[Hellsgate] Sunday Fighter Practice

[Chris Zakes]

At 09:41 AM 3/4/2011, you wrote:
>I have a small dog in this fight since I am back in town now but will
>likely deploy soon.
>
>I got here as the previous group folded and the rebuild came from
>fighters wanting something to do because the Tuesday practice wasn't
>good for us.  It started in Roak's back yard and soon we had enough
>folks we had to move, so we returned to the park.  Eventually, it came
>up to form an official group.
>
>Since we fully expected the membership to swell and shrink, we opted
>for a Stronghold, for which we needed a Barony to support us.  Bryn
>Gwlad gladly stepped up and supported us.  I have seen nothing
>implying we should abandon Hellsgate for the larger Barony, but they
>have supported us and we, in turn, should be supporting them.
>Additionally, we have very few heavy fighters that are healthy to
>fight, so I personally see having to make trips to Bryn Gwlad
>practices to get any kind of improvement in my fighting.  Tuesday is
>largely impractical when the drive gets me home as late as it would
>and then I ave to be up early the next morning (gas price hardly
>factors in).  As for Sunday being the only day available for practice,
>I could accept practice up here any day of the week.

But bear in mind that if you move the Hellsgate fighter practice to a 
weekday evening, you run into the same sort of problem--few folks 
from Bryn Gwlad will be willing/able to come up and play with you.

On the other paw, the more connections you make with the folks in 
Bryn Gwlad, the greater the chances of getting them to come up and 
help out. It's an unfortunate truism in the SCA that travelling to a 
new or out-of-the-way group is perceived as "uphill, through the 
snow" by many people (even though travel *from* that area is somehow 
not seen as a hardship.) This is lessened quite a bit if the visitor 
thinks of it as "going to see that nice new fighter I met at practice 
last month" rather than just dropping in on a random fighter practice.

Instead of doing a once-a-month attendance at the Sunday 
archery/fighter practice in Bryn Gwlad, would it be feasible to have 
a once-every-other-month attendance and on the alternate months make 
a big push to have the folks from Bryn Gwlad come up to Hellsgate for 
fighter practice? (Presuming my goofy work schedule cooperates,*I'd* 
be willing to come up.)

         -Tivar Moondragon