SR - Where did everyone go?

[clward at mmm.com]

Ivar asked where the Southern Principality discussion went.

Gunnora replies:
I think it's just that everyone has been phenomenally busy.  We met at
Tempio, I understand that another meeting was scheduled for Ffynnon Gath --
but I've heard nothing further about that.

I have to mention that I was in both Bonwicke and Mendersham this weekend
and that people in the the West are *very* interested in being included in
a Principality with Southern ... they mentioned that so far we've managed
to schedule all discussions on weekends when they have events in  their
area that they have to support, so they haven't been able to get their
folks to the meetings to let the rest of us know how they feel.

As I've mentioned before, combining the South and the West is a really good
idea for both groups for a number of reasons.

First, combining South and West produces a principality that geographically
could one day grow up to become a kingdom if needed -- Southern by itself
will have some geography problems because of the coastal groups that are
somewhat isolated by the region boundaries if we do a "South-only"
principality.

Second, most folks don't remember this, but wayyyy back when, Bjornsborg
was the sponsoring barony that supported the shire of Bonwicke, we sent
people up almost every weekend, we helped out at their events, and
generally were their godparents -- and as a result, the SCA culture in
Bonwicke and other points west closely resembles the SCA sociology in the
Southern baronies.  Don't believe me?  Take a weekend and attend a Western
event and see if it doesn't feel like an old-time Bjornsborg event!
Western events are *always* a lot of fun, the people are great, and they
have a lot of enthusiasm, energy, and unity to offer a new principality.

Third, the Southern Region has a lot of peers in a wide variety of
disciplines, peers which the West needs travelling out there and working
with their folks.  I have found, as a teacher, that I learn as much or more
from my students as I teach.  If we combined into a South and West
Principality, we could combine the formidiable expertise present in the
Southern baronies with the infectuous enthusiasm and energy found in the
West to make something really fun, cool, and worthwhile.

I have heard some arguments against combining West and South that I feel
lack merit.  The first of these is that "oh we can't do that, that would be
half the kingdom!" -- that's not so, although it looks like a lot on the
map, you have to realize that population-wise that's still a lot less than
half of the kingdom.

Even geography-wise, the Western groups are a WHOLE lot closer than most
people realize -- I got to Bonwicke from Bryn Gwlad in 5 hours this
weekend, I get to Mendersham in 2-1/2 to 3 from Bryn Gwlad, and so on -- in
other words, the distance between Bryn Gwlad and Mendersham is the same as
the distance between Bryn Gwlad and Elfsea (which B.G. folks *regularly*
daytrip!) and the distance between Bryn Gwlad and Bonwicke is the same as
the distance between Bjornsborg and Elfsea, which again, we regularly
travel!  So the argument that "the West is just too far" doesn't really
hold water, either.  The only group which is really far away is Aldersruhe,
and most of the people I have spoken to in the West think that Aldersruhe
would elect to stay with the Nordsteorra groups, since they mostly play
with Oklaholma anyway.

So, Ivar, here's some more Principality discussion.  I really want us to
schedule a meeting where the populace of the Southern Region AS WELL AS THE
folks from the WEST can all come to the meeting and discuss the South+West
combination!

::GUNNORA::

Writing from work, replies to <gunnora at bga.com>




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