[Ravensfort] Defender of the Fort 2009 & Spring Event

[Cat Clark]

byzytym wrote:
>
> For those of you that don’t know, Raven’s Fort has had its last two 
> events weathered out. Between you and me and the rest of the Known 
> World, we need a successful event to replenish our coffers and lift 
> our spirits.
>

My 2 cent opinion what what little it's worth:

Does the world know of our problem??? Maybe... maybe not... They 
certainly don't know it the way we know it intimately. If people aren't 
really aware of our plight, we have given them insufficient opportunity 
to do us a favor, show us their generosity, etc. Unlike the real world, 
the generosity of others is something you can make a legitimate appeal 
to in this group. We have some good will built up in at least one group 
next door. I suggest we consider cashing in on it. ADVERTISE that we 
could use a little help and certainly some attendence!!!

> We are hoping that changing both heavy and light fighting scenarios to 
> MELEE BATTLES will draw the fighters that aren’t interested in list 
> style tourneys. Good for Elfsea and good for us. We will also sponsor 
> an EQUESTRIAN competition and an ARCHERY open. A simple event, but 
> simple is what is needed now.
>

and more along those lines, does Elfsea know we're moving our events to 
accommodate them? If they don't (and even if they do), let's guilt them 
a little by some juditious ADVERTISING. What good is being noble and 
self-sacrificing if no one knows about it? Geez, moving an event for the 
sake of a group not even "next door" (at least in a metaphorical sense, 
though if you live in Centerville and not in parts south like me, your 
mileage will be different...) and not letting your heart bleed all over 
the field somewhere so people can know how wonderfully considerate we 
are to other groups is just not good advertising...

My second thought:

Okay, we want archery and we want the horsey folks and we want melees in 
the Spring and we want the Stones to be looking nice for Sept. and we 
need to pile a bunch a time into cleaning up the site...again... I have 
nothing against work weekends...well, other than hating to camp and 
poison ivy and still being stuck on food restrictions (life without 
coffee and spicy spices...well, it's ugly, really really ugly, 
especially the no coffee bit...). But archers and riders want nice 
places at regular events to play at too - so why aren't we asking for 
some help from the folks in these communities? Say, like a work weekend 
with a little prize wand shoot thrown in on Sunday afternoon as an extra 
incentive? Work weekend with a woods battle "fighter practice" thrown in 
for an hour and a half on Sunday sometime? And just having the chance to 
insure a great place to ride is often enough to get some of the horse 
folks to put their fingers in. And when you involve groups that draw 
people in from outside the barony, they end up "owning" a little bit of 
the site too. They get invested in it and our event there and that makes 
them a bit more likely to show up later at the event... This is 
something my old barony up in Artemisia really milked (ie getting other 
communities like war junkie fighters and archers and horse folks and 
week-end long arts projects like bread ovens, etc.)

Even at our "simple" event (no event is simple, guys, even the simple 
ones...) we could schedule a little light half hour before certain 
activities to draft a little voluntary labor before you start up an 
activity... I've done this. It can work when handed adroitly. I got an 
uncleared broken field area cleared of the ankle-turners by the fighters 
just before the first broken field battle. It was scheduled into the 
event. They knew it was coming. Frankly, people don't mind pitching in 
if you remember to ask nicely (that's important) and if it's in their 
self-interest too. My experience in the past with the equestrian folks 
is that they have lots of enlightened self-interest to pitch in and will 
help clear or clean-up a field so they can use it safely.

I don't think people know how much effort we put into our site. As 
someone who's been here less than a year, I've been trying to figure out 
if what we do at the Stones is worth the effort. A small number of 
people in the barony do a HUGE amount of work there. What are we really 
getting out of it? (If there is some big advantage here, I do not know 
about it - and if I don't know, what about other relatively new folks in 
the barony? Please don't assume that some of us know very much - and 
when you miss as many meetings as I've managed to do...it's hard to make 
up for the lack). So many can benefit from the efforts of a few - but we 
have so many neighbors. What do we have to lose by simply asking certain 
others to come a help a bit?

Back to really needing to hold an event that's not canceled by weather. 
It occurs to me that more than one event got cancelled because of our 
friend Ike. Has anyone considered doing a baronial road-trip down to 
some near-future event in one of the other Ike-impacted groups that had 
to cancel "because they too had to cancel an event - and being another 
group in the same boat, we felt the same sort of pain and wanted to to 
be supportive..." Do not underestimate the power of mutual 
back-scratching initiatives as a form of advertising that we really 
could use some targetted attendence at our next Defender Tourney.

One last thought before I go and check if my data transfer from Scotland 
is done yet (it's so rough getting paid to sit on my butt while my data 
travels...though the party will be over and it will be back to slavery 
as soon as it's here). The thought is that "advertising" (at least as I 
have labeled it - YMMV) doesn't have to clumsy, obnoxious or even in 
anyone's face. Sometimes it's a simple matter of communication, i.e. 
making sure it happens in directions you want it to go. Or if you want 
to make a point that everyone will remember, turn it into theater and/or 
make it funny. (Site hand-outs done as comic strips, etc.). But if 
people don't know in advance that we could some help and/or attendance, 
or that we've disadvantaged ourselves for the sake of groups close 
though not exactly in our back yard, we'll rob ourselves of the 
opportunity to use that info for our own advantage. This is not a good 
time to hide our own light in a bushel (just my opinion - though you 
know what they say about opinions, yes? That opinions are like 
sphincters - everybody's got one!)

Oops. One last thing to follow the above one last thing: Vlod not Vlad 
needs his head examined for insufficient reluctance syndrome AND 
deserves lots of pats on the head for being mister trooper super 
autocrat man from all of us. (This opinion is not that of any officer of 
the Barony of Ravens Fort, does not delineate baronial policy even 
though its excellent quality ought to be adapted by right-thinking 
people everywhere, is indistinguishable from the ravings of any random 
lunatic or unwashed member of the uncounted and disregarded populace, is 
not good for discounted or free admission to any SCA event or car wash, 
and would likely get you thrown out of any Starbucks even if you did 
have enough money in your pocket for a grande-sized latte with 
quadrupple double-shots of expresso...)

I had to work straight through the weekend... does it show yet?

ttfn
the lunatic Therasia

I stop annoying everyone now.

ttfn
Therasia