[Steppes] New site for Warlord

[Diane Rudin]

Elspeth wrote, in response to much discussion about the date for
Steppes Warlord:

> I'm sure we cannot change the date of Warlord. Its in
> Kingdom Law, however if everyone works on this, we may
> be able to find a better site.

There seems to be some misunderstanding about what "Perpetual Event
Date" means, how kingdom law is written, and why Warlord is the way it
is.

Some history:  At a Steppes Warlord Tournament some years ago (the
15th, if memory serves), their Majesties Ansteorra, at the request of
the Barony of the Steppes, granted us the right to reserve, in
perpetuity, Memorial Day weekend on the kingdom calendar for Steppes
Warlord.  This was the first time the idea had come up to not have to
bother reserving the event date every year.

Then all the other baronies wanted to have that too.  So a section was
added to kingdom law in which each barony reserved a single event date
in perpetuity.  This is not and never has been an exclusive
reservation; only Crown Tournament and Coronation are events which
cannot have other events scheduled for the same weekend.

Changing the Perpetual Event Date in kingdom law takes the stroke of a
pen by the kingdom seneschal and the crown, followed by publication of
the change in the Black Star.  It is not impossible; it is not even
difficult.

What it is not is desireable.  Steppes Warlord has been held on
Memorial Day weekend since 1975, with one exception.  There may be a
few events in the West and East kingdoms that have been being held on
the same date every year for longer; Pennsic is the only one that I
know of for sure.  This continuity has long been a source of pride for
the Steppes.  Certainly, no other event in Ansteorra can claim that
degree of continuity over that amount of time.

In addition, as another poster has pointed out, the weather isn't any
better at other times of the year.  Texas weather, especially North
Texas weather, has always been "interesting".  Freak ice and snow can
happen from November through March.  100-degree temperatures reign from
May through September.  April and October are usually full of rain.  As
far as I have been able to determine from living up here (as opposed to
Houston, where I grew up), there are exactly 10 days of really nice
weather scattered in unpredictable fashion throughout spring, fall and
"winter".  It has also been pointed out that there are very few
three-day weekends on the calendar (Labor Day and Thanksgiving).  Due
to the number of activities at Warlord, we have to have the event on a
three-day weekend (more on this later).  The weather on Labor Day
weekend is almost invariably scorching.  Thanksgiving often involves
ice storms and always involves most people having family obligations.

Moving the event date for Warlord involves a trivial amount of effort.

Moving the event date for Warlord would not increase our chances of
avoiding bad weather.

Moving the event date for Warlord would reduce significantly the
activities we could hold and, therefore, attendance and participation.

Moving the event date for Warlord would be a rejection of almost thirty
years of Steppes history and traditions.

I conclude that we don't need to move the event date for Warlord.

However, if another site could be found that doesn't flash-flood, even
another part of the Canton site, that would be a Good Idea.

I don't want us to return to little primitive sites.  Not because I
object to primitive camping (I like backpacking in wilderness), but
because I don't want to see the prestige of Warlord, the oldest and
largest annually-recurring event in Ansteorra, diminished.

We are an organization founded by people who wanted to celebrate a
bygone era, so it is natural that we will spend a certain amount of
time bemoaning that things aren't as they used to be, and wish we could
return to those days.  Well, try as hard as we might like, we can't
return to the past, and we don't really want to.  We re-create aspects
of it--the ones we find fun--but no one wants to return to medieval
medical care or hygiene, for example.

What Steppes Warlord, the event, is has changed over time.  We can't
turn back the clock.  There are always tradeoffs.  A few hundred
people, a single tournament, more atmosphere?  Almost a thousand
people, many competitions, less atmosphere?  We search now, I think,
for a balance point.  There is no doubt in my mind that we have
recently begun to bite off more than we can gracefully chew, but it is
also historically true that moving things off Warlord reduces the
participation level in those activities.

History has lessons to teach us, about how things have been dealt with
in the past.  It can be a guide to the future--but it cannot *be* the
future.

--Serena

__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Calendar - Free online calendar with sync to Outlook(TM).
http://calendar.yahoo.com