[Archers] Ideas for future WoWs and some issues that need to be addressed.

Mon Oct 30 17:39:29 PDT 2017

One major issue this year is the land was laid out by Doughal, owner of the site , and he is not familiar with archery requirements  as he is a heavy. Harkens back to, and now I am out of kingdom so can say without MAJOR backlash as before, the requirement of event autocrats going through a simple one hour class of event activity requirements. For archery, NOT how to inspect bows but range requirements. Years back I hosted a best of the best Shoot on the battle field at WOW, camping now. One heavy insisted driving his vehicle down range to look for a lost weapon. My archers wanted to shoot arrows in his tires to prove we could reach his truck. We didn't, he was pissed, but we had a safe shoot!

Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPad

On Monday, October 30, 2017, 5:20 PM, Garth Groff or Sally Sanford <sarahsan at embarqmail.com> wrote:

 Mistress Lorelei,

 I would be happy to discuss this with any and all, though I think all our postings should be on, or cc to, the Atlantian Archery discussion board. Sadly, I still cannot receive posts from that board (though I can still post there), and so far the kingdom web officials have not responded to my requests for help. [Hint, hint!]

 I agree completely about needing more marshals. But where were they? Our turnout for experienced archers/marshals was very light. Most of those pitched in at least a little, and some a lot. Some of us (Lady Sarah especially) were trapped on the range and couldn't leave without walking out on guests that needed inspections or supervision. Could it be that WoW is no longer of interest to the general archery community? Is it that we don't have enough targets/enough variety/enough jazzy shoots to attract many of our serious archers. Or is it that the short field we have been given almost every year discourages the senior archers from attending. I really would like to hear from any archers who didn't attend because they thought it wasn't worth the trip--not to argue with them, but to learn whether or why WoW has turned them off and how we can fix it. Since this post is also going to the archery board, please help us by responding.

 My main gripe is that once again we were assigned a range space that was too short for a legal safety zone. That track to the barn was within our safety zone and screened by trees. Yes, there were people walking along it. I was extremely frustrated with the short field this year, and even expressed the idea of not coming next year to Lady Sarah (I've since mellowed a bit on this point).

 Maybe the WoW management doesn't realize the liability implications if someone is injured by an arrow that goes into those woods. If a range is not legal, then our insurance carrier would be within their rights to refuse any claims. Not just archers, but many officers of the event, and all the kingdom officers from TRMs on down who have any supervisory responsibility over archery will be in court if someone gets hurt and lawyers get their teeth into us. It is time we archers put our collective feet down and demand that the kingdom and event managers realize the gravity of shoehorning us into illegal range spaces. And I'm not just talking about WoW. The situation at Ruby Joust is even worse, as there are homes with children just beyond those narrow woods on two sides of that property. This sounds like a good topic for Unevent, but we probably would only be preaching to the choir.

 We needed more netting, especially behind the youth range area. Most of the arrows that went into the tall grass there were never found (metal detector not withstanding), and I probably lost as many arrows as you did (all the Isenfir youngsters and a couple of the adults had shire or my personal loaner gear). It would have  been nice if the grass on the rest of the field could have been mowed shorter, as a lot of arrows apparently weren't recovered from the adult range, or they turned up several days later.

 As for expenses, I considered saving our receipts, but didn't. We would have blown your whole budget just on the night shoot, and some of our stuff can be used again at another event. I consider what we spent to be our contribution to archery and don't regret it at all. 

 I hope that arrangements for the next WoW can be announced early enough, and an archery marshal chosen promptly. Whoever takes on this job should get plenty of input from those of us that have worked this event, and hopefully get it early enough to make a difference in the negotiations for space and other resources.

 By the way, I really only have myself to blame, but the damage to my car from wandering off the so-called road into that ditch on the way to the archery range will be $1000 plus. The radiator wasn't punctured, but its support was badly bent and the radiator is just 1/4" from the AC generator. This certainly puts  a damper on wanting to bring targets and other bulky stuff down next year.

 Yours Aye,

 Mungo

 On 10/30/17 3:47 PM, Lorelei Elkins wrote:

  I'd love to have a discussion about how archery at WoW can run better.  I agree with Lord Janyn's comments about signage so that people can find the range easier.  This year had some unique issues....like walking through the battlefield area or navigating the berm.  One could have a golf cart to bring you up there but that means walking to someplace to find a golf cart to bring you up there.  It was proposed that next year we have designated routes and stops for the golf carts for those with mobility issues. 
  My biggest concern is that we need more marshals.  Seriously.  We had about half of what we should have had this year. We need more people involved in planning prior to the event.  
  What I'd like to do is form a work-group dedicated to addressing WoW archery.  Currently we have the range open half a day Thursday, all day Friday and Saturday and a few hours on Sunday. There is a plan to make WoW a week long event. The way archery is happening right now, we can't support a week long event.  
  Two years ago or so I wrote a document called, "How to run archery at War of the Wings".  I'm happy to share this and add to it from the work-group suggestions.  We need to get some things set as the event is likely to be turned over to the Kingdom.  We need to start treating it as a Pennsic-style range, which means some hard and fast rules and whatever else we want to do.  What do you like about Pennsic archery?  Gulf Wars?  Other big, multi-day events you've been to? 
  The current budget for archery is $100.  That's not enough.  I've been trying to get it bumped up to at least $150...which still isn't enough but it's better.  Every year I eat some of the cost.  If you volunteer to run archery next year, plan on doing that.  Naran spent a lot on his prize shoot and so did Mungo and Sarah.  Creativity appreciated!  This is ours to write the way we want it to read. I am not running archery next year for WoW but I'd like to get some of the details worked out.

  What do you think?  I can start a google chat/messenger or a Facebook page or an email forum.  
  Mistress Lorelei Greenleafe 

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