[Ansteorra-archery] [Mm] How to increase TA, TW, and CA

[Jed Tressler]

Instead of trying to conquerer the logistics of a wagon, why not make an
effort to put the ranges closer to the rest of the event?  Some sites will
make this impossible, obviously, but I have attended several events where
the range is off in BFE, where you had to walk through half a mile
(exaggerated) of suitable range to get to it.  Scoot that sucker up a bit.
 It may mean investing in more safety line, but that will be cheaper than
renting a wagon/paying for gas and the like.  This would be especially true
for Thrown weapons, where the necessary safety zone is (usually) much
smaller.
Speaking of thrown weapons, somebody mentioned that if there were multiple
throwers on the line, than each would require there own marshal.  I can't
find this in the rules, can somebody point me to it?

I think an additional factor we may not be keen on considering is the
relative ratio of participating individuals to total event size.  My
experience is that a large proportion of the people who sit and watch an
activity (any activity) are connected personally to somebody who
participates in the activity.  So the more participants, the more
spectators.  If 1/3 of the people at an event are fighters of some kind, and
only 1/4 are archers, there will be more people at the list field than at
the range, both due to the number of participants, and there attending
personal connections.  We could use this a bit to our advantage.

We could emphasize the importance of an archers inspiration, have archers
perform salutes, give dual awards to competitor and consort, even pander a
bit and award largess for best list pavilion set up, etc.  We, as archers,
also need to ask our friends to come watch us shoot.

Finally, I would like to offer that "all-day" tourney designs, while fun for
us, do not engender attendance from non-participants.  Because of safety
concerns, no matter how close we can get the firing-line to the rest of the
event, watching an archery competition will always mean facing away from
everything else that is going on.  Often it means being
completely separated from the event.  Conversely, watching the rapier
tourney usually means being in the middle of everything, and often you're at
the list even when you're not paying attention to the fight.  Peoples
attention span will not hold very long (most college students have a max
attention span of 20 min. and there on the high side of the curve).  The
ideas mentioned about making the range attractive, having snacks, heralds,
interesting formats all combat this, but if you ask them to sit for hours on
end, while they miss the rest of the event, even strong personal connections
are going to be hard pressed to keep there butts in the seats.

I think a good strategy would be to pick your best, most climactic portion
of the days shoot and push to get people there for that.  Try and get
it scheduled in an empty part of the day (no use trying to compete if
you don't have too) .  Get the site heralds to make a big deal of it.
 Petition the presiding royals to attend.  Ask all your friends to come
support you.  And try to time the whole thing to be over in about an hour.
 You wont see most of the attendees any other time in the day, but big deal,
they came to the big tourney.  The fighting equivalent is pick-ups after.
 People don't sit around and watch the fighters practice with each other
when the tourney is over, even when they are on the center field.

Just my $1.25.
Bastian Eisengart
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