<div dir="ltr">I'm not sure I totally agree with you, Marius. It's a 35 minute drive (according to Google maps) to downtown Houston and a 40 minute drive to Huntsville (again according to Google maps). It would look as though The Woodlands are pretty much balanced between the two points. <div>
<br></div><div>Now my personal experience is that both of those time estimates are about 20 minutes too optimistic. If I lived on that side of the county, I'd give myself an hour to get to either destination even in the best of traffic. But in most cases, the stretch between Woodlands and Conroe is the heaviest traffic...after that it thins out and you can drive faster. But heading south, it just gets more and more congested. With being at such a balance point, I think what would influence myself would be the people I was driving to be with.</div>
<div><br></div><div>The Shire started initially because drive times into Houston were so awful...and that is back in the 90's. It's only gotten worse in the last 20 years. If I had that history and moved to the center of the county to the Woodlands, I'd have a tendency to drive North rather than South. If all I were considering was the drive times involved.</div>
</div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Apr 3, 2014 at 4:40 PM, byzytym <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:byzytym@consolidated.net" target="_blank">byzytym@consolidated.net</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div lang="EN-US" link="blue" vlink="purple"><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d">My point exactly.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d">We can only take advantage of the fresh blood if we have a presence in the area.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d">People in The Woodlands will drive into Houston rather than Huntsville if Conroe is not an option.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d">V NV<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><div><div style="border:none;border-top:solid #b5c4df 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in">
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">From:</span></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif""> <a href="mailto:ravensfort-bounces@lists.ansteorra.org" target="_blank">ravensfort-bounces@lists.ansteorra.org</a> [mailto:<a href="mailto:ravensfort-bounces@lists.ansteorra.org" target="_blank">ravensfort-bounces@lists.ansteorra.org</a>] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Raven's Fort Ansteorra<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Thursday, April 03, 2014 3:44 PM<br><b>To:</b> Doug Bell; <a href="mailto:ravensfort@lists.ansteorra.org" target="_blank">ravensfort@lists.ansteorra.org</a><br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [Ravensfort] The demographics of Raven's Fort<u></u><u></u></span></p>
</div></div><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"">Very true my friend. On top of that we are about to have to deal with the population explosotion due Exxon-Mobile woodlands new campus. Many families are about to move in our zip codes!<br>
Which means fresh blood :)<br>D<u></u><u></u></span></p><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif""><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
</div><div><div><div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">On Thursday, April 3, 2014 1:02 PM, Doug Bell <<a href="mailto:magnus77840@yahoo.com" target="_blank">magnus77840@yahoo.com</a>> wrote:</span><span style="font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif""><u></u><u></u></span></p>
</div><div><div><div><div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"">Baron Nicholas and I had this discussion back in the early 2000s while looking at the demographic data for the barony both SCA and real world. He had the data and I had taken some demography classes in my college's Geography department.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
</div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif""><u></u> <u></u></span></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"">Raven's Fort has the area of a small Principality with the population found in many large shires. Rural baronies are not common in the SCA since a barony is usually grounded in a major city. The Province of Mooneschadowe is another example of a rural barony but centered around one small town and college. Raven's Fort was founded as a rural barony with many small population clusters in small towns but scattered over a large area. This is an unusual distribution for an SCA group. This distribution is also why you can't solve the problem of driving distance with cantons. One of these population centers by itself is not large enough to support a stable auxillary group over time.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
</div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif""><u></u> <u></u></span></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"">As Houston grows outward the barony begins to look like Canada with the population concentrating in the southern zip codes.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
</div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif""><u></u> <u></u></span></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"">Given another 10-15 years this will get to the point where 80-90% of the members will be in the southern quarter of the barony. You will have to manage these changes as best as you can but every future officer in the barony needs to remember the issue.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
</div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif""><u></u> <u></u></span></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"">Countries like Chile, Indonesia, and Russia have some of the same demographic population versus geography issues, so it is not just an SCA creation. Real world nations haven't come up with a perfect solution to population distribution trends either.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
</div><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif""><br>safe journeys my friends<br>Magnus<u></u><u></u></span></p></div></div></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white">
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