[Archers] Congratulations!

[fenrisulven at comcast.net]

Barun Siegfried: "I will point out again, then step out of this conversation, that you are assuming that there is a 'right' for archery to happen. If an autocrat makes a decision that precludes archery, or that impacts archery negatively.  That was not an 'error' on their part. It was their decision as autocrat to make." 



I still disagree with this mindset.  It holds MIC and staff hostage to ignorance and whim. We can be diplomatic but still aggressive in our defense of archery.  And I'm trying to imagine the damage done to  MIC  morale if, after months of working every evening on her archery course, it was canceled on the day of because some autocrat thought it would cool to have equestrian in our allotted space. Do you think she would ever volunteer again? We need to defend our people more vigorously.  



As an Autocrat, once I agree to have archery at my event, once I've gone over space with the MIC, once he's spent the time money and energy making targets, making prizes, setting up range fans, etc. Then YES, there is a "right" for archery to happen. And if I make a decision that precludes archery or impacts it negatively, it better be based on something more than some Royal who thinks it would be more convenient to have his pavillion in the archery space.  







"In this 'neck' of the woods, all autocrats always work hand-in-hand closely with their marshals, and people come to an agreement.  If the autocrat doesn't feel a space exists that will work with their otherwise event-concept for archery. Then there's no archery." 




I'm sorry, but Donal had many of the same issues at Highland River Melees that we saw at Storvik:  1) troll was set up in his range fan. It would have been more sensible to move it, but instead he had to move   the archery course  2)  the time lost resetting his range meant that arch ers  only got to shoot about half of his targets 3) a shotgun start was no longer feasible, so we had approx  two dozen archers taking turns on the firing line - they spent more time standing around waiting than shooting  4) there was some kind of theme/flavour behind the shoot that looked fun, but it got mangled and then discarded because of last minute mods to the space, and 5) heavy weaps used less than 50% of a huge field they were allotted, while we had to jump back and forth over a fence to serve as road guards just so our people could shoot. 



I still enjoyed shooting - Donal did an outstanding job adapting his course. But I had a glimpse of what he really intended to put on for us and it still makes me angry that so much of his hard work and creativity was just wasted.  





"If you want to make an 'autocrat' manual/class within your own Baronies, go for it.  Have at it.  But I will not back the idea of adding that load at a Kingdom Level." 



I don't think it needs to be that complex.  We download a pdf of a range setup manual and hand it over to the autocrat.  The MIC counsels something along the lines of  "this is your copy, you don't need to know the whole thing, but since you are exposed legally, lets go over Section xx: Range Safety Requirements together and see if you have any questions."  Maybe we throw some "DEM" or "Atlantia" headers on the doc so it looks official, so that autocrats see these requirements are not simply an opinion of the MIC. And by letting the autocrat keep it, its more likely he'll peruse it in the intervening months before his event and get some idea of whats really involved in setting up and running an archery course - so he will be less likely to make frivolous changes to the archery space. Also, giving out a copy of our manual makes it more likely the doc will find its way into baronial resources and be passed around to other non-archer officers.  I'm not sold on this, but some variant of it might fit our needs. 



Cheers 

Fen 





--- Atlantian Archery.  Nothing exists within 100 yards without our explicit permission --- 



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