[MR] Centrally located events

[William Stanton]

Centrally locating some Kingdom level events on a permanent basis has
advantages and disadvantages. Some of them might not be readily apparent.

There is a segment of the Atlantian population that have a very low
threshold in terms of the distance they are willing to travel to an event.
Some of these people are new to the SCA.  Some are marginally involved, but
have been around for a while. There are a number of reasons why these people
have this low threshold for travel. It may or may not be related to their
level of engagement in the SCA. Because they are not willing to go to events
further than 2 or 3 hours from where they live, their interest in Kingdom
wide discussions is limited. They likely do not subscribe to the Merry Rose,
or maybe not even a local list. I doubt we will hear from them on this
topic. The central part of Atlantia will be outside of the travel threshold
for these people in the far north and far south. To permanently locate some
Kingdom level events in the central part of the Kingdom will guarantee these
people will NEVER be at those Kingdom level events. Only the low travel
threshold people in the center of Atlantia will go. Unless these Kingdom
level events eventually rotate to the far reaches of the Kingdom, people in
the far reaches of the Kingdom with low travel thresholds will never go to
them. If someone who is only partially engaged in the SCA never goes to
certain Kingdom level events, what are the chances of them gaining enough
interest to engage in the SCA more?

The disadvantage of allowing Kingdom level events to rotate to all parts of
the kingdom, including the far reaches, is that engaged and involved
Atlantians that wish to attend all or most of the Kingdom level events that
happen to live in the far reaches of the Kingdom will eventually have to
travel to the other side of the Kingdom to attend some events. Even an 8
hour travel threshold won’t get you from one side of the Kingdom to the
other. From Baltimore, MD to Greenwood, SC is 8 hours 59 minutes, by MSN
maps, and neither one are the far reaches of Atlantia.

Centrally locating Kingdom level events would be an advantage to me
personally. I have a pretty good-sized travel threshold and the central part
of the Kingdom is within my threshold and would likely result in my
attending more events. However, I am not willing to alienate some of the
segment of Atlantia’s population that may not be fully engaged in the SCA
and have a very low travel threshold and happen to live in the north or
south.

Unevent, by its definition and make up, is not intended for marginally
engaged/involved SCAdians. It is for officers. In my opinion, it actually is
a good candidate for being centrally located.

William the Younger