[Ansteorra-missile] Need Authorizing Marshals

[agnarr]

BlankForeward:
I have recently started reading my replies before sending them out as I have been told that I sometime sound like I am attacking or flaming someone and that is not my intent nor and I trying to sound arguementive in this posting.   But yes I am kinda irritatied in the matter of no one able to do authorizations here in the west so to Master Pug the Kingdom Archery Marshal or anyone else that reads my replies -  Do not take this message as an attack on them personally or on thier office.  That is not its intent - it is to show that this matter of authorizations for CA and for the need for Archery marshals in the region has to be resolved here in the western region so we are not denying good folk from participating in the SCA due to a lack of marshals.

Arcus Agnarr Thorvaldsson
Western Region


> Robin Allen (robinbjornsborg at yahoo.com) said something that sounded like:
>>    At Gothic last weekend we had 4 heavy fighters who were interested
>> in getting authorized as combat archers. Trouble is we had no archers
>> who were warranted to authorize. Patrick Michael and Ulsted were both
>> there and said they could take care of it but I need to follow up on
>> that. This needs to be looked into as it is difficult to for some fighters
>> (especially out in the Western Region) to get to some events and they
>> may be waiting a long time for an event where they can get authorized.

To which  Pug replies:
> This is major problem. There are very few authorizing marshals and
> even fewer CA authorizing marshals. This is roughly proportional to the
> number of fighers to CA combatants. The process of how to get authorized
> is quite clearly laid out for many months now and folks that do not have
> someone local to them (or who knows their abilities well enough) they
> should contact the authorizing marshals to make arrangements. If they
> don't know who they are, they should contact the Regional or Kingdom
> Archery Marshal.

> Now that being said, I've only had one person from the *Northern* region
> contact me about combat archers getting authorized in the Western
> region. This was at the last minute even.
> 

Pug - I for one, as well as the regional seneschal have both contacted you about this very matter for over several months now and we still have not had ONE marshal with the ability to authorize come to a western region event and authorize.  When we have had archers from this region go to events out of region and try to get authorized either those with the power to authorize tell them:  "You should be authorized by your regional marshal as I dont know you well enough to do the authorization myself" or we are told "You need to speak to to the Kingdom Archery Marshal as your not from this region and I am only authorizing those individuals from my region".   

You were unable to attend several events here in the west that you had originally made plans to attend and so has others with the ability to do authorizations - thats just a simple fact that a persons mundane life coming first before the SCA - And nothing is wrong with that but now when you add to this the now rising price of gasoline and you can see that its now really stopping a lot of people from traveling to events that are far away from home.  Expecially when you have some people in this kingdom that have to drive more miles to attend Gothic Wars then they do to attend Gulf War.  And its really hard on those from the western region as the other melee events in the kingdom are at least 7 hrs away or more.  I know I don't have to explain to you or others that some events like fall melees is over 12 hrs one way for me and most of the CA's in the west live farther away then I do by at least a hour and a half.  

But do you really expect the CA's here in the west to only do the traveling to events on the other side of the kingdom just to hope to be re-authorized by a marshal and then be told "Sorry your not from this region."??    Its not always easy for people here in the west to travel to the other side of the kingdom when they are not certain that they will be authorized to participate anyway.  But we the region should have seen at least one authorizing person at our events at least once - Once long ago when I made an application for the Kingdom Archery Marshal,  the Kingdom Earl Marshal (at the time it was Sir Kief),  and he told me that the officer he picked for that office had to travel throughout the Kingdom and he was right, and he made the right decision in appointing  Fearghus to that office as I was not traveling to the other side of the kingdom enough to be affective in that office.  (I also have a habit of saying things as I see them and pissing off others due to a lack of tact but thats another topic...)

> I've only had one or two people contact me about marshals out there which
> I told them we could work on but it wasn't something that they would be
> able to do without field training. You don't just learn all the rules
> and safety measures in an hour.
> 

You are right Pug - It does take more then an hour to teach a NEW person the rules and make them proficient in marshaling.  

But what about those individuals that were authorized before the April 30th Cut-off to do CA as well as able to be marshals for CA and target archery???  
Did the archery rules change so much that everything they knew on safety and the proper inspections of archery gear was wrong as of that date?  I have seen that many changes to warrent that level of retraining of the marshallete.  I can think of several individuals here in the western region who were able to participate in CA and as of april 30th they can not do CA do to not being reauthorized and we still have not had one authorizing marshal attend a western regional event and authorized the CA's here in the west either before or after that cutoff date.

> The Western region has problems with archery in general and CA in
> specific. There is not any driving forces out there with the experience
> to resolve this problem. When there is no activity in the region there
> is not likely to be anyone who *can* authorize due to a lack of experience.
> It's a bad catch-22, but not one that I can easily solve and I
> absolutely not do it by authorizing people I have never seen do the job.

What level of experience are you looking for someone to be in the regional office Pug??   
  
I have been doing CA since about 1991 and I have twice held the office of the western regional archery marshal and was in fact in the office a third time as the acting regional from June 04 to Oct 04 when I stepped away from the sca so I could focus on my sons health issues which are now thankfully resolved.  When I started playing again in mid april - I was told by several individuals here in the region that there was no one able to handle the authorizing or even marshal a range.  So I called you before your went on your trip to india to discuss this matter and I even offered my service to you that night as a deputy to only re-authorize those individuals that were CA's and Target Archery marshals here in the west until you could appoint someone as the regional archery marshal.  You said the matter would have to wait till you got back from your trip and for me to send you a e-mail, which I did that night and I again made the offer in writing to you offering to handle the re-authorizations of those that were already CA's, and TA Marshal;s.  You did not respond to that e-mail for almost 7 weeks and when you did respond to that message you asked me some questions about CA, Target Archery and on an individual's ability as a marshal and CA.  When I replied that day you sent me a reply by e-mail on 5-12-05 authorizing me as a CA archer, CA Marshal, and a Target Archery Marshal.  So the west was still without anyone to handle the authorizations and that was over a month after the April 30th deadline.  What about the rest of the regions combat archers??? 

I know that Lord Cameron Cook from Bonwicke has already made an application for the western regional archery marshal office to you - and that application was done around late Jan - early Feb.   He went and tried to speak with you at Gulf Wars about the duties and your expectations on the office and you told him that you did not have the time that night to discuss the matter with him - as you had a meeting to attend and for him to see you the next day.  When he did finally see you the next day after the fortification battles you were marshalling - you said were unable to discuss this matter with him as you were packing up your camp for the trip back to Texas.  Since then you have had letters recommending this individual for the office from myself, the Landed Baron and Baroness of Bonwicke, and the regional seneschal HL Amaryah.   But the word we recieved back was that you had said that archery was dead in the western region and we did not have a need of a regional marshal.  And so here we are now in September and the western region still does not have anyone to handle the authorizations of people wanting to participate.  Why has this matter gone on for so long??? and What steps do we have to do to correct this matter of not having a Regional Marshal??  He was able to assist me on the archery range at Gothic War without any issues of safety or procedure and he knows how to run a range safely.  What is wrong with him being the regional marshal??- surely having him in the office and he wantws to hold this office is better then having the office vacent as it currently is.

I do know that there are two groups here in the west that have held several unoffical non-SCA archery shoots this summer as they do not have a local marshal to do a offical SCA shoot.  Here in the Crossrodes we will be re-starting the official Archery shoots up as soon as the next newsletter (bi-monthly printing) is published.  Until then we have only been able to host an offical SCA shoot at our event last month and I have already sent in the event report for that shoot.  But other groups are still stuck with archers who can not shoot at a local offical practice, and CA's who cannot take the field in support of the Kingdom.

> 
> Btw, I had full intention of being there but I was unable to make it
> due to my health. I had also thought Arcus Fearghus and Arcus Ironwyrm
> were going to be there.
> 

I had heard from an earlier posting that you were having a bad time of it health wise and I hope you get well soon, as having health issues is not fun.   But I was hoping that you would have been well enough to attend and I could have discussed this with you in person at Gothic War.   However, as that was not able to happen - I am hopeful that we can get this matter resolved so that those individuals here in the western region can participate in offical Archery shots and the regions CA can take the field to defend the Kingdom.   

I remain in Service to the Kingdom and the Dream

Arcus Agnarr Thorvaldsson
Western Region, Ansteorra

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