[MR] Centralized Event Sites

[Ceara ni Neill]

With regards to travel distances & such...
My first 10 years in the SCA were spent in an area of Meridies where the
nearest event site (my own shire's) was a 45 minute drive. The next
nearest event site & group was 3 hours away. No kidding, no exaggerations!
Then I came to my senses & moved to Atlantia, where the groups & sites are
closer.

I've got one thing to say about Trimaris...they're spoiled, and they're
not very smart...why would anyone in their right mind want to live in a
path of tornadoes & hurricanes? Besides, they complain about heat and they
live in Florida. Sheesh.

--Ceara,
with tongue firmly planted in cheek!



Stacie Larson wrote:
> 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
>
>
>
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-- 
===Ceara ni Neill
http://HouseBarra.com