[Ponte Alto] There WILL be practice!!!!!

[Max Nelson]

Cosimo:

Connor is the Knight Marshal of the Barony.  I, like Duncan, am a  
Deputy Knight Marshal of the Barony.

To my knowledge, I do not believe we have an official policy for who  
has the "right" in their office for canceling practice and thus I do  
not believe there is an official policy for un-canceling practice --  
other than at the discretion of the Knight Marshal (I'm assuming).  I  
do not think we need any such policy.  We had discussed a few times  
(notably after the last time practice was cancelled early on threat of  
rain) that it would *not* be policy to cancel practice last minute  
because of rain (particularly the chance of rain).  In fact, Duncan  
and I just had a discussion about not canceling practices last minute  
on Sunday at the Baronial meeting.  I am certain that the discussion  
was simply forgotten and with the announcement of the cancellation of  
the Rapier practice, Duncan reacted with a perhaps more traditional or  
historic response.  Communications are often imperfect (quite often  
when I'm involved), and everyone forgets things (again... me most of  
all).  I think we've been balancing duties, responsibilities, and  
authorities pretty well, all things considered, and I consider it a  
personal boon and blessing to have Duncan doing such Yeoman's work for  
us all as a Deputy.

Our practice is currently in a public park where we are authorized to  
engage in our activities on our practice dates.  We need to have a  
Marshal present.  With me there, we have a Marshal there.  With Baron  
Jurgen there, we had two Marshals there.  To hold our practice, we  
just need to ensure that conditions were not dangerous, that those  
present have waivers signed, and that there is a warranted Marshal.   
These conditions were all easily met.  Conditions are not inherently  
dangerous because of the chance of rain or even because of rain.  They  
are dangerous when rain becomes electrified by the presence of  
lightning.  The Northern Army of Atlantia's policy is to fight in the  
rain unless and until there is lightning -- wherein the rain becomes  
dangerous.  We have discussed the same policy here (as above).   
Naturally those who choose not to come out in the rain are always free  
to do so.  But as long as we have a Marshal willing to be at practice  
regardless of the rain, than we should not deny fighters the chance to  
fight and learn simply because they might get a little wet.  I don't  
mind Marshaling, training and/or fighting in the rain if it helps at  
least one other person... and I believe today (as previously), it did.

Baron Jurgen, Demian, Sophia, Kat, and Semja (who was driving down  
from Philadelphia for the practice and was significantly looking  
forward to fighting and interacting with our folks) all showed-up and  
got good tutoring and exercise work in today and Kat passed her  
Scholum final examination -- there wasn't a drop to be seen, and it  
was quite lovely (particularly after Ledo's).  We know that at the  
very least Ru and Lauren who would've shown up for training failed to  
do so because of the cancellation -- and their presence was sorely  
missed.  I wish we could've shown Semja a better time for all his  
driving with some fighting, but we did the best we could, given the  
circumstances.

I'm pretty sure you'll find that those who managed to attend found the  
practice rewarding (particularly Kat who is now a Legionnaire with  
successful completion of the 101 Curriculum along with Dem, Jurgen,  
Sophia, Sian, Corey, etc...) -- though I'm sure they can speak for  
themselves if they so choose.

In service,

Max Von Halstern