[Archers] congratulations etc.

[Holly Gibbons]

Dear fellow Archeriphiles:

Briefly, if I may, as MIC of the aforementioned Storvik event, I must add that 
the incident in question occurred the morning before the day of the event. I was 
there onsite with Fen setting up the whole range with police tape and stakes, 
using a laser range finder and a protractor. Took awhile, but when we were 
finished we had a usable and safe range with four separate lines, the kind of 
range where you can relax and just give the instructions to your archers to mind 
the marshall on the line, don't set foot across any police tape all day, and you 
will be perfectly fine.

We were visited by the autocrat and others who were also working that day. We 
had planned on a really long clout of 150+ yds but had to bring that back down 
to normal proportions due to a planned camping area beyond the hill back in the 
woods. Although camping on the actual hill was also proposed by our autocrat, we 
explained our needs and were then given assurances that the latter idea would 
be abandonned. 


The first set of really raised eyebrows in question occurred the next morning at 
troll where several good gentles there working did not immediately agree with 
our idea to keep parking from encroaching on the range since it had begun to 
look like we might have a record number of archers with at least 5 dayshades 
arriving with archery. Had we waited for approval, the cars would have filled 
in. So we went ahead and blocked off the space we needed with chairs and sent 
the cars 50 yds further down the road or across in the aforementioned 200 acre 
field. We did get retroactive approval from the autocrat.

The second set of really raised eyebrows came when a father and son approached 
me at lunch and asked if they could go ahead and set up their tents on the 
hilltop! These were my own eyebrows, way raised. So, in a word, no. They were 
disuaded and the shoot went on. Keep your eyes open on the range.

The moral here - - coming to it! - - is that MICs should know their ranges ahead 
of time, definitely be onsite the day before, work with the autocrat as the 
range is being set up, use a ton of police tape and make safety the priority 
(not only for those with bows and arrows but perhaps more importantly so 
autocrats and everybody else can see just how serious archers are about our 
ranges!) ask for what you need, nicely, hold your ground when you need to with 
apologies, and then enjoy your shoot. 


The best thing for archery in Atlantia, the very best, is to have lots of 
archers and an active community that comes out for local events. I am squarely 
on the side of those who say, enough paperwork and demands on autocrats!  You 
cannot make the job requirements so onerous that nobody sane will volunteer for 
the job! We marshalls are the only ones who need to know how to use a 
protractor. Also, don't show up the morning of and expect to carve your range 
out of the parking lot, or you will have one irritated autocrat and with good 
reason.

-- Nuala of Needwood
Ps. There were more archers than fighters at the Storvik event. The more of us 
there are, the more power we have . . . 



      
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