[MR] North/South UnEvent

[jmdarby at comcast.net]

Good Gentles,

We all have to do the best we can and make choices accordingly, juggling commitments and personal resources. Each person has to make their own decisions. 

Unevent comes but once a year. It's always the first weekend in December, and is blocked out on my calendar a year in advance. Hence no previous commitments. It IS the previous commitment, at least as long as I'm a landed Baroness. I dropped out of the Community Chorale I was in when I stepped up - their Christmas concert is the same day. 

Living in the northern part of the Kingdom means I'll be taking a day of vacation. I planned for that when I blocked out my calendar, assuming I might need that day. If Unevent had ended up being in the north, I'd have used that day elsewhere. I also realize many people don't have the vacation time to take - it works for me at this moment in time and I'd rather do that than sit in rush hour traffic. That's my choice. 

I think that Unevent is very important - and I do not believe there should be two separate ones. 

I enjoy meeting folks from the southern part of the Kingdom. Often it's one of the few times I get to see some of them during the year. 

Because a lot of our baronial officers are not able to attend, I end up attending a number of meetings during the day, which is great - it's the best way for me to learn about areas I might not know a lot about, and enables me to take new information home to my barony.  I will also confess that I LIKE Unevent for precisely these reasons - the chance to learn new things and to meet new people. (I also believe all members should attend their baronial business meetings, once in awhile at least, so they know what's going on, but I'll admit to being a bit weird.)

One thing I do think might be helpful would be if Curia could alternate between the south and the north to some extent. We already have two of those because each set of Royals must conduct one. But I also realize that the summer Curia has to be worked around TRM's hectic schedule, so that often isn't feasible, and I wouldn't presume to attempt to add to Their burden. And, since we don't generally know that far in advance where Unevent is going to be (that lack of bids thing again), that probably isn't feasible. 

It seems to me that the Kingdom goes to a lot of trouble to schedule meetings to try to get as many officers/order members/interested parties to attend as possible. Is is always going to be convenient? Heck no. And much as I enjoy Unevent, it butts up against mundane activities that I miss out on....on the other hand it keeps me from having to choose which of those I would attend. :-)

As others have said, if you don't like where it is being held, find a site and put in a bid - but don't complain if Nottinghill Coill or Bright Hills beat you to it and instead of a mere six hour drive it becomes nine (add x hours for rush hour). 

Baroness Briana Maclukas
Stierbach