[Steppes] Archery in the Steppes Sept-Dec....and beyond

[Susan Hill]

Friends,

May God's blessing be upon all who read this missive, and may these words 
find you well. I am unable to be at this month's business meeting so submit 
this as a report to the Officers and Populace of the Steppes.

Tournament season is upon us again and the call of war drums begin to be 
heard from afar. Our busiest time if year is hear again. Unfortunately many 
of us are finding that our attendance habits are being forced to restriction 
due to the bullet many of us have taken in our wallets at the gas pumps. I 
know that I won't be travelling much this fall and even some of my local 
activities must be curtailed.

To that end, there are some things which I must bring up that are difficult 
but must be done. My term as the Archery Marshal of the Steppes is quickly 
drawing to a close. My two years will be up in early December and I mean to 
step down then. I have loved the opportunity to serve and have learned an 
incredible amount both about the SCA and myself, but I am very tired and 
need to take a bit of a break. I have spoken to Baron Mahdi and we have 
decided to open the bids for Baronial Archery Marshal at this time and will 
close bids at October Populace.

The restructuring of the Marshallate in the last six months has meant that 
we have very few archery marshals within our Barony that could take that 
position at this time. Most of the marshals that we currently have are 
already in offices at regional or kingdom levels and would not be able to 
take the job so we have a bit of a problem. The time is short, but if there 
is anyone who is interested in either the Baronial Position or in just 
becoming an archery marshal to assist or participate more fully in the 
archery community, we can make sure that they get the training. If you or 
someone you know may be interested in archery marshalling, please contact 
me, HL Wil Blackdragon, or Arc d'Or Fearghus MacKenna, the Central Regional 
Archery Marshal and we will make sure that you get the experience you need. 
Two years ago I was first approached about marshalling about this time of 
year and I managed to get it done, you can too.

If we cannot get anyone to take the position we have a couple of other 
options, none of which is optimal, but would at least ensure that we keep 
archery going. If someone would take the position of Baronial Archery 
Marshal but is not able to attend practices regularly due to work or other 
mundane issues, he/she could have another archery marshal hold the practices 
and then the Baronial Marshal would keep track of the reporting, paperwork, 
and other assorted stuff. We would have to have an officer at the practices 
to make them 'official' but we would be ok and be able to have things go on 
much as they are now, just with a cooperative team doing my job.

The third, less acceptable option is to not have a Baronial archery marshal 
at all and just have someone keeping all the gear and toting it around and 
doing strictly unofficial practices. We could still shoot, but no royal 
rounds or IKAC's could be submitted for scores. Obviously this is the least 
desirable option.

Archery has developed into a strong tradition in the Steppes over the past 
several years. We have a lot of new blood coming into the sport now and it 
would be a shame to let the hard work of so many, including but not limited 
to HL Blackdragon, HL Jaques, and so many others, lapse. I fully intend to 
assist the new archery marshal as much as I can especially when it comes to 
Warlord and other events, but I do need some time to spend on other 
endeavors both mundane and otherwise.

The last item I bring up is in reference to my first paragraph. I am unable 
to afford to drive to Mesquite and back on a weekly basis for practice. 
After discussion with several people including Baron Mahdi, we will be 
cutting back practice to roughly every other week. I am trying to coordinate 
this with Kerrick of Elfsea so that those that must have a weekly 'fix' can 
go to their practice if they so desire when we are not having them. I am 
also going to take into consideration some of the event schedules. At this 
time I can say that we will not be having practice on the Sunday of Labor 
Day weekend, nor the weekend of Elfsea Defender. At this time we will have 
September practices on Sept 11 and 18. When I have heard from Kerrick, I 
will have a better idea of what October will look like and will post a 
schedule on the list and in the following newsletter. At this time I am 
hoping to be in Gate's Edge on Oct 9, so expect that likely dates for 
practices will be Oct. 1, 16, and 30 subject to change.

Practices will continue to be at Eastfield College at 9 a.m through 
September, at least, depending on the temperatures and what they decide to 
do with our daylight saving time. :) The dates for practices will be as 
follows. Sept 11, 18, Oct 2, 23, Nov 6, 27, Dec 4 and then on Dec 11 I will 
sponser the Second Annual Turkey Shoot which will again be a fundraiser for 
the American Cancer Society. More details will be announced in the next 
SteppesLetter.

Yours in Service to the Steppes, Ansteorra, and the Dream,

Lady Lyneya de Grey
Baronial Archery Marshal