[Coastal] Loch Sollier Chivalric Fighter Practice

Tue Jul 22 15:50:52 PDT 2008

Greetings,

First, thank you Wissa, for asking for opinions.  

Second, here's some background on why there is a combined Loch /
Stargate practice:
Several years ago, the Stargate Sunday in Memorial park (near the tennis
courts) practice had effectively been cancelled due to a lack of a
Knight Marshal and regular attendance.  The Loch Sunday practice was
sparsely attended at best (the Loch Marshal mostly planned on sitting on
a park bench at Frankie Carter Randolph park).  So, in order to have
*any* practice, Baron Godwin and Baron Ulsted suggested a combined
practice.  We then polled the fighters, and Tuesday night was selected
as the night that the majority could make.  A site was selected that was
'central' to Loch and Stargate - the UH campus.  It was hoped that
fighting on a university campus would draw from a traditional recruiting
source for the SCA - college age students.  Unfortunately, UH is very
much a commuter school, and we haven't really seen any recruiting from
this practice.

My opinion based on years of trying to keep practices going: there is a
minimum fighter population required to maintain a 'regular' practice.
That number varies according to the motivation of the 'regular'
fighters.  There is a stark reality in Houston: it's mucking hot in the
summer, and so either a larger minimum number, or increased motivation
is required to maintain a practice.  A combined practice still seems to
me to be more likely to maintain a viable practice, but if the majority
doesn't think so, it won't. 

So - the *best* answer is to recruit more fighters, and practice will
handle itself (in fact, with enough fighters, there could be several
practices each week - solving the "what day" question, as well).  And
it's true that nothing recruits fighters like fighting...  However,
we've tried moving around various parks in the Clear Lake area, and none
really seem to attract recruits, but this could be a measure of a lack
of 'active' recruiting rather than just fighting.  And I would expect
any night practice to draw even less attention.

My answers to your questions:
1) I, too, would like a close practice, but I'd prefer a larger
attendance and a 'healthy' practice, which requires that 'minimum
number'.  So - if the Tuesday practice at UH is really done, then, yes,
I'll go to a Loch practice. 
2) I prefer the Tuesday night schedule.

Ulsted 

________________________________

From: Wissa Bear [mailto:wissabear at hotmail.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2008 2:43 PM
To: coastal at lists.ansteorra.org
Subject: [Coastal] Loch Sollier Chivalric Fighter Practice

Greeting to the Populace, 
For a few months we have been talking about changing the Loch Chivalric
Fighter Practice.  We currently hold our fighter practice on Stargate
Lands on Tuesday nights.  The practice is often not well atteneded, and
when it is, there are mostly fighters from the loch.  There has been
talk  of moving the practice closer to where more of the loch populace
lives.  There are two main reasons for this that I see.  One is that
with practice closer to home, it will make attending practice easiler
and less expensive for our members.  The second reason is recruitment.
We are not going to add any members to our populace if our only public
event is a fighter practice held in stargate.  Even stargate does not
get recruitment from this practice, and has started a Sunday practice at
Memorial Park.  Also when we do get new memebers to our populace
meetings, we then tell them to get to fighter practice, its 30 miles
away.
Next, the day of the week. People's lives are busier than ever.  If we
move the practice to a local park, most likley we will be kicked out by
10pm.  That would get us all home at a decent hour (which would be a
nice change).  Our other choice, would be to start a practice on Sunday
like stargate has done.  For recuirtment we would have more face time
with the public, since more people use the parks on weekends than
weekdays.  Also we wouldn't have as many people running home from work,
then having to rush out again that evening for practice.  The down side
to moving the day its held if that most of the current fighters have
Tuesday night carved out of their schedule for fighting.  Also the other
day I've mostly heard suggested is Sunday, so getting home from events
in a hurry would be a new concern.
There are two questions to be answered: 
1. Do we want to move practice down to the Loch 
2. Do we want to keep it at the same time? 
I'm currently activly seeking opinions on this issue.  I know there are
opnions out there, I've heard some.  

Wissa 
Loch Sollier Knight Marshall 

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