[Steppes] Why I'm So Excited About the Homeschool Demo! - Response from t...

[AlKudsi at aol.com]

Whoa, let us all back off a bit, take a deep breath and discuss this with a 
little less heat. As someone who is currently trying to put together a demo 
even sooner than the Homeschool demo (the All CON demo), and who can't even get a 
response about whether I CAN or not, I have a few things to say, as well. 
 
No one doubts that EVERYONE in this day and time is overcommitted, restricted 
with what they can do and cannot do, and limited by families, finances, 
transportation, and practical issues. That being said, I've seen absolutely 
beautiful demos put together in less than a week, and demos planned for 6 months that 
fell flat on their tushes. It depends on the people involved who decide to 
put their time and effort into the demo. Now to address a couple of specifics 
I've seen on the list:
 
1) Expecting a three-month lead time on a demo. This is a ridiculous 
"requirement".  We don't even have that type of limitation on local events that aren't 
demos! Sure, if you have the lead time, it is GREAT to have it and you are 
more likely to get a heavier involvement by the fighting contingency, but it 
isn't required. There are a lot of fighters (probably more than 50%) who are not 
involved with traveling with TRMs, visiting other kingdoms, or too tired from 
Gulf Wars to participate. Yes, it would be nice to have the best fighters for 
a demo, but any fighters, even newcomers, are welcome and can give the demo a 
taste of what fighting in period was like. It isn't like we have to field a 
full list of Dukes, Counts, Knights, and superfighters! At one time, in fact, 
given the number of local knights, they requested their squires to fight in a 
certain number of demos per year as a part of their training -- a sound idea, I 
think.
 
2) Discussing the demo with the "heavy weapons" group. Just who is that? The 
fighters themselves? A fighter's list? The people at fighter practice? The 
Knight Marshall? The fighters should be involved (at the very least the Knight 
Marshall should be) at Business meeting, where the topic should PROPERLY be 
brought up. If the demo requires support of the Barony, it is properly the 
business of the baronial officers, and Her Excellency, not just a group of fighters. 
Yes, if we want to have heavy weapons fighters, then the call should go out to 
the fighters of the Barony and ask for their assistance, but most demos do 
not focus only on the heavy fighters, so the actual call goes out to the heavy 
fighters, the light fighters, the archers, the artisans, the workers, EVERYONE. 
And that is how it should be. Should one group be unable or unwilling to 
participate, then the other groups will just have to pick up the slack. There 
isn't ANY one group -- with the possible exception of the worker bees of the 
Barony -- that is essential to any event or demo. 
 
So, now, can we discuss this whole topic with a little less mono-focused 
vision, less heat, and with the idea that instead of finding reasons why we can't 
do it, we find how can do the best we can with what we have?
 
HL Saqra al-Kudsi
 



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