[MR] Centralized Event Sites

[Stacie Larson]

Here in sunny Trimaris, we take up less than one full state (the western Panhandle is in Meridies, and no one seems to want the eastern half of the Panhandle).  There are 5, count them, 5 baronies in the Kingdom, and a fistful of Shires.  I think there were more local groups (and two other Kingdoms) within 120 miles of my apartment on the Ponte Alto/Stierbach border than there are in the whole of Trimaris.  End to end, Trimaris is about 350 miles long and about 90 miles across.  So, we are geographically puny compared to Atlantia.

Like Atlantia, Trimaris is made up of dense population areas separated by a whole lot of nothing.  Also, like Atlantia, culturally, there's a pretty big divide between north and south (can you just imagine a rural person from Lakeland trying to find an event in Miami?)

In Trimaris, all Kingdom events are held at the same handful of sites, year in, year out.  You always know where Crown Lysts are going to be, because they're in the same place every year, twice a year.  Many of those sites are in Central Florida, within, say, 75-100 miles of Orlando.

Trimaris has gone for permanent sites because a) they're sort of "central", but a bit northerly for our Miami folks, b) there are fewer worries about finding quality sites for Kingdom events.  The Barony of Darkwater even has a budget for land because someday they want to buy a site of their own (I think it's currently around $85,000, so that won't buy you much land in Central Florida).  The baronies do a reasonable job sharing out the responsibilities for hosting the Kingdom events, although it appears that Darkwater and Oldenfeld perhaps take more of the burden, since they're closest.

Even so, despite our small size and centralized sites, there are still problems.

Despite our puniness, you will see, regularly, on the Trimaris listserv complaints about how far away events are.  If you're coming from Key West, this is fair - everything is far away.  However, you see complaints from people in Orlando about how far away Ocala is - roughly 1 to 1.5 hours away.  I have heard Orlando-area speculations about forming a Principality (really, does Florida need THREE kingdoms?!).  Already the majority of those who have served as Royalty and Kingdom officers have come from the central baronies.

Also, the permanent sites have some serious flaws.  One is exceedingly small, too small probably for the events held there; it has a great playground, though, I'm told.  One is too hot - there are no trees to be found to shade you from the hot Florida sun.  One has permanent Boy Scout platform tents that no one wants to use, but there's not a lot of room for people's own tents.  Most have no indoor space for Court, so it's always outside, and you know no one can hear what's going on at an outdoor Court if they aren't very close to the action.  Plus, none of them are right in anyone's backyard.  Everyone has to drive to them and most are camping in nature.  Honestly, for those who live in Jacksonville, Miami, or Key West, I can hardly blame them for feeling like they aren't important to the Kingdom because they're just too far away from the permanent sites and so they have to drive 3, 4, or 5 hours to _every_single_one_.  I'd be road weary, too.

I'm not saying form a Principality or don't.  I don't live in Atlantia anymore, so I can't have a dog in that race.  I'm just sharing my observations of a Kingdom that's not so different in size from North Atlantia or South Atlantia, should they split.  There are pros and cons to either plan, and splitting won't necessarily solve the problems there are currently.  You'd never have to drive 11 hours to University, but you might have to drive 5 every single event.  I remember wishing, when I was Clerk of Law, that once, just once during my tenure that we'd have a Curia in Virginia; on the other hand, I loved working the list table in North Carolina because there's some exciting fighting to be seen in the southern part, and with fighters I didn't always see much of further north.  You'd have autonomy, better drives, more chances of getting a major event in your backyard, perhaps, but you may also have a weaker army, a bigger financial and administrative
 burden over a smaller group of people, and you risk becoming another Trimaris - having the smaller group you wish and still the big group problems.  Who's going to take over the burdens currently borne by the South - at least the last three Kingdom Seneschals have been from the Carolinas, for example.

These are just my thoughts from the geographic heart of Trimaris, a Kingdom with an actual castle, although it's ruled by Mice.  :)

Cheers,
Cecily Clervaus