is overseeing and reporting that activity there is a problem.

> as well as numbers on how many of those archers can afford the time and
> money to attend those far off wars ??  every year ??
>   
I don't know how anyone would have any "who can afford what" 
information.  However, people make choices all the time.  Some are 
forced to make choices based on what they can afford but I hope everyone 
makes choices on what they enjoy the most and hopefully where they can 
be most productive.

I do spend a lot of money on the SCA each year.  But as a percentage of 
my income I spend a far far smaller amount than I did when I was  a poor 
broke 20 year old college student.  Back then my armor looked like crap, 
food for the entire event consisted of uncooked hot dogs, a cheap can of 
pork and beans, and the cheapest loaf of white bread I could afford. We 
couldn't afford to travel alone but had to cram 8 people in my van to go 
to war so we could pool all our gas money together.  We didn't have nice 
camps or gear and didn't have enough money or cargo space for lots of 
tents and often crammed 4 folks for a week into a 10x12 tent.  We made a 
choice to be there and scrimped and saved and pooled our resources and 
went out and were active and still tell stories and talk about how much 
fun it was back when we didn't have any money to go to events.

It's about choice.  Some archers choose a recurve, some choose a 
longbow, some choose a crossbow, some choose not to shoot IKAC but 
instead to do something they enjoy more.

-EA