[Elfsea] Kingdom Calendar suggestion

[Lisa Duke]

Timothy said:
But does this really make things better.  Again, the problem is not truly a
date on the Calendar, it is a date which is not in conflict with an event
that is so big that you don't believe you could make money.

For instance, would you really want to be the group with the first non-New
Years weekend of the year?  I would not.  You would be up against a behemoth
event called "Steppes 12th Night" which, since it is not the Perpetual Event
Date for Steppes (that's Warlord) it could conflict with anything not from
the Central Region, which means some poor non-Central shire would have to
try to compete against an event that pulls upwards of 350 people on a
weekend that is horrible for camping (most years).

I believe that any solution which tries to solve this problem as a
'Calendar' and not a 'People' issue will always have problems like this.

Timothy of Glastinbury
"The Calendar matters because of the PEOPLE that plan by it."

OK Timothy.... Let's look at people.
Not that many people from around the Kingdom travel to Steppes 12th night.
Do we see people from let's say North Keep or Rundel or Wastelands or
Mooneshadow or Eldern Hills or Bonwicke or Adlersruhe or La March Sauvage or
Seawinds or Bordermarch or Stonebridge Keep or even Stargate, Loch Sollier,
West Gate and Gates Edge attending Steppes 12th Night?  I haven't seen those
folks at that event. There are and will be exceptions.  But those numbers
are and will be small.
So as you say, "some poor non-Central shire" or even a Barony, if they
wanted, in any of the above listed groups could successfully compete against
Steppes 12th night because the people of their local group don't routinely
travel more than 250 miles from their home.  There are and will be
exceptions.  But those numbers are and will be small.
>From doing a little research of past BlackStars, in January 2000 Torre de
los Brazos did compete with Steppes 12th night.  Yes they are now a closed
group but that was planned as their last event.  In January 2001 Westgate
did a Winter Collegium and was very successful.
The people are the folks who usually travels less than 250 miles to an
event.  The further away an event is, the less likely a person will travel.
That's why there is a rule for the Kingdom Calendar of no less than 250
miles.  It takes most people 3.5 hours at 70 mph to drive that far.
I have noticed that the people who travel the kingdom are a rather small
group of people.  They are the ones who go to multiple events a month.  I
would estimate the number somewhere around 50 maybe the most 100 but they
don't all go to the same events.  I've seen folks from the Coastal Region up
here for a Central Region event but I haven't seen them as Far north as
Namron.  I've seen folks who live in Oklahoma down here for a Central Region
event but never seen them in a Coastal Region event.  I've seen some folks
from the Western Region at Central and Southern Events but rarely see them
at Northern or Coastal.
The point is most folks don't want to travel more than 3-5 hours to attend
an event. Again there are and will be exceptions.  But those numbers are and
will be small.
Arabella