[MR] Permanent Crown locations....

[logan]

bruce, a couple of thoughts here.

first, crown tourney locations are typically not that important to monarchs
(having been one myself and having assisted many when asked for my counsel).
coronations are a different matter and one that i think will never be
suitable for a permanent site.  this proposal would put the decision making
process out of the hands of the crowns and the bid committee for the most
part.  again, any crown may agree to a new site so long as any penalty
(which probably won't happen given the large lead time to the site to find a
new renter) is taken into consideration on the bid.

second, there is no place within atlantia that is "a day's travel time" from
the site proposed.  in fact i have not been able to find a position via
google maps that creates more than a 6 hour travel time.  google maps is far
from accurate even at short distances.  for example, it claimed that from my
home in columbia sc to coronation would take 3 hours and 24 minutes.  i
drive no more than 7 miles over the posted speed limit and i made it, both
ways in 2 hours and 20 minutes.  this included stops one way for gas and one
way for a drive thru snack.  thats a trip of only 210 miles yet it was off
by more than an hour.  regardless, there are plenty of people that are
willing to drive 6 hours for a day trip event and plenty of people that
won't consider anything more than 2 hours for a weekend.  it is what it is.
what we are looking at doing is solving the issue of a lack of bids and a
lack of available time for groups to cram something together awaiting new
heirs to the throne.

her majesty and i do things a little differently than many monarchs.  we
really do wish to hear all concerns and field all questions about any
proposal we make as monarchs.  certainly this is something more akin to my
experience in this role than esa since ive done this once or twice but i
assure you that she has her own vision of her responsibility to the kingdom
and, in this case, it falls in line with the way ive always handled the job.
we are only on day one of gathering the thoughts from you all and we are not
about to make any decision until we hear plenty of opinions and we look for
solutions to concerns that are raised.  thus far we have seen nothing by way
of concerns that cannot easily be dealt with and many folks have come up
with a lot to think about.  this may not be the best way to deal with the
problems we face as a kingdom in dealing with kingdom events.  it also might
be.  who knows.  thus far the status quo has been working, meaning we have
never failed to hold a crown, but not without the occasional obstacles and a
last minute hail mary pass or two.  without discourse we will never find a
better way to do things but, on the flip side, venturing into new ways could
lead to negative results.  every decision the crown makes warrants honest
intent and every option must be considered.  in the end there will never be
100% acceptance and there will always be people that curse those that wear
the crown for making a decision.  this is the way of things and this will
never change.  no crown will ever score an A on their report card and we
accept that.  

atlantia, keep the discussion going.  think on this and please share those
thoughts with us so that we can best serve this kingdom well.  it is our
only desire.

regards
logan and esa


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hell." 
Harry S Truman 
"If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his
vengeance need not be feared"
Niccolo Machiavelli
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-----Original Message-----
From: atlantia-bounces at seahorse.atlantia.sca.org
[mailto:atlantia-bounces at seahorse.atlantia.sca.org] On Behalf Of Bruce
Glassford
Sent: Monday, April 13, 2009 7:45 PM
To: atlantia at atlantia.sca.org
Subject: Re: [MR] Permanent Crown locations....

I trust you good gentles will excuse the intrusion of someone who has
neither autocratted nor otherwise managed a society event (yet), but,
I seem to see a series of issues that have been mentioned in this
discussion that are well addressed by the original proposal, but could
equally well be addressed by simply planning the event much further
out without causing the other issues mentioned by those of us in the
far reaches of our long skinny kingdom (among other locations)?

The issue seems to be finding a suitable site on short notice - the 6
months between reigns is very short for putting together an event,
even assuming an immediate acceptance of proposal for the bid.

Would not the majority of the problem also be solved by planning the
event 12-18 months in advance, with the current crown agreeing to the
one two or three reigns out ? It was mentioned early on that one of
the perks of being crown was to select the location, and that that
would be lost by a permanent site - and many of the statements about
the problems focus on items that would be easily cured by merely
setting the plans far enough out.  In several other uses of my time,
there are large conclaves that meet annually - and rotate around the
kingdoms relevant to that conclave (some massive entity called the
United States... ).   In those organizations, the bids are sent in
three years in advance to host the conclaves (occasionally even
further in advance), and the site selections are made two years in
advance (at least).    That provides time to get facilities suitable
for hosting, and allows the advance time to plan the logistics.  I
know right now where the conclaves for two of these will be held for
the next three years, and the crews running them have known and have
been planning for each. (And attendees can plan on whether to attend
or not).

By having advanced bids, groups can prepare with sufficient time to
obtain sites suitable for the event, and the groups in the further
flung areas can certainly retain the hope of actually hosting one of
these key events.    Being turned down for bids two years out also
tends to cause less of a resentment than putting all the work in to
prep a bid on short timing, only to be declined because "it's too far
away".   Centralized events are a nice thought, but as Magister Eadric
pointed out so well, even central is too far for many of us to be
willing/able to attend.  For myself, a day of travel time each way is
prohibitive most of the time - although there are occasional events I
have attended a days drive away, my mundane taskmasters allow me
little respite from my labours, so it is indeed a rarity that I can
attend items outside my local ambit. (And, alas, far too few of even
those).


... humbly...

... Bruce
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