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

ld.blackmoon ld.blackmoon at cox.net
Tue Jan 13 23:07:24 PST 2009


greetings 

well said, 
thats where more marshals helps a lot, were lucky here in the north to have a high number of active marshals .= )

be safe, be happy, havefun
arthur
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Patrick R 
  To: Archery within the Kingdom of Ansteorra 
  Sent: Tuesday, January 13, 2009 11:59 AM
  Subject: Re: [Ansteorra-archery] [Mm] How to increase TA, TW, and CA


        The logistical problems with archery are something we are going to have to live with. Even when ranges are available closer to the main activities we are going to be last on the list to get them. A simple face we will have to deal with since we are considered the bottom of the list for many things in the SCA. 

         

        What we do have as our advantage is that we can be much more inclusive in the people participating. For the last two years in the Bryn-gwlad fall baronial we have tried to get the maximum participation possible. In addition to the tournament held at the end of the day we opened the range to people who wanted to try their hand at archery. We do have an advantage over other activities for doing this. It needs to be announced and announced often. We placed notices at gate and had people going around making sure everyone knew about the range (OK I begged a lot of people to come by the first year). The result is that each year we had over 50 people participate and over 25 of them shot in the competition. It offered people who were participating in other events to take some time that they had available and come join us. The results speak for themselves, several people who never tried archery went out and purchased their own bows and equipment and are now part of our community. 

         

        For my two cents, the key is to make it attractive for people to try and they may find that they like it. Sometimes parents bring their children over and find that they like it as well. It makes for a busy day for the people running the range but it is worth the work. 

         

        Dante

         

         



        --- On Tue, 1/13/09, Jed Tressler <jed.tressler at gmail.com> wrote:

          From: Jed Tressler <jed.tressler at gmail.com>
          Subject: Re: [Ansteorra-archery] [Mm] How to increase TA, TW, and CA
          To: "Archery within the Kingdom of Ansteorra" <ansteorra-archery at lists.ansteorra.org>
          Date: Tuesday, January 13, 2009, 10:24 AM


          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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