[Archers] Loaner gear

[Siegfried]

I applaud your local groups excellent job at maintaining high standards
of loaner equipment.

All that I can offer, is that not all groups in this day, seem to be
able to find the time to do similarly.  Besides finances not being where
one might like, it seems in this day and age that time is in short
supply as well.

For Highland Foorde I can state that our loaner equipment is definitely
not 'as good as what our own archers shoot'.  They are hand-me-downs,
bows are mostly fiberglass, strings are maintained to a safe/useable
state, and arrows are a mix of those found from events past, stragglers
from people's own collections (IE, down to 4 of that batch, donate
them), or leftovers from previous bulk purchases by the Barony
specifically for loaners, but which quickly get broken/lost leaving us
back in the stragglers state.

In Service,
Siegfried


On 1/31/11 12:49 PM, Garth G. Groff wrote:
> Noble Friends of the Bow,
> 
> Recently I overheard an archer tell a first-time guest who was agonizing
> over losing an arrow not to worry because our loaner gear was all junk,
> and nobody cares about it anyway. I was shocked, and started to respond,
> but fortunately backed off so as not to cause a scene in front of the
> guest. The archer was wrong, and it was personally insulting to me, and
> would be insulting to the guest if she got the idea we only offered
> trash to newcomers.
> 
> The bows my group issues to guests may be old, but they are maintained
> in the best condition possible. All those bows had all just been
> inspected in a general maintenance session the weekend before (and were
> inspected again when issued that day), strings were checked and waxed,
> and brace heights adjusted. I also regularly clean our bows to remove
> gunk from the grips and limbs. Our arrows are as good as I shoot, since
> I made most of them myself, and they are repaired or replaced whenever
> they become worn or damaged.
> 
> I'm sure that many of you who also maintain your group's loaner gear to
> high standards. I hope so. But I have seen the loaner garb some groups
> offer, and indeed drew a few pieces from that source when I first
> started playing. It was pretty awful, mostly stuff that was ripped up
> and should have been used for rags. I've also seen some loaner gear that
> is offered to heavy fighters which was an embarrassment, and stuffed
> into a barrel where it was getting further damage.
> 
> My point in bringing this up is not to toot my own horn, but rather to
> get all of us thinking about our attitudes toward our equipment,
> especially the stuff we offer to guests, and thus to inspire us all to
> keep our loaner equipment and garb in the best possible condition. There
> is a lot of hand wringing and pontificating these days about how we are
> going to attract new members to keep our society going. You can't do
> that if you insult newcomers.
> 
> I invite comment and discussion.
> 
> Kind regards,
> 
> 
> Lord Mungo Napier, Archer of Mallard Lodge
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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-- 
Barun Siegfried Sebastian Faust - Barony of Highland Foorde - Atlantia
http://hf.atlantia.sca.org/ - http://crossbows.biz/ - http://eliw.com/

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